It's missing a robust user base imo. More developers too.

In theory Canonical could lock down Ubuntu like that, but it would be the end of Ubuntu. Switching over to Mint or Debian is not a big deal for majority of the linux-users and also Ubuntu would lose all the advantages they can currently pull off from Debian package maintainers. Also I suppose it would bring a ton of headaches with licenses, but IANAL, so don't quote me on that. And, obviously, that would kill snapcraft too as I don't see any incentives for developers to support walled gardens for free, so it wouldn't be all bad.

Maybe it's time to bring back MeeGo

The new requirements will "only" apply for "certified" Android devices. I'm pretty sure, devices running a custom ROM aren't certified, especially if you don't even have Google Services installed.
Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to a bright future for Linux phones.

Fwiw, just because a dumb phone doesn't give you access to "smart" features doesn't mean the capabilities aren't present on the phone. It's just a matter of what could be hidden on the circuit board (lots can be hidden in chips), and what can be hidden in usual expected traffic (if bandwidth requirements are low, even timing of packets could be used to encode hidden data that would never show up in any logs).

Plus the simple tracking of cellphones is necessary for them to function at all.

My bank requires a phone for its device token (2fa).

In most cases (at least in the US...I suppose that there might be places that require use of a state bank or something) one can pick their bank. None of the banks I bank with require this, and I have never installed a banking app (though I think that they all have an app as an option). One may need a phone of some sort to respond to a voice call or an SMS to validate oneself, but not an app. I believe that Bank of America has the most customers in the US, and they'll even do YubiKeys via a browser.

The food and cab ordering platform is also exclusively on mobile only.

I think that GrubHub and Uber Eats are the most-common food delivery options where I am. It looks like both permit ordering from the Web (though I've never used their services).

Waymo, which in the US is, I think, the most-advanced robotaxi service (and probably currently the only really practical one where I am), does require an app, so I don't know if there's a good Web-based robotaxi option. Lyft looks to me like it requires use of an app. Uber looks like it permits Web-based ordering. I've never used anything but traditional cab companies (not that I especially object to the newer services, just never bothered to use them), and I've never run into one of those that requires an app --- I just call up a human.

This isn't to say that the same situation is true of where you are. But just pointing out that for many people, there are options...though it may require using an alternative service. Those services will be aware of how many people are ordering in what way, so if people are using different methods of ordering, that will cause them (and others) to tend to provide that route.

Google has their own store, that's how they verify.

That’s how it works on Windows already. You buy a cert from a third party vendor so your setup file can pass Windows security checks and doesn’t show a big warning to the user when they open the setup file.

You can't distinguish between europe and the EU. Europe has a colonial history. The EU was formed with peace and stability in mind.

The atrocities committed by european states across the centuries should be remembered and reparations made to the best possible degree.

The stability that the EU brought to the region should be remembered, lauded and fought for.

Sorry I dont subscribe to your view that once any rvil has taken place in a land that those people can never then be a force for good.

Where did the EU bomb? We are not France, and criticisms of their actions and territorial claims are legitmate.

Do you sit and wait to be impacted by something before you consider forming an opinion on it andk maybe acting?

IDs and digital IDs are not the same as the discussion surrounding online identification legislation. One is state ID that is pretty common. The other is tech companies gettimg a data harvesting opportunity.

I didnt make the claim, but there is ample evidence to support it from where I sit.

Fascism is not even Russian funded or American spread, Europe is perfectly capable of growing its own fascism as we saw 100 years ago,

Capable and seen in the past, yes, but the current wave of it is indeed funded and spread by Russians and Americans.

The EU was formed not with peace and stability in mind, but with neoliberalism and anticommunism, otherwise it would have never adhered to NATO

The EU is not a NATO adherant/member. Many of the EU's members are also NATO members, but not all.

Problem then becomes that banking, streaming and other apps won't work because root == security issues (according to the companies who push towards a more closed system). Completely stupid. Like saying that having admin or root rights on your desktop poses such a huge security issue that you cannot login to your bank. Furthermore, if you do root your phone, then you should be comfortable tinkering with technology and understand the potential dangers that such an endeavour might present.

Guys, can't we Just use e/OS? I thougt it wouldn't be affected?

No, linux

They've signed with an OEM (still secret atm, but the best guess seems to be Motorola?) who will produce the first flagship GrapheneOS device sometime this or next year iirc. Supposed to be revealing the manufacturer next month. That'll at least take some of the Google dependency by having to use Pixels.

Because it’s useless, like the TSA.

Fuck you Google. I won't do further updates on my Pixel and the moment I run into an issue I'll move operating systems or phones if required. Half my apps don't come from Google Play and I don't want the developers to have to register with Google for anything.

I'm a software freedom enjoyer so I don't have most of those types of apps already (only Discord.. which I hope friends ditch soon).

When I looked into installing a new OS it needed some program or use Android Studio which had it. However, the AS binary demanded I agree to an EULA beyond the "open source" license I was expecting. Whatever I needed it couldn't find an up to date method of compiling it myself.

(Fairphone 5)

its the reason why i turned off auto software updates on my phone

How about phone as terminal for home pc.

Act if you want to, no one is stopping you. For me it's just silly that people talk about EU becoming surveillance state without being able to show a single valid example. Like when you said EU is blocking porn and VPN access. I'm still waiting for examples where it was done inside EU. Then everyone claims digital IDs are evil without realizing they have been used without issues in EU for 20 years. It's like saying that EU will become a military dictatorship because countries have guns.

There are countries that joined the EU both before and after Spain that are not NATO members. Membership of one is not a prerequisite for another. If any politicians told you otherwise, ask them why.

We need alternatives to big tech. They're reigning in and locking everything they can down, and the states are loving them for it as it solidifies their ability to control us.

Motorola

Oh hello.

So what can I buy now?

Why do banks need a hardware attestation, out of curiosity? I'd assume that banking apps are just clients so all that matters is if they have creds or not.

Yep, heard a bit about it. Didn't include here because it's still a big WIP.

Those who have the expertise should start contributing and working more on Linux for mobile.
Postmarket has made great progress it just needs more manpower

If you just need a mobile data connection there's alot of sim based wifi routers

My tears, maybe I can afford to eat today.

What we need is a good linux phone that is affordable, has hardware that isn't slow, and isn't over sold to an annual pre-order.

Sadly, if the first two are true, the third one becomes an issue.

What we need is a large company to see that is a sign of huge pent-up demand. Apparently, HP and Dell are both talking about switching to Linux as their default OS for desktops. Once all the desktop manufacturers find themselves in the business of selling hardware with Linux on it, either mobile manufacturers will copy, like Samsung, or the desktop folks decide to make their product smaller.

What everyone has wanted from the beginning was a desktop in their pocket. The amount of time that no one has produced that despite major demand, and the amount of development that has gone into building any other stack, just feels like willful suppression at this point.

Is there some government somewhere telling large-scale manufacturers that they can't build something as free and open as a desktop that isn't at least the size of a laptop? Because it actually takes less technology to make something that's open than something that is closed. And there is just as much appeal for the consumer to not restrict them.

I'm using Rocknix on an android handheld and it feels so powerful to be running 6.18 mainline kernel with all the modern features I want despite having to build stuff from source since the package manager only has a small list of stuff mostly meant for networking (Entware).

Even though its in beta for my device (AYn Thor), it works so well after only 4 months of development that I'm genuinely reaching the point of perma install and removing the stock Android install from the device.

I would pay cold hard cash for an OEM to do the same with PostmarketOS. Throw in proper open source kernel modules and use Steam's upcoming waydroid fork for Android compatibility, and then throw that sucker in the market and watch Google try to litigate it out of existence.

Hoping that phones running e/OS wouldn't count as certified android devices anymore. Especially if they don't have Google Play Services on them.

"Starting in September 2026, Android will require all apps to be registered by verified developers in order to be installed on certified Android devices"

EDIT: Found this from last August:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/android_developer_verification_sideloading/

The restrictions will apply to certified Android devices, meaning Google-approved and including the core Google apps and services. Most Android devices fall into this category, though niche options exist, such as mobiles running /e/OS, a de-Googled version of Android, or the open source LineageOS. The downside of using non-Google Android from a consumer perspective is that some apps might not install, such as those that use the Play Integrity API to verify that the app is "installed by Google Play, running on a genuine Android device."

They're kind of already is. It's the free and open source community.

The problem is phones are actually incredibly impressive pieces of hardware and the fact that we can Mass produce them has diluted that opinion. I'm actually to look into building my own phone and I wanted to have at least some near-flagship specs. I know how to design my own circuit boards and get someone to print them. But acquiring CPUs that perform at least 1/4 as well as Pixels or iPhones is objectively not possible, these companies have deals with manufacturers for exclusive products. And even if you could these chips are so precise you will never be able to figure out the signaling yourself.

Maybe things have gotten better now that we have ai and you don't need to be any sort of expert in anything you just need to be good enough at decision making problem solving and communicating to acquire the skills and knowledge to work on these chips. And by the time you've done all the work and acquired all the hardware you might have spent close to 3 to 5K on a device you could have just bought for $800. All for what, to circumvent privacy breaches that should be illegal in the first place?

And that's the root problem we're trying to solve. Another symptom of these companies being able to engage in the bad behavior that they do is that they gain the ability to overvalue themselves. There should be no safety or privacy concern when engaging in the purchase of any device for the same reason that people should not fear food poisoning every time they go to the grocery store.

That's what the regulators are for. This is a legal issue not a technical one.

But the only underlying cause for why we're not regulating tech companies is because fear of privacy violations is not reducing market activity. Apparently people are still going to use their phones even if their phones are listening to them having private conversations. Apparently people will still buy shit off of their phones even if their phones are going to use that data to show them ads.

Apparently the harm of your privacy being breached does not hurt enough to prevent you from doing good things.

Now if Android takes away my F-Droid, Tasker and Termux I'm gonna throw a fit. That's not privacy that's self-determination, I bought an Android because I can customize it to be as low friction for me as I need, if my phone starts giving me friction then we're going to have problems.

The banks don't want their payment systems being accessed by devices that are compromised by malicious actors.

The attestation chain allows for Google to tell the apps 'Yep, this system is running a known safe image that has been crytographically verified using the secure hardware on the device'. The apps will only allow their payment systems to be accessed (like, to send an NFC payment) if this check can verify that.

If you want technical details: https://developers.home.google.com/matter/primer/attestation

They don't NEED it for NFC payments to work, this is a way of limiting attack vectors on their payment infrastructure (or, cynically, a way for Google to ensure that no competing OS can exist because people would rather give Google all of their privacy so they can pull a phone out of their pocket rather than a credit card.

It's a shame webos got bought and turned into a tv os. It would shine on modern hardware and was 'rooted' out of the box.

I'm dumb
But using grapheneos
How would them locking down the code affect graphene?

Just told them my opinion. Maybe you want too?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfN3UQeNspQsZCO2ITkdzMxv81rJDEGGjO-UIDDY28Rz_GEVA/viewform?pli=1

Is GraphenOS tenable to use as a daily driver?

I hardly think an OEM would do this, no incentives. It needs to be crowdfunded by us. It's just China is the only manufacturing hub, and we all know, china is not too keen on freedom, and letting go of control. One can hope.

Yes.

F-droid will stop working I imagine?

is there a way to ACTUALLY disable them? I've attempted to change every option I can find (pixel 7 pro) and it just downloads them anyway. I'd love to try graphene but I am a fucking moron and I will 100% end up bricking my phone if I attempt to install it.

Not that I know of. I was just going to not install them.

Actually I hear Graphene installation on a Pixel is nearly unbrickable and has a nice user friendly website.

I watched a video of it and was reminded of the old Limera1n/Blackrain/etc IOS jailbreak days. There was one where you just went to a website and swiped to jailbreak then your idevice rebooted and you were jailbroken.