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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

If smartphones were open we wouldn't have the whole problem. Why can't we have the model of IBM clones of the 80s/90s, where I actually own the device I buy. Right now, I can't even become root on my device without tricks (which one day may not even work).

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> Why can't we have the model of IBM clones of the 80s/90s

Because that model was a costly mistake from IBM’s perspective, which they tried (and failed) to crush as soon as they realized what was happening (and later, by promoting a new proprietary architecture with the PS/2).

No one, on the supplier side, wants to repeat that model.

And we ended up with MS being a monopoly, exactly the way the EU says Google is.

So it wouldn’t even prevent this problem as the OP proposes.

Conversely, if Google were more like Apple -- just building and selling their own devices and not (one might say) propping up the entire non-iOS industry, they also wouldn't have this problem.

So while I'm happy to be able to run LineageOS on my phone (with GApps installed, for the record) and would prefer it if manufacturers were able to pre-install Firefox, I'm also worried that we may discover the cure to be worse than the disease.

Running it without GApps is by and large a pretty enjoyable experience, provided you don't use the communication apps that seem to break/work like ass if they are not present (signal for example, while technically available without google services framework will just never work right). Really the only ones that come close to working right are Telegram (although it will never shut up about google services and "not running without them", it will run just fine) and the builtin SMS app. Email can be procured reasonably well and I have a sizeable library of games that I got from old humble bundles (back when they were actually good) that are fairly enjoyable.

WeChat runs fine fwiw.

That model is available right now in any device sold with an "unlocked bootloader". It's generally going to cost significantly more than the same device with the "locked bootloader" which is the default, outside of Google's Nexus and Pixel lines which are typically unlocked.

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