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.
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 Also unfortunately Replicant only supports a list of very outdated devices, none of which I have, and even then the version of Android they support is also very outdated.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!
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
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.
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
Re: /e/OS
https://web.archive.org/web/20191028033559/https://ewwlo.xyz/evil.html
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.