Samsung has great hardware, but their version of android is getting more and more bloated. And android itself is moving in a direction reminiscent of how I felt about Windows after win7.
Some 20 years ago I used Cyanogenmod on a Samsung phone, and that worked great, but it seems to no longer be active.
I see many alternatives, such as graphene, lineage, et.al… what are the pros and cons of each? For one I see that GrapheneOS only supports the pixel.
Note: I’m not 100% ready to deegoogle entirely, so if possible I would like to keep some features related to Google Play and its services.
I’d love an actual linux phone again; I bought a Neo FreeRunner early 2008, and while the tech wasn’t very mature at that point, it was my daily use phone for a while.
And no, I’m not buying a fucking iPhone. Made that mistake in 2009.
I am on a Samsung S23, rooted via Magisk. Debloated with Universal Android Debloater NG. I am running Android Firewall + to block user and system apps that are not essential for normal operation, including the Play Store. I only unblock it once every month to update some system critical packages. I am also running AdAway to block specific hosts that some system critical packages make connections to without my permission. I am also using App Manager to block internal trackers and to disable app ops and permissions that are not needed for normal operations. The hosts that I allow my phone to establish connections to that are owned by Google and that possibly collect data are
play.googleapis.com(don’t remember this one),android.googleapis.com(neither this one),play-fe.googleapis.com(to update apps at the Play Store) andmtalk.google.com(for push notifications).The reason I go such lengths instead of “simply” ditching Google, is because a few dear friends are on the Japanese spyware Line and because I use USB Audio Player, a paid app, whose certificate doesn’t validate without logging in to the Play Store. All in all, two apps… But I rather translate that into “friends” and “HiFi music”. 🙂
I am really happy with my setup and it works without any hickups - expect for when I push it too far, because I like to experiment by removing packages that people don’t recommend removing but that are closed source and thus cannot be verified without decompiling. Which is a skill I don’t have.
Question: did you install MicroG or something, on that Linux phone? Asking since you’re saying that you’re not ready to completely degoogle yet.
Yes, using it because of revanced. The main thing keeping me on stock android is the BankID app (long story short: nationwide 2fa user authenticator used for loads of things here in norway), and I know people have reported that it doesn’t work on “alternative” phone OSes. I am, however, taking steps to go back to using the old-school Keychain OTP generator instead.