Meanwhile in Android it seems I can install any .apk I wish by just downloading the .apk file.
I'm selling my iphone and getting an android this black friday. What phone is the most "open" and functional?
What does that leave?
- State-sponsored media
- Boredom
> What does that leave?
It leaves the people who create because they have something to say rather than a desire to make money. The internet used to have a lot more of those before these advertisers came and corrupted everything. I don't understand why people assume nothing will be created if there's no money in it despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, including free software. I suppose it's due to copyright monopolist propaganda.
But also, there was actually quite a lot of quality content on the internet before there was any monetization at all. People like to hear themselves talk and some subset of them are worth listening to.
It's never been easier for an independent writer/vlogger to get their content out there without having to get it past a focus group committee.
There will always be good free content.
$12 just to remove ads is way too steep though. There are premium streaming services with big budget movies and TV shows that cost less than that.
This is my hill to die on: we already do. I bought a computer and pay an ISP for bandwidth, back when audio and video was just pirated there was no one to demand we watch ads in return for a few pennies of remote storage.
If Joost was still around I highly doubt Apple would block it from the App Store.
You could also go with a device that runs the most popular custom ROM, LineageOS. An example would be a flag ship phone from last year that received official LOS support. Installing LOS requires some messing around with an installation guide, but it's one of the easiest methods to de-google and de-apple yourself. I suppose you could also achieve that by buying Huawei, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea.
Here's a list of devices with official LineageOS support, which means that your experience should be pretty close to clean Android: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ I run the nightlies on my Oneplus One from a few years back and I don't have any problems with the software at all.
Here's a list of device code names that have a prebuilt LineageOS ROM with MicroG support. MicroG allows you to run apps that depend on Google's APIs without installing Google Play. Do note that compatibility is not perfect, though it works well for most use cases. The code names are the same as the LineageOS ones (if you click the link above) so if you've found a nice LineageOS device, you can use that to check for a MicroG ROM if you prefer that https://download.lineage.microg.org/ Installing it should work the same way installing LineageOS works, so you can usually follow the official LOS guide with the MicroG ROM files to get started.
If you're willing to go the extra extra mile, you can root your phone through Magisk and install all kinds of things to customize and alter your phone. I use it for enabling clipboard access to KDE connect from the background despite Android's limitations, and to install YouTube Vanced, a nodded YouTube app with all the premium features and no ads.
If you're going for open hardware, Samsung is a rather odd choice. Then again, any Android phone is more open than iPhones are.
Software support is more important rather than open design, like the market for aftermarket for iPhone batteries is going to be much cheaper for them, so maintenance is cheaper, and because of project treble all newer Android phones will have mainline linux kernel support and have updated kernels, I don't see how Fairphone is more "open" compared to the alternatives or what you can do better when the volume of developers will matter for support more.
What is it that doesn't work with MicroG?
There's an extensive list here [0] on the /e/ forum, though I'm not sure how up to date it is. The comments seem to go on for up to quite recently, however.
[0]: https://community.e.foundation/t/list-apps-that-work-or-do-n...
> What phone is the most "open" and functional?
Android is not truly open. Google is closing it little by little. Soon rooted phones with custom software will start failing hardware attestation and Android apps will refuse to work.
I seriously hope the pinephone takes off. We need some serious alternatives to this Google garden.
The pinephone will never be more than a Linux enthusiast or developer device who doesn’t need their phone to properly function. It’s just a developer’s test device that will eventually make a version of mobile GNU/Linux that works better on newest more powerful formerly android devices (probably Qualcomm) that get mainline support in kernel.
The type of person in the future who will buy a $150 phone that was underpowered at launch in 2014 or one that wants a $400 720p LCD phone with a stronger 2018 chip that runs mobile Linux is a niche even now.
Any Android phone is 'mostly open' in the sense you can sideload apps super easily. Google apps are functional. There's some 'truly open' options out there but they're typically expensive for the specs and the included apps are less useful than Google apps.
If you have some time on your hands it’s not too difficult to setup a cloud based Wireguard VPN + Pihole to blocks ads. Oracle has a free tier with a generous bandwidth cap.
Only thing it doesn't have is microSD but it does already have 256Gb or 512Gb storage.
Also I just found out it is supported in LineageOS.
Exactly. This is why I'm holding on to my S10 for the next few years. I just got the battery changed and it feels like brand new.