Seems like many companies product quality has plummeted over the last few years. For example, Google (despite its flaws), used to have good products and services. Now they are virtually unusable.
My doctor sent me forms to my Gmail and I never got them. I looked it up and apparently Gmail has the document provider blocked so you literally cannot get medical forms. Stuff like this happens all the time now! Their search engine is nothing but sponsored ads now.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I just think it’s funny that capitalism ends up making much much worse products over time.
What!? The iPhone with the longer screen and rearranged camera lenses isn’t a feat of engineering compared to the iPhone with the slightly smaller screen?! But the shiny commercials said it was!
I’m so sick of Apple’s constant bugs that I contemplated going to Android. I briefly got on my moms Android phone and it was full of junk! Love how there is just a choice between two bad products and you can’t even use a Huwai phone in the US.
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Or you can use a PinePhone Pro and run an OS that’s actually good, with more customizability than Android can dream of.
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It is. Mainline GNU/Linux is far better than Android. It is faster, has more features, provides much more freedom, is more open, has more customizability, etc.
You’re right about that, but they’re getting better. The PinePhone Pro is finally getting hardware accelerated android apps via Waydroid, so pretty soon, you’ll be able to get the best of both worlds. Also, the cameras are working now.
I totally get it, but I still think android is the future OS (and it already is the most used OS on the planet).
Google’s decision to keep the majority of android open source (AOSP) was a business decision, because it valued international growth and spread, and they knowingly allowed int’l carriers to add what they want (whereas apple told them to take it or leave it, and iOS is staying closed source). If the goal though was to eventually pull a microsoft and force you to use their proprietary addons software, that ship has long since sailed, since there are too many variants and people to keep happy all over the world now. I genuinely do think that google as a company is smarter than the US government, they’re an international company and care more about not alienating int’l carriers than they do pleasing the US gov.
Don’t get me wrong, I 100% think google is spying, and collaborating with the US government, but they’re doing through google services and gmail, not through AOSP and all the android variants.
Even the chinese made variants like MIUI and Huawei’s harmonyOS are just android variants based on AOSP.
If google tries some fuckery, or tries to close source AOSP, which is entirely possible, then a coalition of Chinese, Indian, and possibly European countries would pick up where google left off and fork AOSP and create their own standard.
There are more problems with Android than just spying. One of the main ones being the fact that it is based on Java. Java runs on the JVM, which adds a lot of overhead. This means that older hardware will always struggle to run it, especially as newer apps appear, whereas Linux can run easily on anything from a 2.5cm by 2.5cm square with a CPU on it to a supercomputer.
Also, all OSes have to use different application code due to differences in the OS internals. Because of this, modern apps are absolutely massive because they bundle everything they need to run, so they get to insane sizes. These differences exist because the different OSes are optimized for the device they run on. Windows/macOS on computers, Android/iOS on mobile, etc., whereas Linux has the ability to adapt to whatever device it runs on, and swap out entire components of the OS to accommodate the hardware and form factor of said device easily (as in with just a few simple commands).
I think that ultimately, if Android wasn’t already so commonly-used, mainline Linux would be a better option. The only reason Linux devices can’t compete currently with other options is that no one puts time into writing code for them except for hobbyists like me who have the motivation to do so because it’s interesting and we want to contribute to the community. If more time was invested into it, it could go way beyond what current OSes offer.
Proprietary drivers and firmware are also a HUGE problem. A lot of the drivers that chip makers push out are made for a specific version of the Android Kernel. Not only that, but many driver and firmware blobs are badly programmed and because of that have bugs and/or vulnerabilities. Most of the time these bugs/vulnerabilities will never get addressed because the company that made the chip has already moved on to the next thing.
Chip makers rarely ever give up “their” source code or publish much documentation if any at all. So the only option is to reverse engineer the binaries enough to write an equivalent driver that works for mainline Linux and then get that mainlined. That’s exactly what a lot of people are doing already, and that is exactly why it always takes such a long time until Linux can use some piece of hardware to its full potential.
One example I can give is the wireless chip in my Pinebook Pro. At very random times the non-free Kernel driver brcmfmac just has a panic and the WiFi and Bluetooth interfaces just disappear. On rare occasions the Kernel may also crash completely when this happens. It has happened enough that I’ve lost some open unsaved work multiple times. Reloading the kernel module sometimes works, but usually not. The only thing that does work is a reboot.
Never mind Apple implementing features 2 years after every other major manufacturer already did, and also a bit worse. Bruh why do Americans like those shits, is it really just status?
It very much is status. Every time I visit bourgeois liberal cities, its iphones and teslas everywhere. They sell identities to rich liberals who have none of their own.
Most of the people I know with are just still with them because at this point, they’re around the same price as other phones, and they’re used to how iPhones work. There used to be a huge brand loyalty thing. It was weird. It got enough people used to them that they just don’t wanna relearn another system.
Oh that’s true, Xiaomi is banned in the US or something
Huawei is banned. Xiaomi won’t sell here because the only way to get any market share is through the carriers, and they don’t want to partner with the carriers. Understandable. Most people here don’t want to partner with the carriers, either.
That’s strange, Mexican carriers have carried them for a few years now (at a slightly inflated price, though)
That slightly might be the issue. Carriers here wouldn’t allow a phone significantly cheaper than the ones already here.
I’m in the US and have a Xiaomi, but you’re right, the carriers here don’t carry them, you have to order them from China or an ebay reseller and hope your carrier lets you bring on the phone. Still worth it, its a more reliable samsung that costs hundreds less.
Is there any research you did to give you certainty that the phone model you chose would work on your carrier? Assuming technical compatibility, is a CN phone guaranteed to work on your network? Or are u.s. carriers playing games like banning MACs (or equivalent) of certain manufacturer’s devices?
Thanks!
I make sure I use a carrier that allows bring your own phone, and made sure that the network they use is supported by the phone. This site is helpful: http://kimovil.com/
Thank you!
I meant things like Google search engine, but yeah