Written with a slightly more precise wording, they know Linux users have full control of their devices, so cannot keep them from using it in ways the company does not like. In this case, fine. Go away and take someone else’s money.

Stated from another angle, they won’t support it because they can’t hijack it for their own purposes.

Neo Backup is the new titanium as of about 5 years ago. Now, if only i could get TWRP back…

Neo Backup on F-Droid. Backs up everything based on how you configure it. Copy the backupsvto your new phone and restore.

It requires root, of course. Yet another reason to have root. I run backup before flashing and copy it to a flash card in case i have to reset or wipe the phone as part of the process, or i screw it up and have to start from scratch.

I feel the way you do. I always keep some cash, don’t bother with those cash apps, and use a credit card with a good cash back plan. To me the cost of going digital in this area outweighs all benefits.

This. This, this, this, this!

My linux computers are rooted. I can get root any time i need it and nobody is refusing to offer their sevices on linux because it is vulnerable.

Nobody ever points out that when any app wants root, you get a dialog to ask if it can have it. If you don’t know why it’s asking, say no. It ain’t rocket science.

Now, if you are going through customs and you don’t want them to copy your phone and read all your personal documents, that is a different situation. Lock your bootloader unrooted and encryped to the nines. Preferably use a phone with almost nothing on it.

Enjoy the much safer Chinese military spyware.

Those of us who actually use VPN don’t have that option since only one can be in use. Magisk + AdAway, for me.

It’s painful disabling knox so you can root or flash custom roms.

This is what i motivates me, too, though you go in more than i. I love having my degoogled pixel 2xl on Android 14 and running almost as snappy as my pixel 6.

I finally gave up on my moto x 2013 about 2 years ago, but i still have it. It’s like holding a river stone that perfectly firs my hand.

I left the pc gaming scene about 20 years ago and only came bacj this year. I found my steam credentials from when they were initially seeking players and revived my account (I closed my email on the account back in 2009, so i couldn’t recover).

I’ve mostly been playing vSkyrim, BG 3, and a few emulated Zelda games. I finally ordered a new gaming laptop because Cyberpunk 2077 is hard to rrad on the Deck, even on a 50" tv on hi-res.

All that is just so you all know where I’m coming from, i am both a newb and a veteran!

From a business standpoint, looking ant it form the non-gaming financial point of view, the move to online-only makes very compelling sense.

It fully implements the licensing model, gives them total control over the property, enables them to generate reports that accurately identify trndsvin user populations, pinpoint steady revenue figures, and they can kill the game as soon as it isn’t valuable to them anymore, and they don’t have to worry about losing revenue from sharing, passing the copy to an otherwise paying customer for free, or a significant pirtiin of piracy loss.

Itvis the end state of the “we are mearly licensing it to you until such time as we decide ee want it back” model.

It sucks, and if i can know it is online only before buying, i will pass. All of us should. Revenue is king to them, and if they lose even a little, they will try something else.

Well, i haven’t neen much of a gamer for years (got too adicted to WoW), but just started again this year. I am amazed by Skyrim, and am now modding it up.

I also just got Cyberpunk 2077, and will get into it soon.

Yep, it’s that easy. I have it on my pixel 2xl, degoogled and it’s still usable {android 14)

We aren’t third-world yet, but if we can’t excise the political cancer soon, we will be.

Android CUPS Print, on F-Droid.

This app provides a Print Service to Android. This means that once it’s installed, you need to enable it in the ‘Print’ section of the settings app. Once the service is enabled, printers are automatically discovered using the mDNS protocol. You can print anything you want from any app, as long as the print service is enabled.

If you take a look at their list of features, you might grudgingly be willing to go without uBlock. It uses Adblock plus, and it allows you to Define your own custom block lists. I agree uBlock Origin is probably the better tool though.

I second this. I discovered it a few weeks back, and it’s impressive and fast.

Lots of mentions of OpenBoard here. There is a fork that is under development now, and I am writing this with it now. It is not on F-Droid yet.

FlorisBoard and AnySoft are good, but each has enough annoyances that I come back to OpenBoard, which has its own annoyances, but for me are a bit less annoying.

Pixel Dungeon is a good option.

Remember that to stay in business, they must sell something. Since they are selling something designed to last a very long time, they need to expand their customers and sell other products, or both.

Some consumers want to get new product regularly. There is reason to stop them. As long as they continue to make their products to last, the rest of us get what we want, and the company is more profitable, sounds like a win-win.

This appears to be an effort to convince people to try their products - good for them! My answer to your last question is yes. Capitalism is not bad - amoral or unregulated capitalism is bad.

I second the vote for cheogram. As for the pending conversations ui overhaul, of which I know nothing, that should automatically transfer over to cheogram once it goes public. Cheogram extends conversations, wndci don’t think they changed ui code.

That depends on how well it blocks adware and malware at the system level, and how much control it has over individual permissions for each app.

I’ll take a closer look at Grapheme since I’m hearing a lot more positive reviews lately.

By optimizations, do you mean the malware blocking, audio improvements, and CPU tweaks?

Most work through Magisk. I flash a kernel from the pixel 6 XDA forum that uses a magisk module to help it work. That has optimizations and I can use a kernel manager to tweak it’s settings. And I use adaway which is a DNS level ad blocker. ViperFX4Android is a godlike audio transformer.

Still using xprivacylua to restrict apps’ ability to track, use camera and speaker, and get my contacts. I have a tool that stops phone charging at 90% so I don’t over-wear the battery.

I use NeoBackup to backup all my apps with data, plus some system data like WiFi hotspots, call history, Bluetooth pairings. When I factory reset or otherwise have to start over, I restore that to get everything back. On older phones, I use TWRP to flash and do nandroid backups, etc. I’m not sure why TWRP is still not available on Pixel 6.

With root, I can do all this, without it I can’t even backup the apps, and any ad block I can use makes it impossible to run a VPN to protect my privacy as they use VPN to block the sites.

If I can’t unlock the bootloader, then when the OS becomes too bloated to be useful, I have to toss my phone instead of stripping the bloat with a degoogled ROM. I get another 3 to 5 years out of it by replacing stock. That’s a boat-load of money, right there!

For example, I’m still using my Pixel 2XL as a viable device (minus Sim). That is about 6 years old now. It is on the 7/23 patch of android 13 right now. It might get 14.

My AdAway host lists block over 650,000 known malware and ad sites.

I’m pretty happy with my setup, and have confidence I’m at least partially protected from the crap out there.

Perhaps. I’d have to see how it blocks ads and malware. If I can get the features I want, I’d be happy to remain unrooted because I am taking risks if I lose the phone or it is outright stolen.

It got clunky precisely because they want you to pay for a subscription. Why pay if it works well without paying? It’s the capitalist way. Make it a pain, then offer a “cure” for a price.

Don’t have to imagine. Change your metaphor from hammer to car, and you’re experiencing it in realtime.

This is one reason why I will never pay for a phone I cannot root if a rootable option exists.

Strangers on the internet constantly tell me I am a fool to root “'cause security”, and I just shake my head.

If I pay $700 for a phone, I own it. If I’m paying for X gigabytes of cellular data, I will not be told I cannot use it “for that”.

I almost never see advertisements, am blocking tracking and malware at the device level, and impriving sound output quality. I use kernels that are patched up way better than the device default, and have superior battery life, and cpy over-clocking.

I’d go insane if I had to deal with all those restrictions, invasion of privacy, and monetization of my life at my expense.

I second the jmp.chat, but I’d suggest Dino over Gajim.

Well, I use KDE connect and it does not lose pairing. It might be your environment. I had to open certain ports to get pairing at all, so maybe there’s something going on with your firewall?

This is my view, too. I still have my 2XL with fully updated LineageOS with MicroG, and it still feels “fast enough”. I got the P6 because the camera stopped working after 4 years and the battery and USB charging port got flakey.

However, after I went with a custom ROM, the USB/battery problems went away. I still use it.

If I can’t flash, I won’t buy.

And that is the goal - make it such a pain in the ass to go with something that won’t track your every decision that we all give up because it is easier.

At least LineageOS with or without MicroG is fairly simple, with auto-updates in many cases. Once you get past Knox and install twrp, it’s easier.

GSI builds are generally easy, too, if it’s well maintained. I like Andy Yan’s ROMs.

Yes. In fact, when you open the file in a file manager, you can have OsmAnd automatically import it.

https://opensupermaps.com/

They have maps with USA style addresses, updated monthly. They cover pretty much everything. So that would solve your address search Problem in OsmAnd.

There is also a google traffic overlay.