That is quite possibly the stupidest argument against updating.

How old are you?

not to mention unexpendable storage and lack of customization

You can install Lineage OS on older devices. I have two devices from 2015 (Nexus 6P) and 2016 (Pixel XL). One runs LOS22 (Android 16), the other runs LOS20 (Android 14), both of which are more than capable of running modern apps.

Or just installing an apk directly from a file manager. I haven’t installed an application with adb sideload since… Shit I don’t even remember. Been using Android since 2010.

Not FOSS though.

I used it for a while and really liked it, but the not-FOSS aspect didn’t sit well, especially since I’m starting to migrate off of proprietary services - including Play services.

I don’t think you even can deny apps network permission on most Android builds anymore. Didn’t Google kill that option years ago for the sake of ads?

The solution to this is rooting your phone. Root allows you to get around those arbitrary blocks.

As an added bonus it mines crypto in the background without your knowledge.

FTFY.

Use Firefox with uBlock Origin. Same thing, but not made by a company led by a total wackjob.

Youtube Vanced: very nice app, you have everything: adblock, PiP, Google account sign in, background play.

Youtube Vanced has been dead for years.

You want Youtube ReVanced.

The downsides are you install YT Vanced from Vanced Manager

This is much easier than people make it out to be. You don’t even need root. Just download the specific APK version from APK Mirror (there’s a link within ReVanced Manager that opens a list of search results for you), patch the APK via ReVanced Manager’s local storage method, then install the patched APK (just use the “Regular” method for installing).

Make sure you uninstall the stock Youtube app (or at least disable it within Android Settings).

there is a lot of fake sites with fake Vanced Manager apk

Or just go straight to their Github page.

In addition, I also get a lot of frozen videos and have to relaunch the app - not sure it it’s adblock problem or anything similar.

I’ve been using Revanced since back when it was still “Vanced”. The only time I ever had that issue, it ended up being nothing more than a single toggle in Settings. I forget which setting it was, it’s been a few years since then. Something about spoofing? IDK anymore. I’ve updated a few versions since then and it’s not been an issue.

Root it and keep finding workarounds, like I’ve always done.

It’s a lot easier when you just drop apps/services that actively try to detect rooted devices. I don’t miss any of the “Pixel exclusive” AI bullshit they keep trying to shove down our throats, because they don’t allow rooted devices to run most of it. Oh no! Anyway…

I’ve tried K9 multiple times, as recent as 6 months ago. I want to like it, but almost every time I use it for an extended period of time, it’ll occasionally give me a “new email” notification about some random email from last year, even if it’s already marked as “read”. That email will sit in K9’s inbox with the “new” date as if it was always a new email. It drives me nuts.

Jacks are holes where dust and water come in, making it harder to make devices resistant and as durable as they can be.

IDK, Samsung seemed to figure that out a decade ago with the S5 Active; it had a headphone jack and removable battery. Had one as my work phone for a bit, I even took a video washing it off in the sink for some remote coworkers. Good fun. Solid phone.

How old are you? Should you be in class or something?

/e/ is a degoogled fork of Android, just like Calyx or Graphene.

Doesn’t unlocking the bootloader on an Xperia wipe some proprietary camera thing or something?

The server is the main purpose - it’s a replacement for Google Photos. The app is an extension of the server.

But yes, the frustration is real. I have the infrastructure set up at home to handle this stuff; but for the layperson who doesn’t do this stuff, I can imagine it’s really irritating to come across Immich in the app store, download it, then suddenly get prompted to point it to a server that doesn’t exist.

I avoid the play store as much as reasonably possible. F-Droid, Github/lab/etc, and FOSS alternatives are my first choices before venturing into that cesspit.

Immich. But it requires a server (that you need to set up) to do the processing.

I do. I’ve rooted every phone I owned on day 0.

Aren’t the pixel line the ones that have the bad batteries?

Where did you hear that? Only one Pixel model has had a legit battery issue (4a I think).

Yeah, no, that’s not the issue. Most people use 3rd party cables. Hell, I use my laptop charger on my phone all the time.

Its fine, except it shunts “all day” events to the previous day.

The amount of times I went to roll my trash cans out Wednesday night… Trash is picked up early Friday morning, so I have an all day “event” on Thursday that reminds me periodically to bring them out Thursday night. For whatever reason, Fossify calendar shows those kinds of events a day early and it drove me absolutely insane, because there’s no way to fix it.

For as popular as Samsung is, they sure tend to fuck up the UI quite a bit.

Even the modern GPUs we have now can function at a basic level with generic drivers, and motherboard-mounted chipsets typically handle things like PCI, storage, and other I/O. Those chipsets also support multiple CPUs, sometimes even multiple generations.

This hasn’t been the case in 20 years now.

Oh ok, so the B550 chipset in my PC that handles PCI-E, USB, SATA, and supports Excavator through Zen3 isn’t real, got it. Same with the Q270 in my Optiplex 7050 that also handles PCI-E, USB, SATA, and supports 6th and 7th gen Intel CPUs; I guess that isn’t real either. My bad.

ARM systems are typically manufactured with everything (CPU, GPU, RAM, modem, I/O controllers, etc) on the same die.

This has no bearing on software support at all.

Then why don’t you go inform the LineageOS devs that they’re obviously doing it wrong.

Not really. The vast majority of PCs are what’s called “IBM compatible”, based on x86 architecture, which is heavily standardized and backwards-compatible (which is why you can still run DOS natively on a brand new Intel or AMD CPU). Even the modern GPUs we have now can function at a basic level with generic drivers, and motherboard-mounted chipsets typically handle things like PCI, storage, and other I/O. Those chipsets also support multiple CPUs, sometimes even multiple generations.

ARM systems are typically manufactured with everything (CPU, GPU, RAM, modem, I/O controllers, etc) on the same die. Drivers for those often aren’t updated for very long, and rarely (if ever) released to consumers for third party usage, unlike the majority of IBM-compatible PC drivers typically are.

Oh my god dude.

Look, I get it. But if it was that easy, don’t you think the devs would have implemented that already?

Why don’t you hop over to their repos and start contributing?

I literally explained why it matters. SoC hardware varies too much, and they aren’t standardized like PCs are. It’s not as simple as you think. It should be, but in reality it’s not.

The “PC” got its start as “IBM-compatible”, which is what PCs that we know and love today are still based on. It’s a standardized architecture, CPUs are all x86-based, and there are a lot of common drivers (HID devices like mouse & keyboard, generic gfx drivers that can run most GPUs at a basic level, etc).

ARM isn’t standardized like PCs are. That’s where the disconnect is. There are no “generic” drivers for things like modems, chipsets, graphics, etc. like there are on PCs. And there are literally thousands of ARM phones running all sorts of varying hardware that use proprietary driver from the manufacturer that may or may not ever be updated.

That’s the difference between ARM devices where manufacturers put everything on a single chip, and x86 PCs where everything is standardized.

Those “next-next-next” installers are doing exactly what you described under the hood. However, with Android devices, there are so many variants and drivers that a single installer couldn’t possibly cover all of them.

The Lineage OS devs make solid guides that are pretty easy to follow though. If your device is supported, there will be a guide for it. Yes, you have to use the command line for some parts. That’s hardly the hardest part.

But you do have things to hide. Everybody does. That doesn’t make it bad.

Oh yeah, for sure. There’s no reason for that partition to be wiped out though.

My SO has had several and really liked them until they broke or got lost (the phones’ quality really aren’t to blame here). I’ve offered the Sony Xperia 10 VI to my dad last Christmas and it doesn’t come with much bloat at all, I would call it good.

Sony Xperia phones are great, until you unlock the bootloader and it wipes the camera software, leaving you with a camera that takes worse pics than a literal potato.

But if you want a completely bloat-free phone, you can’t beat Google Pixel flashed with GrapheneOS.

This is my plan for my P9PXL. I’m weaning myself off of Google’s services, but I need to find something comparable to Keep. I use Keep for a lot of random notes and ideas, and so far nothing I’ve found comes close (Nextcloud Notes included).

I’m genuinely curious: what about it is “too hard”?

Keepass2Android. However, it doesn’t always play nice, complaining about the database being trashed and will only work from the internal cache. That’s when I have to reload the database from storage.

Windows 10 LTSC gets updates for a while longer. I forget the exact number, but I wanna say it goes into the 2030s?

I’ve been daily-driving Linux Mint (LMDE 6) on my Thinkpad T14 G1 for almost a year now. At this point, that laptop is easily the most dependable machine I’ve ever had. My gaming PC is the last remaining Windows machine in my house. Recently I’ve been making sure everything is backed up (Syncthing is great for this) and finding alternatives for programs that don’t have a Linux version.

My plan is to create images of both my SSDs (500GB & 2TB, both NTFS 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️) onto a 4TB hard drive. Then start from scratch, migrating data from the images (Steam games, config files, personal documents I may have missed, etc) when/if I need it.

You don’t need Tricky Store to have functioning RCS (yet).

Easy. I’ve got Google Messages, Signal, Telegram, Slack, FB Messenger, and Nextcloud Talk.

I use them all.

My rooted Pixel 9 Pro has RCS enabled. Just needed the Play Integrity Fix patch installed through Magisk. Though I think Google is changing that in May, so we’ll see what happens.

I don’t think anybody expected that. This is just a shitty headline.

US carriers are wise to that already. The biggest cost with US carriers is data - one can get a really cheap no-data plan with texting and calling for next to nothing, but a data-only SIM will still be like $20/mo at the minimum.

Is it unfair? Absolutely. Unfortunately we in the US always get the shaft because corporations have much more power than the people.