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Comment by drnick1 | Hacker News Reader

2026 should be the year when every tech-minded person dumps Apple (and Google) for good and either starting running either a free Android OS (Graphene, Lineage or a couple of other variants) or a Linux phone.

At this point, Apple and Google devices are nothing more than instruments of coercion and mass surveillance.

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Lectures and admonitions won’t change anything. People will move to Graphene and Linux when it’s better for them.

Coercion and surveillance problems are pretty far down the list of complaints most people have with their personal devices.

Making "tech-minded persons" dump apple etc does NOTHING to move the needle in terms of what most people use.

For example I'm running a pretty sweet calibre-web automated setup with Kobo readers. Ive changed the storefront on my kobo and have seemless sync OTA of selected shelves. And even I struggle to get my wife to choose that setup over Amazon kindle. The very minute there is a single snag, normies (sorry wife dear) lose interest.

I’m doing the same thing with a Boox and Amazon couldn’t pay me to go back. Calibre is a godsend.

This is profoundly out of touch with how almost everyone who isn’t a particularly zealous member of certain movements lives their lives.

Unfortunately, I appreciate the deep integration between my phone and my laptop too much to drop either

I don't have Apple devices to compare, but I think KDE Connect can closely replicate this, entirely locally. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's "deep integrations" rely on cloud components that are privacy-violating by design (even if Apple promises not to look at the data flowing through their servers).

Most cross device stuff in the Apple world actually works via P2P Bluetooth and WiFi and functions without an internet connection or even a shared WiFi network. Mac and iDevice WiFi hardware is even designed with this in mind and is capable of maintaining P2P connections to other devices and a WiFi network simultaneously without rapidly switching between the two like many commodity WiFi cards have to.

KDE Connect with iOS, while useful, is terrible.

Unfortunately the integration is really quite weak with Apple. KDE Connect cannot remain active while the application is not in the foreground. It’s possibly a packaging issue but pairing from fedora is also quite flakey.

As absurd as this sounds windows -> iPhone via their phone link is actually almost as good as apples built in ecosystem to the point where I can make phone calls and send texts on my computer. It’s not quite as seamless especially the setup but that is a well done wizard and it mostly works.

> KDE Connect cannot remain active while the application is not in the foreground.

Looks like you can thank Apple for that one.

https://github.com/KDE/kdeconnect-ios?tab=readme-ov-file#kno...

Quite delayed, however windows phone link can show me notifications and notice incoming calls while the phone is locked so I can only assume there is some set of magical entitlements they need.

So far as I can tell, Linux phones are still ass.

Linux on mobile is probably even more behind than Linux on desktop was in the 90s.

I don't think they're terrible, but there are two main issues: (i) lack of flagship-level hardware, (ii) app compatibility. Issue (ii) is largely mitigated by Waydroid. For the time being, Graphene on a modern Pixel is still the best compromise of freedom and usability though (>99% Android app compatibility, fully degoogled).

> 2026 should be the year when every tech-minded person dumps Apple (and Google) for good

Why? I am a very tech-minded person but simply don't care about running alternative browser engines on my phone. Am I "wrong" in your opinion?

Huge benefits: the ability to run any website as an app (dramatically cutting back on development costs and allowing us to finally replace Electron with PWAs), 30% cheaper apps (no Apple tax), ad-blocking, and better performance since WebKit will finally have some real competition.

UX is much worse imo on graphene compared to iOS

I disagree. I had an iPhone in the past and find the minimalist Graphene UI refreshing. It's like comparing KDE on Arch to Windows 11 or MacOS. Nothing gets in your way or distracts you, the OS is what an OS is supposed to be, a platform for managing and launching apps.

UX, not UI. perfect example is you copy something on your laptop and paste it on your phone. trivial on iDevice.

Tailscale drop is better and works across devices.

tail scale drop is much more complicated than literally copying and pasting on iDevice. that's literally all you do, no setup, nothing and this is just one example for one type of action.

https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop

look at all of that, lol. iDevice is literally copy and paste any file or text. the end - you don't even have to set it up.

This sounds like hyperbole. I've never used tailscale, but reading that doc:

Installation: Install the tailscale client

Sharing: Click on the share menu and select tailscale

It's a beta feature so there's also a switch you have to flip for now.

you don't need to believe me. I use it daily. don't know why you're so defensive lol - it's our own opinion. fyi I didn't have to do anything for this to work (clipboard laptop to phone)

Meanwhile, for Apple:

Installation: nothing.

Sharing: Cmd+C/Cmd+V

How do I copy it from my Mac to my Android?

KDE connect over Bluetooth or WiFi seems ideal for this, so it's definitely possible. I am not sure how the iDevices deal with this, but I really don't want anything cloud-connected.

this doesn't work sometimes. my wife complains frequently

KDE Connect is more reliable than Continuity Clipboard, in my experience.

Trivial as in it works well sometimes and badly in other times with no explanation for why. That’s my experience anyway.

It literally always works flawlessly for me unless Bluetooth is turned off.

so you have your file on a laptop running linux, and its just easy to move the file to your iOS phone?

It’s definitely something that varies from person to person. I tried putting Graphene on a secondary Android device (an old Pixel 3XL) and compared to the stock ROM or more typical AOSP fork (e.g. LineageOS or Pixel Experience), I found it rather frustrating. I can’t imagine running it on my daily driver.

Similarly with Linux, the sheer number of rough edges, papercuts, and quirks is still too high (regardless of if I’m using a big name DE or hyper minimal tiling WM or somewhere in between) for them to serve as my main desktop environment.

>UX is much worse imo on graphene compared to iOS

Freedom and privacy exist on graphene.

Unfortunately, I prefer smooth animations.

Can you please elaborate on how iPhones are instruments of mass surveillance?

Among others:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-siri-lawsuit-settlement-i...

2026 should be the last year when anyone technical-minded comes around to the realization that Google/Apple are in the Fed's pocket. If you're making the switch in 2027 or 2028, it's probably too late for you.

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