Finding an Alternative to iOS
bitcannon.net
bitcannon.net
NewPipe is a good FOSS frontend for YouTube.
/e/ might be a good solution, preinstalled on a Fairphone 3. Its a modular smartphone, and /e/ is based on LineageOS + microG. LineageOS for microG can use GMS (Play Store), that part of the point of microG.
There's also UBTouch.
postmarketOS is more a reference model.
One could use GrapheneOS on a Pixel. The Pixel 3a was a good bang for buck, generally Pixel phones are.
SailfishOS is the continuation of Nokia's Maemo/MeeGo. Its an OS with strong privacy options, a good UI (though very gesture-based therefore learning curve), it can run on some smartphones like certain Sony Xperia, and it has Android emulation (requires a license).
Other than that your OS list seems reasonably complete. GNOME, KDE, and Enlightenment all 3 have a DE pivoted for touchscreen.
> Get a basic phone for calls and texts and do everything else on a real computer, possibly an ultra compact like the GPD Pocket 2.
Terrible build quality, don't recommend. They also ship with some evaluation BIOS, and Windows 10 Starter Edition or something like that. Wouldn't trust, though you can run Linux on it as well (and on Windows, you can use Netflix plus offline storage (!!)). Redmi 7 and such have low build quality, and I wouldn't wanna use MIUI.
> Especially due to some things only being possible with a smartphone like ride sharing.
You may get away running that application in a web browser, or running Android in an emulator for such.
Doesn't make sense to me if you dislike Google, to use Facebook related applications. That being said, everyone here uses WhatsApp. I prefer Signal over WhatsApp.
I have no idea what people need all that horsepower for in their pocket. If you can't self service the device (replacing hardware, battery, etc) the lifetime of the device is just too limited regardless.
I looked into /e/ but don't have a phone to try it on. Fairphone isn't available in Australia.
Good to know about the GPD.
> I have no idea what people need all that horsepower for in their pocket.
The "modern" web mostly.
Consumers and developers have very different interests. Article is written by a consumer, but the reasons above apply to developers. This aside, its a very good post.
If we want a good alternative to Apple, we need to actually vote with our wallets and possibly our keyboards, and this piece is a great contribution to doing so.
We just can’t expect to get what Apple built.
If we want an alternative, someone has to build it.
I think Apple’s platform is great. The problem is the lack of an open alternative.
No amount of intervention can possibly force Apple to produce an open alternative.
All it will do is pick a few winners from already well funded competitors.
The costs will be borne by both developers, and consumers, and the bar to ever having an open alternative will be raised impossibly high.
What we need is for the community to actually invest in a platform that as a baseline solves the problems Apple is solving in terms of creating a trusted platform, but is actually open.
Frankly, it’s not Apple’s fault we don’t have this. Google is responsible.
Lack of openness was a serious concern right from the beginning of the iPhone’s lifecycle.
Google claimed Android would be open, and at the time people had faith in them to actually deliver on this.
I know plenty of people who chose to buy Android phones on the basis that they were supporting an open system, from within and without the tech community.
Google completely betrayed this promise, as illustrated by your results.
> Something I learnt from my move to Linux though, was to embrace the platform's conventions as opposed to trying to reproduce the system you're moving from as much as possible.
Which is kind of along the same lines. I think my experience so far was that it felt like giving up too much to go the more/completely open option at the moment. With projects like postmarketOS though, I feel there is some progress being made on this. I will continue to keep an eye on it.
I think we need an open, community owned, phone OS.
I don’t see any of the actors who are impugning Apple as having any intention whatsoever to support the development of that - there is literally zero evidence of it.
They only want to capture a part of the revenue stream for themselves. It’s simply all they have talked about.
I believe that there are serious technical challenges to overcome to create a true open alternative to iOS that provides the same safety benefits that their controlled ecosystem provides. It took years for Apple to build their walled garden and it would take years to build an alternative.
It would be pretty easy for these billion dollar corporations who are attacking Apple to fund such an initiative though a foundation of some kind, but it’s much cheaper for them to just try to use the courts to capture some of Apple’s revenue stream instead.
In this case, the enemy of my enemy is just another bully.