Starting September 2026, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn’t registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID.
Read more here:
Consolidating control over what software people can run on hardware they own is never a good thing!
That freedom is the actual thing that made Android worth choosing in the first place.
10 Likes
Seem to me that my next phone might be a ‘pine phone’
Seems that it comes out of the box with Manjaro KDE Plasma
7 Likes
I have a pinebook pro. I believe it was $199 back when first batches or $299.
It was not bad eh. BUT honestly not for daily/longterm use. I’m thinking the phone might be just “ok” also.
I used it a lot more despite because it was cool. Being able to do everything on a $200 laptop but honestly the CPU, ram and storage is just too slow.
So the question I guess is how powerful is the PinePhone? I have not checked yet.
Research your options. The last time I took a look at this was about a year ago:
7 Likes
For that price and my impression of the PineBook hardware, I would expect something along the line of an Asus EEE-PC (still have one, running Bodhi). Considering your reaction, it must have been even better 
Regarding the phone:
I expect the phone to make/receive calls and do textmessages. 
I’m not in it for the apps but some will be probably be unavoidable like compulsory 2FA (or other stuff that is unavoidable but actually should not be done by phone in the first place). 
I do expect the phone to be more or less in the same ballpark as my de-googled Samsung A02s (which is a 4 year old low-budget phone) which still has way more power than I need.
I do hope that the batterylife of the pinephone is just as good. I usually do 3 weeks on a single batterycharge.
3 Likes
After some searches I found out that none of my old or current phones is fortunate enough to be supported by Ubuntu Touch, LineageOS, etc. Alas, there are no chances to reimage them. It looks like that I will have to choose a new phone model with more discretion when the time comes.
Meanwhile, DeGoogled phones, made in Europe: Fairphone, Volla, SHIFTphone, Punkt – a full review. | Tuta survey make me think that Volla Quintus with dual boot is the most interesting and attractive option today.
4 Likes
For all the tweaking I do with laptop systems I never experiment with phones; I’ve been getting Android phones since 2009; Motorola Droid series for several years, then after the G6 I switched to Google Pixel phones and I’ve used them ever since. I don’t ever mess with DeGoogled phones or Linux phones; the most “Linux” I have in them is a Linux kernel customized for Android.
2 Likes
Well, our phone is never actually ours; when we buy a mobile phone, we buy a brick, well, an electronic brick, but a brick nonetheless.
To be able to function and be useful, we’ve got to link it to a phone service provider to be able to make and receive phone calls and sms.
These days, we don’t even need that as long as we’ve got a smartphone with a wifi connection, “phone” calls these days are made through the internet either thanks to Whatsapp or to any other app that provide such functionality. Of course, in exchange for all the information they can get from you, your location, everything you do on your mobile device.
Is there an actual alternative to get out of it? Is Lineage OS a real alternative?
I mean, there has always been a big issue on this: all alternative systems work on a very small and limited number of phones.
I would love to see the day when we can install an operating system on a mobile device and make it useful the same way we choose our favorite Linux distro and install on any computer.
Are we so far away from such idea?
6 Likes
I truly had a very hard time “surviving” the day that my Bell Canada landline was shut down. I was being forced to go IPphone or Wireless. I still don’t know why they couldn’t keep the old tech, even though I did work for Nortel for almost 20 years.
My revenge was to sign up with a different service provider, in order to take away the revenue stream that they took for granted.
My first “Wireless” phone was purchased this past October, only about 1 week before the landline was to be cut off.
I did end up with an Android-based phone, Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. What I hate about it is that we have all these different Apps. I bought a phone … not a set of Apps!!!
I am being pestered by a gazillion notifications of updates for this, that and the other, and I don’t want to deal with it!
If you’re going to update the phone, update the whole darn thing as a comprehensive set!!! Don’t ask me about this or that!
Every time I get notification that an App hasn’'t been used for 6 months, I am having to research online to decide if I CAN delete the App, of if I only want to have it auto-disabled, in case I ever change my mind when life imposes a new “need” on my serenity!
Please give me back my old Harmony phone!
6 Likes
I’m not all that tech savvy when it comes to phones but I know enough to get by.
I use an Android phone.My wife and I have a plan through our carrier but I get my phone(s) at Walmart and I buy the cheapest prepaid and just swap out the sim card. When I get a phone I uninstall all the useless apps and the ones that I can’t I force stop and put into deep sleep. If I need a particular app I will always look for it on F-Droid or IzzyOnDroid first. Right now the only Google app on my phone is the actual PlayStore so as to update Ring,obviously the Android OS itself is Google but it’s as close as my knowledge will get me to not having a cluttered phone and a bunch of Google and Playstore apps. So much of what apps do can be done through a browser at a particular website with a little more difficulty but completely doable. Of the apps I do have other than Ring come from the above mentioned repos and are FOSS and most of the utilitarian apps on my phone are either from Fossify or Secuso.
I’ve started to read up on non Google/IoS phones but at this point it’s still something that would be nonfunctional for me at this point in time with my current knowledge.
3 Likes
For the Fairphone brand, at this point in time, unless the phone is purchased from a reseller (e.g., Murena), there is neither warranty coverage nor repair part availability outside of Europe. I purchased a Fairphone 6 with /e/ OS from Murena last year, and learned this from Murena tech support.
This link has the complete details of Fairphone’s warranty policies.
The situation might, or might not, be different for other brands. Caveat emptor - buyer beware.
3 Likes
@ericmarceau interesting to read about your Telco background. My career was software engineering; one of the major industries that the companies that I worked for were users of Telco big time. I was a follower of a Telecommunications Advisory committee and later was a member of the T1Q1 Quality of Service committee. That group set the guidance on WiFi Quality of Service standards and that was part of the Signalling Standard — SS7.
One of the groups I worked in attempted to get SS7 billing service software working and that group later went to Hewlett-Packard in a multi-billion buyout and the work was completed and supported by Unix and Linux systems they had.
I wrote about some of these things 25+ years ago as I worked on graduate studies in Computer Information Management. Hard to recall all of the details today but any mention of quality and security of systems always triggers an old memory or two!
3 Likes
My first task at Nortel was to work on the “escrow bucket” mechanism for the “modernized” payphone, which was the last version of the Centurian payphone manufactured, renamed as the Millenium.
My next design task in 1984 was the production mechanical design of the Unity Plus business telephone set, before being re-assigned/promoted in 1985 to CAD/CAM Systems Administrator for software & hardware on an HP9000 series 550 mini with 4 terminal multiplexers to increase bandwidth by limiting 3 CAD terminals to each multiplexer. We started of with Graftek Inc.'s GMS software, then later in 1989 began integrating PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER which is a parametric-based solid modelling software, still being sold today.
Last telephone set design I worked on as CAD systems method advisor was the BC Tel Heritage Telephone set, which inherited substantial components from the Harmony:
Good looking telephone set, if I do say so myself! Echos in shape reflecting the old 500 set “heritage”, hence the name!
2 Likes
Android (and I-Phone too) being run by Google and Apple i have never seen the phone as my own because I have zero trust in either company. Still there are degrees of intrusiveness. I had always used Motorola and my wife got me to try Samsung, which is already much to intrusive in my opinion, I went back to Motorola after a short time. Samsung forces you to sign up for all their stuff and constantly bombards you with emails. I agree with tkn:
I want the phone for calls and text messages, I don’t want it to control my life.
7 Likes
I absolutely hate this development, but I also feel rather powerless - for example, unfortunately, I still run banking apps/government apps which require some sort of Google Framework I believe?—which means I cannot switch to a more open, ethical alternative. It’s very frustrating.
3 Likes
+ daily: instant messenger, clock & date
+ about monthly: camera & gallery
+ seldom/irregularly: alarm clock, book/document reader and a browser
4 Likes
regarding various features or controls, I don’t concern myself with them, while others are paranoid about who is spying on what. For me, I don’t care because I have nothing to hide. Stealing my credentials would be a concern; I would and have prosecuted about that; there were no long term issues for me even in those extreme cases.
4 Likes
I strongly dislike the argument of “I have nothing to hide”. Just because you feel like you don’t have anything to hide at the moment, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care, in my opinion. I firmly believe we all have the right to privacy. Even though we might think we have nothing to hide now, a future government/company could always abuse any information we store (and they already do, e.g., see Google’s advertising).
Furthermore, there are people who may need privacy more than others: journalists, whistleblowers, minorities—just because we may have the privilege not to have to hide any thing, does not mean we should not demand privacy. If not for us, then for the people who do need it.
10 Likes
Oh so true, Jymm! Some people act like the phone was sewn onto either their ears or their lips! I its such a sad statement on the affairs of the world and the increasing disconnect from your immediate surroundings!
2 Likes
@andreas I mean what I said, but what I intend and what you are thinking are clearly different. I am not indifferent to being careful and as I indicated I’m not interested in having anyone steal credentials or any other information for that matter, but I do not live in fear of anyone other than criminals attempting to steal or acquire things.
I do care about privacy; it’s more a case that while nothing on the Internet is 100% certain of protection, the services I use and the manner I use them are sufficient to provide reasonable protection, and given the length of time I’ve been using them the level of privacy and protection those services offer are reasonable.
Moreover, when I have had compromises in any way, the experts and the local authorities have taken excellent actions and any compromises have not resulted in any permanent loss. I won’t go into any more detail than that; personal experiences have provided adequate assurance and confidence.
5 Likes