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Comment by d--b | Hacker News Reader

Agreed, mandatory 2-factor authentication through ios/android is really what screws you. You can totally do without for the rest.

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KeePassXC has Google Authenticator-compatible 2fa on Windows. I expect other programs do too, and for Mac and Linux. No need to keep a smartphone only for 2fa, unless you need something that Google Authenticator can't do

This.

Problem still persists with mandatory phone number verifications every couple months. It's likely most services have a cronjob running for that.

KeePassXC even has Steam-compatible 2FA. But Steam currently still requires some sort of stupid unbypassable mobile prompt in certain circumstances, so you can't ever truly rid yourself of the app.

Yep xc works on Linux too and comes with the 2fa feature too. On mobile you can look at keepassdx which uses the same field as xc for its 2fa.

I setup an old phone just for that (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37655746). It acts more as a backup key than as a backup smartphone. Just like with house/car/bike keys, having a spare in case of loss/theft can save you a lot of hassle.

Depends on where you live I guess. There are two especially important apps where I live, Swish for instant cash transfer, and BankID for authorization to many websites, such as banks, tax office etx. Without them you are definitely handicapped.

Depends how all your friends communicate. If they're all in a WhatsApp or Facebook group chat, for example, having a dumbphone will put you on the outer socially.

Didn't there use to be a version of whatsapp for "feature phones"? Sure, it's not completely "dumb", but I'd expect those to have minimal to no tracking.

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