Pixels are the best phones to buy since you can install GrapheneOS...

Yeah... But Google and US Big Tech have too much power and are making the world shitty for everyone. I'd like to contribute my grain of sand to someone else.

This will take effect for only google "certified" phones. If you're using a custom rom with no gapps (including play services) installed, you will most likely be not affected.

If some of your apps rely on play services, i can heavily recommend microg as replacement for it.

Sometimes even just one phone is too much.

I haven't even used a custom keyboard [since the Pixel]

Why would you? Gboard is already the best.

or launcher

That's a weird choice. I get it, before 2016 a lot of Android forks were ad-ridden trash. But, Nova Prime was a thing long before the Pixel, and it makes it easy to export/import settings across devices.

Remember to contribute to postmarketOS!

NATO isnt the EU.

The implementation of digital IDs is where there is scope for abuse. Of course they can be done well, I would be delighted for a sovereign zero knowledge system to be implemented. Estonia has had a good system for a long time.

Chat control weakens encryption which is an issue for VPNs who have e2e encryption.

Here is the link for adult content requiring third party system confirmation of ID https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-age-verification

Privacy, security and being open sourcr should be priorities for any system legally required.

Absolutely.

They're working on it. Unfortunately most phones have poor security hardware, which is why its limited to Pixels at the moment.

Good news!

That's all Linux is though, arguably

This always gets brought up, and is the chicken-and-egg problem, but only sort of.

Supporting software designed for different platforms is not the phone's responsibility. It should be the government and bank developers' responsibility to build software for platforms their citizens and customers use.

Android and Apple do not jump through hoops to run Windows desktop software, for example, and the notion is kind of absurd to begin with. Yet this argument is used for Linux smartphones all the time.

Some of this also applies to people without phone / with dumbphone.

I often do. It's a hobby, not a lifestyle.

Only in Old English, or Icelandic. Eth had been completely replaced by thorn in English by þe Middle English period.

Dear terrorists, I don't like your actions, but if you still exist and want to cause destruction and deaths, please, do it by attacking main offices of big corporations. That will be a tragedy for whole world. Thank you!

No, just buy one used on ebay.

https://e.foundation/e-os/

You can put this on a Nothing CMF Phone 1 btw.

Terrorists tend to act across borders and so they are interested mostly in global corporations. If only there was one single building that housed all of them at the same time. Some buildings where they all engaged in trade around the world, centralized.

Then that would make your scheme easy.

You can also buy it preinstalled on a fairphone through Murena's website. And the bootloader is locked.

I understand installing e/os yourself sometimes gets you stuck with an unlocked bootloader. I have no idea if that's true for Nothing phones, but thought I'd post up an alternative for those concerned about that.

Android apps do solve a lot of UI problems a that are unique to the phone interface. If only Linux could run APKs. Oh wait, it can. Linux can run anything.

The implementation of digital IDs is where there is scope for abuse.

It's like saying that implementing police force is problematic because there is scope for abuse. Do you have any proof that any of EU countries that implemented digital ID over the past decades is using it for surveillance? If not you're just spreading conspiracy theories.

Chat control weakens encryption which is an issue for VPNs who have e2e encryption.

It doesn't. You don't know what is in this legislation and you're spreading conspiracy theories.

Here is the link for adult content requiring third party system confirmation of ID

This says it's privacy preserving and open source. Do you have any proof that this will be used to track/surveil people? Or is is just another conspiracy theory?

Finally, look at all things like privacy index, press freedom index, freedom of speech index, data on independent courts and so on. Do you see any proof that EU is slipping on those issues? Not right wing countries like Hungary, EU as a whole. Can you find any proof at all that EU is abandoning it's principles and drifting in the direction of surveillance state? Or is it all just because of some rumors, misinformation and false claims?

Unless it's carrier locked.

I've a pixel 7a, and cannot install graphine without calling T-Mobile and convincing them to unlock it for me. Sure, I got OEM permissions, but I'm blocked at the next step.

I'll be frank with you. As long as my customers are captive on either Apple or Google platforms I can't do shit.

It's a kind of "yes, but actually no" situation.

Way back when, smartphones were a relatively new thing. Nobody gave a crap, so building a new OS that had similar capabilities to the competition was easy. We had a bunch of those over the years.

However, every new OS means new architecture, every architecture means developers having to take it into account when building apps.

Eventually, the smartphone market essentially defaulted to Android and iOS - long gone are Windows Phone, Blackberry OS, and a dozen others.

They didn't die off because they somehow had to - they died off because they couldn't keep up with feature parity with Android and iOS.

Nowadays, everything is being made for these two OSes. And by "everything" I mean things that are actually crucial to people - banking apps, ID apps, train ticket apps, parking lot apps - things that they either cannot replace with "not in a smartphone" solution, or can, but it would force them to juggle cards and papers.

Any new OS coming in must take that into account. If Linux comes to mobile phones but can't run national ID apps or banking apps, it will have a market share of maybe 1% - the hardcore fans, and the "technological preppers" who are always anonymous, always off-grid - and that's that. No users further users will switch, and because no users switch, no developers will take it seriously enough to make their apps work on it.

Windows Phone is a great example of this. At its height it had around 20% of the European market share. And what happened? Snapchat (massive at the time) and Google actively worked to undermine and destroy it, because they knew that - in the long run - it'll be cheaper than having to hire a third group of developers. With 3rd party alternative apps being constantly blocked, the OS eventually went down to sub 5% in its biggest market, and sub 1% in the US, and Microsoft finally pulled the plug.

An OS coming in without critical app support won't ever get to even 1% of market share in any region larger than "local Linux fanclub".

I know. We've had this conversation before.

Sounds like you should invest in additional pockets. They're pretty great.

Honestly, even if you weren't going to use the extra space for a second phone, you should invest in less-limited pocket space.

I have one, and while the actual hardware features are nice, the constant overheating and incredibly slow responses on the phone are reminiscent of a brick laptop from the early '00s. I am instead just running e/OS on an old pixel 4a (since it still has a headphone jack)

Fucking love postmarketOS. First OS to improve on Maemo on an N900

Doesn't matter the amount. If there's to much weight in my pockets as a whole it just sucks. I ain't cosplaying as an early 00s movie hacker.

you have to have the banks app to do online banking even on your desktop

I have never heard of that. Can you give an example?

The tech companies are doing a great job at making me uninterested in the hottest new phones. I used to follow the news about them and know the tech specs and stuff, because I'm a nerd and gadgets are fun and smart phones in particular are the intersection of SO much technology and engineering. Moore's law was alive and well during all my formative years, so I am even conditioned to expect the excitement.

But lately, not only have I been ignoring what the big players are offering, I have been ignoring the phone I already have! Instead I have a PC at the end of the couch with a monitor on an arm that s swings right over my lap.

I use my phone pretty much just for music, web browser, Voyager (Lemmy on the go), and occasional texting. When I am at home I will sometimes misplace my phone for hours and just not worry about it.

I have already pushed the megacorp phone + social media experience so far out of my daily life, that if future options for open linux phones are rough around the edges and don't have tap to pay then oh well I don't think I care.

It's much easier to live without the shiny new thing once you see how well your brain does when separated from it. (and you have some loved ones who are still hopelessly addicted to the scroll)

not even arguable, you're right

Doesn't even take that much. Most can be bought with a couple thousand.

I don't understand why most people consider that having the bootloader locked is so important. You'll get a terrifying warning message when you start your phone. But without a physical access to your phone and your password, no one can do anything.

Sometimes I use my phone so little that I only need to charge it every 2-3 days. Nearly everything that it does my PC can do better and not try to lock me in to a dozen different monthly weekly subscriptions.

Well that's disappointing to hear. Although it makes me glad that I am too cheap to buy one. 😅

TD;DR

(FOR EVERYONE)

Here is the petition that we all need to sign:

https://www.change.org/p/stop-google-from-limiting-apk-file-usage

(FOR DEVELOPERS or "DEVELOPERS" 😉 )

Here is the form that we need to fill:

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

(Please UPVOTE this so others can see!)

I am in Canada, so that does make sense. Interesting that the US doesn't though. I for sure wouldn't have got this if I was forced to use an esim.

Kmacmartin pointed out that the SIM tray is available only in certain countries. So maybe it's worth checking out Canadian listings? I wouldn't want to be forced to use esim either.

Haha, fair!

Do I have to install microg or graphene or whatever on my Google Pixel before that date or miss the boat?

Have been putting it off.

What about after the lockdown?

Absolutely. You won't be able to use tap to pay, and the Google Wallet app doesn't open for me. Certain banking and finance apps might require some additional compatibility settings to be enabled. Otherwise it's been an extremely smooth experience for me.

Banking apps and some authenticators won't work on a phone with an unlocked bootloader.

Only effects devices running official android not grapheneos. The graphene devs have been very open about it.

USA issue

It specifies the European market, not sure how well it'll play with Canadian service providers. I'll have to wait and see before dropping $1000 (before shipping) on it. VoLTE is pretty much required here and last I heard that was tricky for Linux phones

For now I have GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8 Pro, but I'll keep an eye on this one to see if it'll be compatible in Canada

Yes

I just got a Pixel 9a and put GrapheneOS on it straight away . my battery with my current usage says 4 days hahah. my old phone was 1 day maybe. I loose my phone around the house , my friends know I don't text back for awhile.