Tried to restart my fairly new Pixel phone a couple days ago by holding down the power button, but instead of showing the Power menu it prompted me to ask the Digital Assistant something. Excuse me? I don't remember enabling that. Every other phone I've ever had, holding down the power button has always been the way to power down or restart. I had to search Settings to find how to configure the power button to control the power. Or course maybe I could have asked the Digital Assistant - but fuck that.

Maybe we should start resurrecting symbian

There is an Xposed module to replace the tiles back to a simple on/off toggle, for both BT tile and WiFi tile.

You need to grab your control back lol

Also if you don't have root on your personal Android devices these days... lol may Google have mercy on you lmao (hint: they won't lol)

Is there no Linux for mobile options currently available?

GrapheneOS: the private and secure mobile OS

GrapheneOS is a security and privacy focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility.

GrapheneOS (grapheneos.org)

CalyxOS

(calyxos.org)

/e/OS - e Foundation - deGoogled unGoogled smartphone operating systems and online services - your data is your data

ECOSYSTEMKEY FEATURESGET /E/OSNEED HELP /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled”, mobile ecosystem /e/OS is an open-source mobile operating system paired with carefully selected applications. They form a privacy-enabled internal system for your smartphone. And it’s not just claims: open-source means auditable privacy. /e/OS has received academic recognition from researchers at…

(e.foundation)

LineageOS – LineageOS Android Distribution

LineageOS Android Distribution

(lineageos.org)

be free

So far it's been good for about a week. Highlights have been the easy install, secure by default but lets me override when I want (block app network access on install is awesome), and getting access to the other app repos than Google's I haven't seen since I installed dirty unicorns years ago. I setup multiple users so I can keep my primary like a root which was also simple to do.

Only complaints I have are when I get messages on another user than primary I can see the messages in the app but not the message content in the notification, its just a generic alert message like new messages received. Nice to have but not going to make me switch back. And the keyboard doesn't have swipe typing so I use gboard with network access turned off.

Also I did install the Google app store to get a couple paid apps and calendar/contacts I need to move out of Google. It does sandbox by default which is really cool and i think should be required for phone manufacturers. I just disabled services/store/calendar access to the network after I let it download everything.

Edit: also not a OS thing but I tried switching VPN to orbot/tor at the same time and it is still really unreliable for that use with the way so many sites try to sniff out your location

I'm thinking about getting the new FairPhone 6 when it comes out and running /e/ OS, but I'm so reliant on Google Maps and Gmail (my email account, not necessarily the app ... but I do rely on the app).

I'm afraid that I'll either install Google apps and end up with a phone just as compromised as a stock Android install, or if I don't it will be too much of a pain in the ass to use.

Sure, but what did they expect you to do before making that change.

Graphene is the only one that gets rid of webview right?

So far it's been good for about a week. Highlights have been the easy install, secure by default but lets me override when I want (block app network access on install is awesome), and getting access to the other app repos than Google's I haven't seen since I installed dirty unicorns years ago. I setup multiple users so I can keep my primary like a root which was also simple to do.

Only complaints I have are when I get messages on another user than primary I can see the messages in the app but not the message content in the notification, its just a generic alert message like new messages received. Nice to have but not going to make me switch back. And the keyboard doesn't have swipe typing so I use gboard with network access turned off.

Also I did install the Google app store to get a couple paid apps and calendar/contacts I need to move out of Google. It does sandbox by default which is really cool and i think should be required for phone manufacturers. I just disabled services/store/calendar access to the network after I let it download everything.

Edit: also not a OS thing but I tried switching VPN to orbot/tor at the same time and it is still really unreliable for that use with the way so many sites try to sniff out your location

What do you mean by webview? If you mean the entirety of webview then no ROMs do that AFAIK. android would be broken without it. If you mean replace Google's webview with their own version, I'm pretty sure all the ROMs I listed there do it. I didnt fact check it though so feel free to prove me wrong

There are Maps alternatives. For instance, Organic maps or the fork CoMaps. Not nearly as good UX as Google Maps.. and zero traffic data available.. but the upside is they work entirely offline.

Mobile GNU/Linux is getting better, but I think it is 5-10 years out from what's needed. I suppose people need to adopt Desktop first. The nice thing is you can install Android apps including Google Play on it natively, and they appear in your app drawer like a regular app

My big problem is banks and satnav.

SatNav need traffic info and there is none, so their routes are bad.

Banks require apps to even use their website for "secure codes". Those apps try to detect ROMs and refuse to run, not even really being Android is going to make passing that harder.

Let alone random things like parking apps where the app is the only way to pay.

This is a political problem as much as technical. Competition is basically dead. We need government to step in and make competition possible. But they are in big tech's pocket and the status quo suits them too. Voters either don't care or believe what big tech says. It's a mess.

Unless they get NFC payments working on it and banking apps. It literally will never matter.

The single most common thing phones are used for at this point outside of entertainment is payments and banking.

do you have the ability to remove whichever apps you dont like?

The user notitication makes sense, i guess its more secure. Btw, so everytime you switch user, you have to restart?

Yes, and it comes with very few by default as well

No restart needed, pull down twice and the switcher is on the bottom right. Usually takes just a couple seconds to switch.

I've been considering moving to GOS because of all the Google shenanigans, but I need to make sure everything works since my job means I have dozens of MS authenticator entries for various admin tasks. I really want to try it out, but can't afford to have to rebuild all those entries on a new system (and the notifications not work)

thats nice to hear. I thought you need to restart to change profiles.

You're on the 9a right? How is the battery under Graphene? I used to have the OG Pixel (codename sailfish) and try different roms on there, but the battery is just terrible.

Satnav there is Pure Maps (OSM client), which can connect to sources like HERE to get traffic data to provide voiced guided turn-by-turn instructions. Of course there is also all the Android apps like Google Maps available, and their mobile site works fine.

On the topic of mobile sites, you can also install them as dedicated app drawer icons via Gnome Web & Firefox PWA for any site.

This means if your bank app doesn't like vanilla Android, GApps, you can use a comparable dedicated web app.

For parking, I've found a surprising amount have mobile sites, so I don't need to install their bloaty Android app onto my GNU/Linux phone.