this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Android

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[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago (14 children)

We really need a compelling alternative to the Play Store, both as users and developers.

[–] ale@lemmy.world 81 points 1 year ago (6 children)
[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, I have it, but I can't install 3/4 of the apps I use on a daily basis from there.

[–] ale@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Wouldn't that be the same for any other alternative? That's what a monopoly does.

[–] EDRBd97kWbT2KzK@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

It means 3/4 of the apps you use aren't free software which is not an issue with F-Droid.

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[–] rebul@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I would prefer to see a wider embrace of PWAs.

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is what really, really pissed me off about the iPhone. When it launched and they gave it a desktop-class web browser engine and told people they were going all-in in PWAs (though I don't think the term existed at the time). Then v2 came out and they went sike! native apps, must be developed on our PCs, must be distributed by us, you must pay us to be allowed to develop, we take a cut of your income, and we're going to cripple the PWA engine to make universal, open apps all but unusable.

Dicks.

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[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In what ways do the existing alternatives fall short of compelling?

[–] Melpomene@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can only answer for myself but F-Droid is limited, Aurora is still the Play Store, and Amazon is... depending on your view.. worse than the Play Store itself. A shame the Play Store is the default.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can you elaborate on "limited"? Surely that is what we want. One of the problems with the Play store is certainly not that it does not have a wide enough selection, but rather that it is full of harmful, hostile, dangerous, exploitive software. Any solution to that problem is necessarily going to limit (or one might prefer to say curate) its contents. That is exactly why I use F-Droid. It is limited to software that is not trying to hurt me.

[–] lickmysword@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess F-Droid is limited in the sense of low user awareness? Similar to lemmy in the sense that its just not that popular atm, but maybe its gaining popularity?

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[–] Melpomene@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Limited as in, lacks a fair number of apps that many people (myself included) need to be able to function as professionals. I'm not sure how much safer F-Droid is in theory, as the vetting process for apps seems to be pretty nonexistent. For each app, I have to either research or trust. That's fine for me, but trying to explain how to handle that to tech-unsavvy people is a bridge too far.

"Just research the publisher or programmer and review the code, mom!" Yeah, not going to work.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Those products that you "need" to function as professionals are never going to be available in a way that does not exploit you and put you at risk. You're always going to be trapped with the incumbent marketplace's shitty practices until you take steps to meet those needs in some other way.

You do not have to personally audit every application you use. After all, you DON'T audit closed applications, and neither does anyone else. At least with an application with code available under a public license, other people have the ability to review it and raise concerns. I can't see how you can cast that as a disadvantage, just because you don't personally want to audit the software yourself.

Personally, I'm not comfortable predicating my very livelihood on closed, commercial software that somebody else owns and leverages with the specific intention of exploiting me. That sounds like fucking madness to me.

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[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Can I get my banking app on F-Droid? How about my home security system app? How about a dozen other apps that I want or need, and can't be replaced by loading a website in Firefox?

[–] butter@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is entirely on the companies. There's no technical reason or requirement for this happening.

Fdroid works great and is the most likely thing to be adopted, in my opinion. It's easy enough for anyone to spin up their own fdroid server and distribute their own app.

If you're wanting to use a new store, you're going to have to wade through the growing pains of adoption. It's just a fact of life.

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[–] carnha@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Accrescent is in early alpha, but it looks like it's on its way to be a great, modern app store.

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[–] sounddrill@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aurora store worked well but google got their way recently

[–] ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It still works, you just need to search for things in the browser then open the links with Aurora

I wish someone would make a companion app that handles this automatically

I'd love to do it but I have no knowledge about kotlin. However, I'm still down if someone has a solid plan

[–] Melpomene@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

It still works for me intermittently, but yes. Google is going to Google.

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[–] nope@jlai.lu 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Probably not the first degoogled android, but maybe one of the first 'just works' degoogled phones Edit: yep I misread but still true

[–] Carobu@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lineage OS by default comes DeGoogled and works just fine. Both phones I ran it on had absolutely no issues. It must be more niche than I thought though because no one here is talking about it.

[–] Melpomene@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I have Lineage installed on an older phone. I think it gets less attention than it might otherwise because for the average user, the install process is a pain in the memory space.

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[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

At no point does the article claim it is "the first degoogled android".

[–] Captain_Ender@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

I see the confusion by op. It says privacy-first, as in privacy is its core function not a first in its class. I think they just misread the title.

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[–] Anti_Weeb_Penguin@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I built that ROM back in june and honestly, i don't recommend it, the interface and apps are just terrible and they take almost a year to release a new android version.

[–] bug@lemmy.one 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Do they at least provide regular security updates?

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


First up, instead of the usual Google gubbins, replete with the adtech giant’s commercial trackers, /e/OS users will find a set of native open source apps and services Murena has developed to replace all that.

Murena also bakes a set of “advanced” private browsing features into the OS, including a tracker blocker; a location faking option; and the ability to hide your IP address.

On the flip side, when all the switches are set to off each one displays a one-word warning — either “Vulnerable” or “Exposed” — giving users a visible nudge to think about how their online activity might be compromising their privacy.

And this tension between locking everything down (to achieve perfect privacy) and opening select hatches (to boost utility) remains the core confounder for such an ambitious against-the-mainstream-grain tech endeavour.

The wider question is how much highly motivated demand there is to put in the small amount of extra effort required (and possibly also shell out some additional cost) to tread an alternative, less feature-rich path — if, at the end of the day, all you get for your effect is a product that won’t look or feel especially thrilling.

So its conviction of where the mobile puck is headed must be that there’s a growing pool of mainstream Android users with an appetite for iOS-style ‘low friction’ privacy delivered outside Apple’s walled ecosystem.


The original article contains 2,593 words, the summary contains 228 words. Saved 91%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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[–] PrincessZelda@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can I install/update my bank apps, and pay with my phone? That's the bare minimum I need to switch to a deGoogled OS.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Solely depends on your banking app. If it requires Safety Net, you need to flash gapps on any ROM, or have a microg preflashed version.

Btw, i only need to hold my MasterCard on the card read and enter a pin if over 70 CHF. This isn't common?

[–] sebi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The OS includes microG which has a SafetyNet implementation

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[–] gunpachi@lemmings.world 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hope more newer phones get supported by them.

I have a samsung galaxy s23 and I need to scratch my de-google / custom rom itch.

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[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Have been using it for a while on my Fairphone 3, just works nicely :)

[–] codenul@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Been using it on my Oneplus 6t and been liking it so far

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 6 points 1 year ago

I'm using iode which is very similar and I'm happy with it. It's a good compromise. It doesn't have any google apps, have some additional security and privacy protections and 'it just works'.

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