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It is a good example of a company dominating a whole ecosystem. Despite the core components of Android being FOSS, Google steers development into the direction it wants and its managenent gets the final say. Also, some proprietary components of said corporation have become necessary for some apps to run. Despite being more open than iOS, it is still a very closed garden which spies on you and feeds you ads. It is designed mostly to extract value from users than empower them in day-to-day tasks (it does that too but, well, that doesn’t make money).
Also:
- customising it is a pain
- building it is a pain
- degoogling/decorporatising it is nigh to impossible
- app development is a pain
- it sometimes drops features between updates
- OEM editions are full of bloatware which sometimes you cannot even remove
And much more. It clearly makes you feel that you do not own your device. Because even if you get fed up with Android, the only real alternative is, well… Android.
degoogling/decorporatising it is nigh to impossible
That’s not true. Do you mean that some things may not work without Google services? Cause that’s kind of true, even with microG. But then again, if an app/service relies on Google services as a necessary component, then it’s probably best to avoid it altogether.
It is possible depending on the ROM you use. If you are using a ROM that is close to AOSP, then it shouldn’t be too hard, even though some apps might break. If it is a stock ROM from a big vendor with a lot of spyware, then good luck. What you might call a successful decorporstisation will certainly involve vendor-specific proprietary blobs, so not a 100% win in any case. Also, sometimes you don’t get to choose which apps to use (e.g. it may be a requirement or there might be no suitable alternatives).
What you might call a successful decorporstisation will certainly involve vendor-specific proprietary blobs
Yeah, Xiaomi phones require vendor-specific proprietary blobs, but that’s different than having Google know where I am and where I’ve been in the world, what sites I visit, and so on.
Yeah, Xiaomi phones require vendor-specific proprietary blobs, but that’s different than having Google know where I am and where I’ve been in the world, what sites I visit, and so on.
+1
The best part about Android is choice, there are plenty of de-corporatised, bloatware free, open source and privacy friendly ROMS to choose from. And I disagree with the idea that degoogleing android is near impossible, installing a privacy friendly custom ROM is relatively easy and there are plenty of simple to follow guides out there. Plus device support is only getting better and better with LineageOS supporting a huge amount of devices. It’s also not true that there is no real alternative to Android other than iOS, there are multiple mobile GNU/Linux distros that you can install on your phone, some companies even sell phones with GNU/Linux preinstalled. Overall, most of the time Android is bad because most android users are using a version of Android with proprietary spyware and bloatware installed, but it can be great.
I like your optimism but unfortunately custom ROMs support is selective at best. Creating a new port for e.g. LineageOS is a challenging process that can potentially brick your device, so many ports focus on devices already out of sale. And mobile GNU/Linux is still rare, at least in Europe. If you happen to have a device that is not supported by either a custom Android ROM or mobile GNU/Linux, then you have no option than to stick with what you have (unless you have enough knowledge to add the support yourself).
You are correct, most people are using devices that will not work with any custom ROM or GNU/Linux distro. At least if you are searching for a new phone there are plenty of options (as long as you plan on installing LineageOS, other custom ROM’s like Calyx and Graphene have a long way to go). Let’s just hope device support improves in the future.
Let’s just hope device support improves in the future.
Amen to that, comrade. Especially for mobile Linux.
A monopolistic operating system which has a strangle hold on mobile computing. No matter for it’s base being Free Software, most devices are downright required to be preloaded with proprietary software for them to function in the real world.
My dream is for one day to either create an ecosystem of software (possibly even over Android!) which contains no proprietary software and ensures as much user freedom as possible.
However for now, I consider it much better than Apple’s iOS and the Pine Phone unfortunately is not good enough for daily usage to replace Android for me.
Maybe you would be interested in replicant https://replicant.us/. It’s a fully free version of android approved by the FSF.
I am aware. But it is lacking in features that I unfortunately need access to, same as a dumb phone lacks them. Otherwise I’d just be using one of those. Also unfortunately Replicant only supports a list of very outdated devices, none of which I have, and even then the version of Android they support is also very outdated.
But I have to say, I’m very happy with how far they’ve come! I remember when modem support was just a dream, but would you look at that… They’ve managed!
Maybe one day I’ll tinker with it.
There are many AOSP-based projects which are entirely open source and without Google’s trackers/malware. I personally use GrapheneOS, which is security and privacy focused with lots of kernel hardening and exploit mitigation out of the box. It also allows you to run Google Play services if you wish, but isolated using Android’s sandboxing as if it were any other app, preventing it from collecting data in the background as it does on stock Android. I personally do use Google Play on my device for apps exclusive to it, but isolated in a work profile using Shelter so there is another layer of isolation and a kill switch for the google services. Other than that I use F-Droid for my daily use applications.
If you can’t run GrapheneOS on your hardware, I recommend DivestOS. This is a fork of the open source LineageOS, but implementing a slew of privacy and security patches, many developed by the Divest team but also some lifted from GrapheneOS. Because it is a fork of LineageOS, DivestOS has support for almost all of the same hardware.
Other than those two, there are projects like iodeOS and LineageOS itself.
E: Removed an additional suggestion due to issues posted by another commenter
Thank you for this resource, I had only heard of it in passing and never tried it myself so I’ll adjust the original comment accordingly
Hoarders are people who can’t throw anything away, who fill up their houses and apartments with (useless) things.
When things aren’t “useless” or have some sort of value we call them “collectors”. lmao I just realised how funny that is. A person is considered unwell if they fill up their house in disorderly fashion with things with no perceived value, but if someone fills up their house with Marvel toys and displays them nicely then they are a sane collector.
Sorry but I’m adjusting my privacy, security, anonimity, pseudonimity and more according to the situation and my threat model. What I’m advocating and looking for is none of this in particular at the moment, but Software Freedom. The current system is of invigilation is laying ground works for a Socialist system to use in order to prevent possible counter-revolutionary movements.
But thank you for posting this nonetheless.
The Android Operating System is a derivation of Linux Kernal and Unix operating system that gain their success from an incentive system that incentives development through self-consuption and sharing of innovation through the ability to obtain improvement that other developers made to the code. Software like Android OS are artificially scarce goods that differs from the private good from the lack of cost to accommodate more consumers. The high fixed cost relative to variable cost of artificially scarce goods and the network externality problem where the quality of a good depends on the number of its users cause a lot of problem to free market system. The Capitalists tried to make artificially scarce good function like private good with the intellectual property right to fit it into the Capitalism system, but it often lead to monopoly and legal loophole that allow thief of intellectual property. The increasing importance of artificially scarce goods like software and knowledge in the international economy is exposing the flaws of Capitalism that focus solely on explicit monetary incentive.
