Ironically the fork that only runs on the phones made by the company that also makes Android
They just announced a partnership with Motorola.
I was going to say “isn’t Motorola owned by Google though?”, but then I looked it up. They’re owned by Lenovo. But they were owned by Google! In 2014, which is 12 years ago and I’m going to go crumble to dust now…
Lenovo still not a good company but I likemy Motorola phone
You either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
I wouldn’t call Android “brilliant” nowadays if you count the forks that come pre-installed on most phones nowadays. It’s bloated to the gills and keeps the user locked out of being able to control what certain apps can do and access.
that’s why it says “was”. in my personal opinion it was always hot garbage but that’s besides the point
Linux phone, open for customization… it was brilliant… kinda….
fuck anything related to Java though
But GOS is Android
I don’t get GrapheneOS apologists. If you hate Google so much, how come you all have Pixel phones?
What’s your solution then?
No really, I’m seriously asking. I want to get rid of google everything, but I’m not going to apple either.
I don’t have one. But if I want to degoogle, I’m not giving them my money from the get-go. Are there no more phones with unlockable bootloaders on the market? No more custom ROMs?
linux phones theoretically exist. There’s pinephone, but the casual research I did couldn’t tell me if they were still in business or not.
This is a case of technology following politics. I wish for a viable third party and they don’t meaningfully exist.
I wish for a viable third party and they don’t meaningfully exist.
You and me both.
I don’t hold my breath for Linux phones ever taking off. They’d need a major player backing them to break the duopoly. Apple and Google won’t let a third player enter the market. Samsung tired at least 2 times and failed. Microsoft was squeezed out. If they couldn’t do it, no one can. We can only hope that one of the big two does something really stupid one day and basically dig their own grave.
how come you all have Pixel phones?
Because they’re one of the very few (And if you’re in the US, the only) phones with decent specs that allows you to unlock the BL
If you’re in the US and want a privacy OS > Pixel
If you’re outside the US and want a privacy OS but don’t want the crap tier specs that have been offered thus far by the specialty phones > Pixel or maybe a Chinese brand phone
If you’re in or outside the US, want a privacy OS and want or need to finance the phone through your carrier so you don’t have to spend $6-800+ out of pocket > Pixel
Graphene in it’s early days supported some non-google phones. The reason they went with Pixels is because it has better hardware and an open bootloader. Nothing to do with supporting google, just the path of least resistance.
Because the irony is that it gives you the most freedom from Google and big tech.
There is nothing free or open about Android, it only looks like it is when compared with iOS.
The source code is still fully available (and even searchable with code references) which is why all of these community and FOSS forks are still possible.
Google is absolutely abusing their influence over the Android brand to continually lock down consumer devices and the versions of Android that ship on them, but AOSP has only gotten more open-source friendly over time if anything. The problem is there are fewer and fewer devices that will actually let you leave branded Android™ for some version of AOSP.
Blame the courts. His can Apple win an anti competitive case and Google loose. All because they where more open.
Ok, so basically what you are saying is Android is “Open” in name only and that in practice it is functionally not open.
No, they are explaining that “Android” effectively refers to two different things.
And one of those things, in practice, makes it harder for users to take advantage of the openness of the other.
Only on that platform. The Android™ platform is way more popular than AOSP, but that doesn’t mean Android™ precludes AOSP.
For the purposes of making a custom Android-based OS like GrapheneOS, AOSP is better than ever. Whether or not there are actually devices to install GrapheneOS on kind of isn’t the point here in my mind since we’re talking about which one someone prefers, which means they’re already able to use both.
And as GrapheneOS’ existence demonstrates, it’s still pretty easy and even increasingly mainstream now to change your device’s firmware. GrapheneOS currently is only built for Pixel devices, made by Google, the company that also develops AOSP and owns the Android brand. In theory Lenovo is going to have a Motorola branded device running GrapheneOS officially in the near future, but Lenovo doesn’t have a great track record with mobile software support.
Android™ itself might be getting more locked down and centered around Google’s services, but it’s still an option to move to something else based on AOSP, and thanks to things like Project Treble (which is enforced by Google Play’s compatibility tests), you might not even need device-specific firmware to have a usable and pleasant non-proprietary experience.
The situation with Android is weird, because Google technically owns all of it, but it’s completely different departments going completely different directions, and it doesn’t help that we all call the entire concept Android when that’s technically the brand for Google’s special certified versions of AOSP (which also includes the word Android but not as a brand…).
No the software is open, it’s the hardware you run it on that’s locked down to the manufacturers own specific fork.
Android exists only as a place to push ads into people’s faces, with a focus on getting ad displays into less affluent markets.
iOS exists only as a platform to sell iPhones and iPads, which naturally has a focus on affluent markets.
They’re both in the control of megacorps and I can’t figure out why people hold up Android as some kind of open source hero besides a desire to hate on Apple.
Android consists of way more free and open source software than iOS. There’s a fork of Android, Replicant, which is endorsed by the FSF. Free and open source software does not have owners. It’s true that most people who use it (including me) still use versions of it that are mostly nonfree software. But Android is a step in the right direction, while iOS is one in the wrong direction.
It’s possible to use an Android phone and rarely or never see ads at all. Pretty much the only place I regularly see ads on my (stock) Android phone is in the YouTube app, and I could probably live without that too if I wanted.
And you can!
Newpipe
PipePipe
Tubular
SmartTube (Android TV)
FreeTube
Flow
NouTube
Invidious/Materialous
LibreTube
SkyTube
YouTube ReVanced
All these apps and more allow you YouTube Premium features for absolutely free!
I already sometimes access YT through Firefox for Android, mainly for playing music in the background. Maybe I’ll change that at some point, but currently I still normally use the official YouTube app for watching videos.
YouTube ReVanced is the official YouTube app, just with some code patches applied. They avoid being taken down (RIP original Vanced) by only releasing a patcher app and a bunch of lists of patches for various apps.
It’s dead simple (if you’re rooted; unrooted requires jumping through extra hoops). You install the patcher app, a specific version of YouTube (which can be done within said app), select from a looong list of patches (everything from removing ads to integrating SponsorBlock and DeArrow [which changes clickbait titles and thumbnails to something neutral] to restoring the video quality menu to re-enabling background play and picture-in-picture mode to hiding shorts and all those react buttons under vids to blocking videos based on keywords), and the app creates a custom YouTube APK with all those patches applied.
It’s impossible to go back to stock after using ReVanced. I have over fifty patches applied and without them the app is a web of dark patterns and enshittification. With them I have a simple app with a few buttons per page (just the ones I use) that opens directly to a feed containing only the videos I want to watch.
The downside is it’s a pain to setup without root since YouTube is usually a system app, but with root you can even mount ReVanced over the base app so it’s completely undetectable by the system (though there’s always a chance Google will add something within the app to catch users that the RV team might not catch due to YouTube’s infamously convoluted design and server-side A/B testing).
For unrooted you only have to.install revanced microg once and login and the rest is the same as rooted basically just that it installs as an another app.
That’s good to hear. I haven’t looked into MicroG in several years since I always root my phone, but in the past I’d always heard it was a nightmare to install alongside Google Play Services (something about signature verification) and required flashing a zip in recovery mode or using something like the xposed framework that opened up gaping security holes in your system. Glad it’s more user-friendly these days - anything that makes degoogling easier gets my support.
