I switched to iPhone from Android because I was tired of Google making changes to their security and APIs that were killing my macros I’d write for my phone. I was also tired of Google sending everything good to the graveyard. Finally, I hated that Google would promise features or support for x number of years and then pull the rug out from under me (although, lack of support was usually caused by the manufacturer)
Before spending $1000 on my iPhone, I told my wife that it was a good investment because of Apple’s proven history of supporting devices with 5 years of updates; so we agreed that I’d keep this iPhone as my daily driver for 5 years because of the exuberant cost.
Well, my wish came true and here we are. I’ve got a phone that doesn’t respect my privacy, doesn’t respect my settings, has a frustrating UI/UX, and has low compatibility with most of my existing infrastructure. I gotta admit, though, my experience is far more consistent now, but not in a good way.
I cannot imagine spending $1000 on a phone in general. And even more so, I cannot imagine spending $1000 on a phone I cannot even sideload something like Newpipe on.
Since you are seemingly wealthy enough for this - maybe Pixel with GrapheneOS would be a right fit for you? Pixels also have longer support now (although I still think it’s very short, so I’d likely have to switch to Lineage afterwards).
Very few people spend $1000 outright on a phone, you know that right? Every major mobile provider has some sort of installment plan for purchasing a new device. Apple offers one directly as well.
I mean, I agree with you? I wasn’t saying it’s a moral plan just explaining to the parent poster that people don’t need to be exorbitantly wealthy to “buy” a new device
I have used both iOS and Android for more than a decade. After every update on both systems I have to go through and delete/disable junk I don’t need/privacy issues.
The stock android pixel UI has gotten so full shit I have to use a launcher.
iOS’s UI is terrible to use with everything taking twice as long as it should. So many illogical hidden commands.
Everything has gotten randomly harder to get basic things done.
My win 10 business computer with classic shell will stop being supported the end of the year… Oh joy…
While I’m still struggling to find an appropriate replacement for my photo editing apps, I’m happy to report that support and usability for most popular Linux distros have improved to the point that I now find Linux not only more stable, but easier to navigate than Win 10 was even at its best.
The amount of noise associated with Windows, generally due to people answering questions about the wrong version of windows or the wrong application, searching for any help topics is like trying to run through mud. It’s literally quicker now to learn a totally new skill on Linux than to try to update your knowledge base on Windows.
Gimp has been alright for me and (I hate to admit it) Illustrator is unparalleled when it comes to intuitive vector design.
I love Photopea and was an early-adopter/small-donor, although I’ve mostly moved to Canva for my design needs.
No, I’m looking for a solution to Lightroom and Camera Raw. I’ve tried Darktable and Rawtherapee, but, especially in Rawtherapee, I find that I quickly destroy my raw images and end up with something somehow simultaneously washed out and with crushed blacks. I’m sure it’s primarily user-error, but on my deadlines, I haven’t had a chance to learn these new platforms.
I don’t believe that Win10 will die, due to the huge amount of users and companies. I think that it will be the same a with Win7, which survived several years it’s announced end.
There are still users which can’t even update to Win11 with a relative new computer (without tricks), not because the lack of sources, but because it’s specs don’t appear in the list made by M$ of supported specs, as in my case with a 3 years old Laptop, because my AMD Radeon 9425 don’t appears in this idiotic list, offering to buy a new PC to use Win11 🤬💩
The stock android pixel UI has gotten so full shit I have to use a launcher.
What? I use a stock Pixel Pro and there’s no fluff. It’s very vanilla, but does everything I need it to do without fuss. I was using Nova Launcher Pro, but they sold it to an advertising company a while ago, so I went back to the stock launcher.
Try disabling and removing the Google search bar. Can’t be done. Since Google search has gone down hill I never use it.
How about removing the the news feeds? You have to disable the Google app to get rid of it. If I want to read the news, I do a quick search. It’s not hard to do. I don’t need a news feed on my phone.
What about the stupid at a glance at the top of the home screen? It just takes up space for no benefit over the notification bar. It can’t be fully removed.
I also never us any voice assistant etc because it’s faster to type it in than repeat myself.
I currently have 19 apps on this phone disabled that I can’t uninstall… No fluff huh…
All of my apps are organized into folders and I am never more than one swipe and two taps away from opening the app I want. I don’t scroll, I don’t search, I know where everything is and have it opening in under a second.
It’s a pixel, you’re in c/Privacy for whatever reason, have you considered just putting GrapheneOS on it? All those annoyances go bye bye, you can have a full fat google alternate user and an approximately private main user…
Fair cop. Keep a weather eye out for better alternatives for the blockers, but as noted the full fat gOS play store and google services are pretty good, and the bootloader gets re-locked, might be worth trying it for a weekend to see how close you get, many people have good experiences, but it’s all down to cases.
That’s true about the search bar. I do actually use that to find and open apps though, so I hadn’t considered it fluff. I don’t use Google to search the web though. I forgot about the news feed because I don’t have it. I uninstalled the news app and a bunch of other crap I don’t need. Idk what At A Glance feature you’re talking about. I don’t think I have that. Overall you are right. There’s some initial fluff that I forgot about because I removed it years ago.
I tried the new iPhone 16 Pro. They should be ashamed of what they’ve created. If that’s their flagship phone, then I can’t even imagine how glitchy their base models are. It felt like a Fisher Price OS compared to Android. I returned it after two weeks. My several year old Pixel Pro can do more stuff more reliably than Apple’s brand new flagship device.
I have the 14 pro and my sister recently got the 16 base model. I don’t know why, but the pictures from her newer phone looked like a major leap backwards in quality. Also, the latest OS does feel like its features were written in crayon and that its waiting to kick off its training wheels. I can’t fully describe it: it’s not clunky or clumsy, it just feels like something is missing from the experience. I’ve never really felt this way from a phone version upgrade before.
There’s that, but it was really glitchy too. Siri only worked half the time. The subtitles would start and then stop after a couple sentences and need to be restarted constantly. There were a never ending stream of glitches. Text selection is still awful. It’s just not a good phone compared to the competition. I will say that it looked and felt nice though. The build quality of the actual hardware seemed good.
I switched to iPhone from Android because I was tired of Google making changes to their security and APIs that were killing my macros I’d write for my phone. I was also tired of Google sending everything good to the graveyard. Finally, I hated that Google would promise features or support for x number of years and then pull the rug out from under me (although, lack of support was usually caused by the manufacturer)
Before spending $1000 on my iPhone, I told my wife that it was a good investment because of Apple’s proven history of supporting devices with 5 years of updates; so we agreed that I’d keep this iPhone as my daily driver for 5 years because of the exuberant cost.
Well, my wish came true and here we are. I’ve got a phone that doesn’t respect my privacy, doesn’t respect my settings, has a frustrating UI/UX, and has low compatibility with most of my existing infrastructure. I gotta admit, though, my experience is far more consistent now, but not in a good way.
I cannot imagine spending $1000 on a phone in general. And even more so, I cannot imagine spending $1000 on a phone I cannot even sideload something like Newpipe on.
Since you are seemingly wealthy enough for this - maybe Pixel with GrapheneOS would be a right fit for you? Pixels also have longer support now (although I still think it’s very short, so I’d likely have to switch to Lineage afterwards).
Wealthy? Look at flagship phone sales numbers every year. Broke ass people have expensive gadgets all the time. Get a life.
Very few people spend $1000 outright on a phone, you know that right? Every major mobile provider has some sort of installment plan for purchasing a new device. Apple offers one directly as well.
That’s still spending $1000 on a phone, even more if you pay interest.
Using fomo and marketinp to force people into debt for a phone. Definitely the moral and sensible choice.
I mean, I agree with you? I wasn’t saying it’s a moral plan just explaining to the parent poster that people don’t need to be exorbitantly wealthy to “buy” a new device
It’s just baked into your bill at that point.
I have used both iOS and Android for more than a decade. After every update on both systems I have to go through and delete/disable junk I don’t need/privacy issues.
The stock android pixel UI has gotten so full shit I have to use a launcher.
iOS’s UI is terrible to use with everything taking twice as long as it should. So many illogical hidden commands.
Everything has gotten randomly harder to get basic things done.
My win 10 business computer with classic shell will stop being supported the end of the year… Oh joy…
While I’m still struggling to find an appropriate replacement for my photo editing apps, I’m happy to report that support and usability for most popular Linux distros have improved to the point that I now find Linux not only more stable, but easier to navigate than Win 10 was even at its best.
The amount of noise associated with Windows, generally due to people answering questions about the wrong version of windows or the wrong application, searching for any help topics is like trying to run through mud. It’s literally quicker now to learn a totally new skill on Linux than to try to update your knowledge base on Windows.
Gimp and inkscape where great replacement for me (amateur)
But maybe this is something for you:
https://www.photopea.com//
Gimp has been alright for me and (I hate to admit it) Illustrator is unparalleled when it comes to intuitive vector design.
I love Photopea and was an early-adopter/small-donor, although I’ve mostly moved to Canva for my design needs.
No, I’m looking for a solution to Lightroom and Camera Raw. I’ve tried Darktable and Rawtherapee, but, especially in Rawtherapee, I find that I quickly destroy my raw images and end up with something somehow simultaneously washed out and with crushed blacks. I’m sure it’s primarily user-error, but on my deadlines, I haven’t had a chance to learn these new platforms.
Rip ufraw.
I don’t believe that Win10 will die, due to the huge amount of users and companies. I think that it will be the same a with Win7, which survived several years it’s announced end. There are still users which can’t even update to Win11 with a relative new computer (without tricks), not because the lack of sources, but because it’s specs don’t appear in the list made by M$ of supported specs, as in my case with a 3 years old Laptop, because my AMD Radeon 9425 don’t appears in this idiotic list, offering to buy a new PC to use Win11 🤬💩
What? I use a stock Pixel Pro and there’s no fluff. It’s very vanilla, but does everything I need it to do without fuss. I was using Nova Launcher Pro, but they sold it to an advertising company a while ago, so I went back to the stock launcher.
I am typing this on a pixel 8
Try disabling and removing the Google search bar. Can’t be done. Since Google search has gone down hill I never use it.
How about removing the the news feeds? You have to disable the Google app to get rid of it. If I want to read the news, I do a quick search. It’s not hard to do. I don’t need a news feed on my phone.
What about the stupid at a glance at the top of the home screen? It just takes up space for no benefit over the notification bar. It can’t be fully removed.
I also never us any voice assistant etc because it’s faster to type it in than repeat myself.
I currently have 19 apps on this phone disabled that I can’t uninstall… No fluff huh…
All of my apps are organized into folders and I am never more than one swipe and two taps away from opening the app I want. I don’t scroll, I don’t search, I know where everything is and have it opening in under a second.
It’s a pixel, you’re in c/Privacy for whatever reason, have you considered just putting GrapheneOS on it? All those annoyances go bye bye, you can have a full fat google alternate user and an approximately private main user…
I honestly would love to. Unfortunately my banking and accounting apps for my business won’t run on it.
Also the reason I have an iPad for two apps that are not on Android that I have to have for business.
M business laptop is W10 instead of Linux mint like my personal one for the same reason…
Fair cop. Keep a weather eye out for better alternatives for the blockers, but as noted the full fat gOS play store and google services are pretty good, and the bootloader gets re-locked, might be worth trying it for a weekend to see how close you get, many people have good experiences, but it’s all down to cases.
That’s true about the search bar. I do actually use that to find and open apps though, so I hadn’t considered it fluff. I don’t use Google to search the web though. I forgot about the news feed because I don’t have it. I uninstalled the news app and a bunch of other crap I don’t need. Idk what At A Glance feature you’re talking about. I don’t think I have that. Overall you are right. There’s some initial fluff that I forgot about because I removed it years ago.
I tried the new iPhone 16 Pro. They should be ashamed of what they’ve created. If that’s their flagship phone, then I can’t even imagine how glitchy their base models are. It felt like a Fisher Price OS compared to Android. I returned it after two weeks. My several year old Pixel Pro can do more stuff more reliably than Apple’s brand new flagship device.
I have the 14 pro and my sister recently got the 16 base model. I don’t know why, but the pictures from her newer phone looked like a major leap backwards in quality. Also, the latest OS does feel like its features were written in crayon and that its waiting to kick off its training wheels. I can’t fully describe it: it’s not clunky or clumsy, it just feels like something is missing from the experience. I’ve never really felt this way from a phone version upgrade before.
There’s that, but it was really glitchy too. Siri only worked half the time. The subtitles would start and then stop after a couple sentences and need to be restarted constantly. There were a never ending stream of glitches. Text selection is still awful. It’s just not a good phone compared to the competition. I will say that it looked and felt nice though. The build quality of the actual hardware seemed good.
That’s so funny, I found it so light that I was somewhat scared to touch it. Then again, I’ve been known to yell at clouds concerning my age.