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Comment by CrazedGeek | Hacker News Reader

Buy a non-Nexus and non-Motorola Android phone, install CyanogenMod or AOKP, and (optionally) install a non-Play Store app store. (This is all fairly quick and simple to do with recent-ish major Samsung phones, at the very least.)

Or wait until an Ubuntu phone comes out.

(EDIT: For clarification, I am NOT saying any of this would be RMS-friendly, just a bit more open and less privacy-invasive than the norm right now.)

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Wouldn't the phone have to ship with CyanogenMod/AOKP? Liberating a device after the purchase still rewards the wrong company.

And Samsung?

http://developer.samsung.com/android/technical-docs/DRM-in-A...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20010533-1.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57559174/samsung-chip-pl...

I'm not saying it's an ideal solution, but are there any better solutions smartphone-wise right now?

And yes, Samsung. Because if we're going to pick off every phone manufacturer for every misdeed they've done, there won't be any left to actually buy a phone from.

> Because if we're going to pick off every phone manufacturer for every misdeed they've done, there won't be any left to actually buy a phone from

Which illustrates why it's typically not practical to live your life like Stallman does.

Not buying a phone at all would be the RMS-compliant option.

"I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices." -- http://stallman.org/rms-lifestyle.html

To throw just any one name into the discussion - what about Asus? I haven't heard anything bad about them since they've twittered that booth babe picture.

With a Nexus banded phone you can build your own Rom from source if you wanted.

Very true. I excluded them purely because Nexus is a Google brand, and buying a Nexus device would be supporting them to an extent.

The only way I can make the phones of my loved ones ring with a video call is by using FaceTime.

Now what?

You convince your loved ones to switch to something else. If they won't, then you must realize that, deep in your heart, you love freedom more than you love your loved ones, and must switch to non-video calls or other methods of communication.

Hahahaha. Those of us that live in the Real World send our regards.

RMS says the Ubuntu dash is made of spyware, so that's not quite kosher either.

It's removable FOSS spyware, at the very least.

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