Yeah for sure, it’s pretty fucked. Hopefully I can do my banking through a web browser if my bank ever decides to pull some dumb shit like that.

One thing that really fucks me off, are schools requiring students to use proprietary nonfree software. Windows, adobe, MS office, etc

IMO all schools should be using desktop Linux, and teaching students on free and open source software.

It respects student freedom and privacy, and doesn’t unfairly punish the less financially fortunate. On top of that, it teaches students important lessons about sharing and collaboration. Imagine what the FOSS movement might look like if free and open source became the standard in education.

Well, I wouldn’t recommend anyone who doesn’t have basic computer knowhow try and install a custom rom on their expensive new phone.

But outside of hurdle of getting the custom rom loaded, I don’t think you need to be techie to appreciate or use LineageOs (even with microg).

It’s true that you make some sacrifices when changing to a custom rom. But you are already making significant sacrifices by NOT using one.

Consider the sacrifice of having to create and sign in to multiple accounts when you set up your phone. The sacrifice of not being able to uninstall preloaded bloatware/spyware/adware. The sacrifice of your privacy as Google, Samsung, and a dozen other proprietary apps harvest and sell all your personal information. The sacrifice of your sanity and freewill, as you are bombarded with manipulative targetted advertisements. The sacrifice of not being able to modify, control, or even inspect many aspects of the behavior of your own device. The sacrifice of not actually owning the device that you paid for.

So yeah, my custom rom doesn’t (quite) have the polish of a flagship OS (then again, can you really call an OS that comes preloaded with a bunch of unremovable bloatware polished?). But all those features you listed are basically just fluff, and most people who aren’t hardcore consoomers probably wouldn’t even notice the difference.

I’m not willing to sacrifice my privacy, be exposed to advertising, and have multiple big tech companies control and monitor the use of my device, just to have a camera thats 10% clearer and some ‘HDR enhancements’ etc.

I think that there are many, many non-techie people who would agree with this. But simply buy the latest Samsung or whatever because they don’t think they have a choice, or are scared because they think it will be too different and they will get stuck if they try something else.

LOS by itself is perfectly good and usable by anyone, in fact its probably more suitable to non techies than Samsung is, thanks to the clean UX, and lack of bloat.

LOS with MicroG is also completely usable by most non techies. It just comes with the caveat that certain apps just won’t work, no matter what. That’s obviously an actual sacrifice and people should know in advance before they try it. But most stuff works great, and people who are willing to do a little digging can often find an alternative or a workaround.

At any rate, I don’t think I was really trying to recommend to non-techies in my original post. I figure most people on Lemmy right now are probably somewhat technically inclined, interested in moving away from big corporate tech platforms, and willing to try new things even if they might lack a little polish.

There is an option in the microg settings to enable SafetyNet. I can’t confirm whether it works, since I don’t have any apps that require it. I’ve heard it’s a bit of a cat and mouse game.

I don’t know much about this, since I haven’t needed it myself. But personally, if safetynet uses Google servers or code for authentication, then I’d rather just leave it turned off. Even if it breaks a few apps.

Not being beholden to Google in any way just feels too damn good.

Aurora Store https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store/

Honestly, training their proprietary AI on GPL code (with no ability to opt out) was enough for me.

I don’t know what to tell you mate. Have you tried microG recently?

I’m running my banking app, social media apps, a bunch of games, mail app etc, all without play services.

https://community.e.foundation/t/list-apps-that-work-or-do-not-work-with-microg/21151

Paid apps are harder to get working, but I’ve had some success patching them with luckypatcher.

Honestly though, the biggest surprise to me was how little I needed those proprietary apps. Usually with a bit of digging I was able to find great open source alternatives.

I highly recommend lineageOS, or better yet lineageOS with microg.

Running a completely degoogled android phone right now, and it feels smooth as butter. Microg has gotten so good, the vast majority of playstore apps work completely fine even without Google services, including things like my banking apps.

Feels liberating as fuck, not gonna lie.

Only apps that don’t work for me are ones that require IaP’s. About 30% of those I can crack with LuckyPatcher. I can also crack other paid apps with license protection.

Mostly I havent needed to do any of that though, because I’ve found that there are so many great open source apps that do the things I need.

LineageOS for microg: degoogled android. DuckDuckGo: search. Firefox: web browser. Ublock origin: ad blocker. Proton: email. OsmAnd+: maps.

Only google product I still use is youtube, but I have made some efforts here:

On desktop pc I use firefox with sponserblock and ublock origin to hide ads and automatically skip sponsered content. I also have an addon called unhook, which hides recommendations, ‘people also watched’ etc.

I also use and recommend Odysee as a youtube alternative.

On my TV I use SmartTubeNext, on my phone I use revanced.

I host my own music server with navidrome (and my own video media server with Jellyfin). But when I dont have access to that, I also use ViMusic as a youtube music replacement for (degoogled) android.

Can absolutely recommend any and all of the tools I listed.

Your points are valid, but that doesn’t mean we should do nothing. Enforcing federation and using copyleft licensing are both strong defenses against centralization and network dominance by a well funded third party.

As far as GPL goes, from what I’ve seen, big tech companies tend to take it pretty seriously. There is no reason we shouldn’t be using that, and other license protections if we have the option.

As for natural centralization over time, I think that is a far less urgent problem than the current risks we are facing, those being major network fragmentation due to the use of defederation, and the risk of centralization around a proprietary platform and/or instance.

Removal of defederation and strong copyleft licensing seem to be natural first steps in combatting that risk.

Seems like just another reason why defederation should be completely removed from the protocol. It’s way too easy to abuse and force centralisation.

There are other far less destructive and abusable ways of dealing with spam and content moderation.

I maintain that it’s better to give the users the control, and allow them to decide which instances, communities, and users they want to be exposed to. Bottom up moderation, instead of top down.

For example, instances can provide suggested ‘block’ lists (much like how an ad blocker works) and users can decide whether or not to apply those lists at their own discretion.

By forcing federation, the network stays decentralized. Maintaining community blacklists that can be turned on or off by the individual user protects against heavy handed moderation and censorship, whilst also protecting users from being exposed to undesirable content.