Mastodawn

gofoss Sep 29, 2025

For 15 years, F-Droid has been the antidote to Google Play: no trackers, no ads, just open source apps. Now, Google wants to kill it.

Under the guise of "security", Google is forcing devs to register, pay, and surrender control. F-Droid can’t comply without betraying its principles. Thousands of apps could vanish overnight.

Fight back: demand sideloading rights, pressure regulators/Parliament, and defend one of the safe harbors for ethical tech.

https://f-droid.org/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html

@marcprux @fdroidorg

F-Droid and Google's Developer Registration Decree | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

For the past 15 years, F-Droid has provided a safe and secure haven for Android users around the world to find and install free and open source apps. When co...

@don_atoms @marcprux @fdroidorg the best thing you can do is stop using android. There are alternatives out there. They might not be as good as android currently, but android wasn't that great when it first came out either.

zetabeta Sep 29, 2025

@bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux @fdroidorg
i don't think it is ios, ipados, macos, iphone or any other apple's system.

apple's systems are totally controlled.

Bryan Haskin Sep 29, 2025

@zetabeta @don_atoms @marcprux @fdroidorg I agree. I am hoping general Linux phones continue to improve in quality.

The Mad Hatter Sep 30, 2025

@bhhaskin @zetabeta @don_atoms @marcprux @fdroidorg hope for a linux for phones distro with good waydroid support. Would allow us to keep the good apps from fdroid on our phone

Mr. Teatime Oct 1, 2025

That's a nice hope, but is there any chance they'll be good enough that most major phone manufacturers decide to ship their phones with general Linux instead of Android, before Google's new policy comes into force?

I'm happy to note that Fairphone has an option to buy their devices with /e/OS preinstalled, directly, and Shiftphone (Disclosure: I'm typing this on a Shiftphone) provides all necessary means to custom ROM developers to support them -- but much more than that is not likely to happen soon.
Unless some actual law or sufficient bad publicity stops Google, they'll just force people to decide between the Google world and the free software world, and then you're either in or out. Not happy.

@zetabeta @don_atoms @marcprux @fdroidorg

GoodNewsGreyShoes🔞(on hiatus)Sep 29, 2025

@bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux @[email protected] Such as?

Part of the issue is that suggesting ppl "stop using Android" is like suggesting they stop using a car:

For some people it's doable with only a moderate amount of difficulty, when their circumstances happen to align with the available alternatives.

For many other people it's fundamentally impossible, as the demands of their circumstances have no alternatives.

Imo it's disingenuous to suggest that boycotting Android would be any different.

DieMadColonizer Sep 30, 2025

@GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux

The people need guides, and not just tech guides but lifestyle guides with 1:1 replacements etc.

It was hard to quit Android and I'm still degoogling and I work in tech.

GoodNewsGreyShoes🔞(on hiatus)Sep 30, 2025

@NoFlexZone @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux Fully agree.👍

Greatly appreciate your distinction between "tech guide" & "lifestyle guide", as well - reminds me of the countless 'answers' on StackOverflow that amount to "read the manual".🫠

DieMadColonizer Sep 30, 2025

@GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux

I think we have an example of how with those damn recipe sites that have a story and the damn recipe half way down the page.

With a Skip button this could actually work for tech instructions.

Present a relatable use case, then instructions with "the screen will look like this", "put this in x field it does this for you" type sht

szakib Sep 30, 2025

@GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux /e/OS https://e.foundation/e-os/

/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…

Leeloo Sep 30, 2025

@szakib @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux
Surprise, my phone is actually supported. But the install process is way too complicated. Plus, ad far as I can tell, it's still Android, so banks and governments will still release their required apps on the Play store, with requirements that the device not be rooted, and tell people to install that.

szakib Sep 30, 2025

@leeloo @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux
Yes, the switch from Android to /e/OS is a bit long, but you only need to do this once, the step-by-step guide is excellent and things go exactly as it says. If you once have 1-2 hours, you can do it and it will work. The bootloader is locked at the end, so the device isn't "rooted".

/e/OS can install from the main Android app store, without identifying you to Google. Your bank stuff will work.

Leeloo Sep 30, 2025

@szakib @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux
It is not a realistic option for anyone but nerds who like to tinker with their phone OS.

For me, the first major problem is that the guide says to make sure you have a backup. I haven't found anything that can create a backup of all the settings I have changed over time. And the way Android sandboxes apps, such a backup app should be pretty much impossible to make.

Also, how does e/OS fake the device attestation signatures? I'm sure they don't have the private keys.

szakib Sep 30, 2025

@leeloo @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux

"It is not a realistic option for anyone but nerds who like to tinker with their phone OS." This is not true. You can walk into a shop and buy a phone with /e/OS on it. For converting the phone, only one nerd needs to tinker, only once for an hour. This does not need to be the owner.

Backups: save whatever you think you need for each app?

https://doc.e.foundation/support-topics/micro-g

microG

Leeloo Sep 30, 2025

@szakib @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux
Walk into a store? Where? I am not in the US.

Backing up each app, one at a time - that's already more than two hours, and while a few of the apps I use do have export features, most of them don't. And that excludes the Android settings.

Transferring everything to a new phone was a multi-day project, and that was with the old and new phones next to each other. Can't do that when replacing the OS.

Installing Slackware in 1996 was orders of magnitude easier, and Linux desktop domination didn't happen back then.

szakib Sep 30, 2025

@leeloo @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux

https://murena.com/products/smartphones/

I'm not sure why you are so interested in backups. Most apps have nothing to back up. You install it on the new phone, maybe log in, stuff is there. Basically the photos and the contact list are the only things you might want to save manually.

"Transferring everything to a new phone was a multi-day project"?

What's your plan for a day when your phone is lost/destroyed/obsolete? This is not harder.

Smartphones - Murena - deGoogled phones and services

Murena - deGoogled phones and services

Leeloo Sep 30, 2025

@szakib @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux
Because I know how long it would take to set everything up again.

My plan is to beat up whoever broke my phone. Sure, this is not harder, do you volunteer to be the one who gets beat up?

Leeloo Sep 30, 2025

@szakib @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux
And that link looks very much like a US company. No information about where the company is located, which I would expect to be clearly displayed on a European web shop, often on every page.

szakib Sep 30, 2025

@leeloo @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux I'm not the customer service, but I'll send you one last link:
https://murena.com/about/

About Murena

We design smartphones and cloud services that put user's privacy first.

Murena - deGoogled phones and services

Leeloo Sep 30, 2025

@szakib @GoodNewsGreyShoes @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux
Still has no address. How far would I need to walk?

Mr. Teatime Oct 1, 2025

@GoodNewsGreyShoes
Another way to look at it:
"Everybody should just <change their behaviour>..." has never been a viable sution to any problem.

Not because not enough people care (which may also be the case) but because most people don't have the capacity to avoid all the things they "should" be avoiding, do all the things they "should" and still lead a healthy life.

The brain surgeons need to keep brain surgeoning, they can't "just" switch everything to Linux in their spare time. And cook wholesome healthy meals themselves, and fix their devices themselves, and walk to work, and work out, and take more time for their families, and set up their own NextCloud and e-mail servers, and...

@bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux

GoodNewsGreyShoes🔞(on hiatus)Oct 2, 2025

@Mr_Teatime @bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes!!👌

Many thanks: you have good words and used them well!🙏

William B Peckham Sep 29, 2025

@bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux @fdroidorg Alas, I love my BLU phones, but no one is making an alternative OS (Linux or otherwise) for them.

botvolution Sep 30, 2025

@bhhaskin @don_atoms @marcprux @fdroidorg

I would like to stop using android.
However, so far as I can tell, doing so means buying another - and rather expensive - phone, because none of the options I've investigated will run on my three year old Nokia.

The option "Just don't do <x>" seems very often to be restricted to people who are both technically adept and relatively wealthy.