jcarax @ jcarax @beehaw.org

Posts

3

Comments

318

Joined

2 yr. ago

And massive propaganda campaigns are turning people's civic energy back on themselves, and their own communities. Ain't life grand?

Pixel phones have been the general recommendation for de-googling, because they've been very friendly towards unlocking and running 3rd party ROMs, among other things. Graphene, Calyx, Iode, and e/OS are some of the more popular privacy/security centric ROMs. Lineage is another, but is more focused on compatibility for older phones. I'd try to run something that re-locks the bootloader, and to not run the device rooted.

Graphene is currently Pixel only, but Google has been making it more difficult to port to new devices, and to get the source to security patches in a timely fashion. They're looking to release their own phone in 2026 or 2027.

The Fairphone is another option that has Calyx and others support. But the Fairphone 6 is new and not really supported anywhere but stock and e/OS right now. You can actually purchase straight from Murena with e\OS. Lineage is developing for it, and I know Calyx plans to support it. A lot of us aren't fond of e/OS, but others love it. They do have their own ecosystem, which might make it easier to switch, but they don't contribute much upstream from what I understand, so...

Shiftphone is another option out of Germany. Calyx has plans to support them, and probably some others. But they're harder to get outside of Europe, and aren't the focus of as much development as the more known Fairphone.

Calyx is on hiatus until February, so you can't/shouldn't install on anything right now, and support for Fairphone and Shiftphone is likely a ways out.

Volla Phone ships with their own de-googled OS. They're also harder to get your hands on outside of Europe.

Finally, there are Linux phones that don't run Android at all. Sailfish OS with the Jolla C2 is probably the most mature. Volla and some others can run Ubuntu Touch from UBPorts. Furi just released the FLX1s with a Linux-based OS, though it's really an Android phone using the Halium compatibility layer. There are some other Linux phones as well, some of which are more hardware-centric with an expectation that people will target them with software, and Postmarket OS that supports running Linux on a number of phones.

Also keep in mind that a lot of these phones have limited bands supported, and so may not work well on your preferred carrier, or at all in your country. A lot of Linux phones also won't support VoLTE or wifi-calling well or at all, just yet.

Oh, and there's the Brax3, though I have no idea what to think about it.

It's probably not a good idea to believe that. Even if they do fight for you behind closed doors, which I doubt, they will still have to bow to large governments for the sake of their shareholders. That's the world we live in right now.

I'm on Graphene on a Pixel 8 right now, but I really don't trust the overall direction that Google is pulling AOSP, nor the closed security chip in Pixel phones. I'm trying to decide if I want to stick with AOSP with a non-Pixel device, or give some form of non-Android Linux phone a shot. The Jolla C2 is looking intriguing, but getting one in the US isn't the easiest thing. I've also considered a Shiftphone 8.1 and Fairphone 6, but I'd want to run Calyx, and the future is murky. The Shiftphone is also tricky to get in the US, as is Volla which comes with an AOSP OS without Google services.

Maybe they could make some similar arrangement with Shiftphone.

Man, I hope so. I'm on Graphene for now, but I'd like to move away from Pixel devices.

A security chip is great if you know what it's doing, but we really have no idea what Titan might be doing in the background. And Google is becoming more and more abusive to the FOSS community.

I'm seriously considering trying to import a Jolla C2. I ported my number to jmp.chat, so as long as I can run Cheogram or some other XMPP client that handles the PSTN gateway well, I honestly don't even care much about cellular connectivity anymore. My phone is basically a wifi phone with Signal, downloaded maps, authenticator app, and my music at this point.

Agreed, though if it weren't for tariffs it wouldn't be too expensive to ship from the likes of Clove Technologies. If the extra cost were going to Calyx instead of Murena I might pull the trigger.

Shift and Volla are closer than Nothing, I'd say. OnePlus, like you said in another comment, belongs nowhere near that list anymore.

But I have a feeling privacy and security minded folks are going to be moving more towards Linux phones (I know Android uses a Linux kernel) over the next few years, as Android continues to get locked down, and cater to government surveillance.

Just to note, Calyx currently has a questionable future, and at best has frozen new installations while they work out new signing keys after some developers left the project. My understanding is that there will be one or no further updates to anyone that has a current installation, and a fresh install will be required if they do continue development.

Unfortunately, I think the vast majority who care are already using one. However, with Google device tree and other shenanigans on Pixel devices, it probably makes substantial room within the niche market for the likes of Fairphone and Shiftphone to get into new regions.

On the other hand, mandates for major operating systems to report illegal activity that are in the pipeline could have a larger effect.

I dunno, I'm talking out my ass.

Is it still relying on Halium?

Edit: It seems it does use Halium

https://liliputing.com/flx1s-is-a-new-linux-phone-thats-mostly-a-downgrade-from-the-flx1/

I think I'll keep looking into importing a Jolla C2.

Yeah, I think that's my backup plan is to get some powered speakers and Pi's to run Snapcast. But it adds a lot of complexity, and more power requirements at the speaker. On the other hand, it's more hackable than a speaker running a specific piece of software directly, without any real alternatives like I would get with a Pi. Thanks!

Oh no, I know. I'm just limited to wireless right now because I'm renting an old house with massive amounts of insulation. So I had tried to get the Sonos speakers working with a combined sink wirelessly, but it just wasn't able to keep up, leading to intermittent interruptions to the stream. I'm going to play with that wired in a test environment at some point, but I think I'd prefer something like Snapcast over Airplay.

But once I buy a house in the coming months, I'll do some low voltage runs to support the audio network, among other things. I figure I'll probably have a dedicated POE switch so I don't have to worry too much about QoS, probably Mikrotik if Ubiquiti doesn't release some new EdgeSwitch gear.

I'm just not sure if the software is there yet, with Pipewire AES67 support. It was "new" in v1, with I think some PTP patching in the first point release. So I'm trying to see if anyone has cut their teeth on this yet, since it's going to be pretty costly to get gear. I imagine I can just create a combined sink, but I'm not sure if PTPv2 is just automagic within the RTP configuration of Pipewire.

And potentially needing a second server for MPD/Pipewire is something I'm keeping in the back of my head. I'm hoping to run it in a container on the NAS server, probably running Debian (or maybe something more cutting edge if I'm reliant on new Pipewire releases). But RTP and PTP might need something a bit more dedicated to the task. It's not like I'm doing broadcast or some other form of professional audio here, so I'm optimistic that a container will be fine. Just a single 16/44 FLAC decode to combined AES67 sink. And since containers use a shared kernel, I wouldn't need to worry about the clock scheduling issues some hypervisors had with Asterisk and Free Switch in my previous life working on VOIP networks. But I'm also not planning on a ton of cores, 4-8 only in a low voltage CPU, sooooo.... I dunno.

Well, right now I don't really have a setup. I bought the Sonos speakers when I was experimenting with the Apple ecosystem a few years ago, but now that I'm fully back on Graphene/Linux they haven't been worth the trouble. I don't have an audio server yet, I'm just storing on my laptop and playing locally to headphones/XLR Genelecs using Quod Libet.

What I'll end up with is probably a home built NAS running stuff like MPD and Home Assistant in containers. I'll have either a VLAN or dedicated switch for audio.

The Genelecs I'm looking at for AES67 stuffs are the Smart IP Installation series like this 4410a. I'm pretty sure these are full audio-over-IP using AES67/Dante, and not using IP only for control. Unless Genelec documentation on these sucks. If they were to require XLR, I'd choose a different speaker that does not, or run structural audio cables to a multi-zone receiver.

Nothing is perfect here, but I think federation would be best. The concern is the same one that caused Signal to drop SMS support (to my knowledge), that people might improperly trust the services that their anonymous service are federated to. Especially when you're federated to a chat service that is run by a company that also handles the synchronization of it's users contacts with their names, phone numbers, and email addresses.

But still, in a sane world, federation of services should be the goal.

I used Nova back in the day, but these days use Lawnchair on an AOSP-based ROM. It's fine. I really just need to be able to remove apps from the drawer and modify icons. Preferably set both an icon pack, and override icons per-app. The AOSP launcher should have this functionality at this point, but it doesn't really have any functionality at all.

With Google doing more stuff the FOSS community doesn't like with AOSP, and the absolute stagnation of the built in apps, maybe it's about time for the community to fork AOSP as a whole.

I've come to think of myself as trying to be outside of the social constructs that America is currently shedding.

I see society as layered. A social fabric that we weave by acting our beliefs within our communities, which layers atop nature. Upon that we build a structure of law, order, and an artificial economy that we see as beneficial in maintaining a healthy society. It's important that these three layers closely conform to each other, and that the structures at the top remain minimalistic and efficient in their alignment to the fabric itself, which is more organic.

But the structure has become unwieldly, and is being used against us. It confines us. It enslaves us. The vast majority of people are acting out against this, and their actions are colored by their upbringings and beliefs combined with propaganda. Our diversity is being amplified through anger at our situation, the hate of the propaganda (edit: not 'of the propaganda', 'generated from the propaganda' is better), and the greed that has become systemic.

Then there are the people who seek to rule us. To some degree they recognize that they can manipulate a failing system to take absolute control. They've figured out that they can control us by our anger, and turn it into hate and greed. (edit: I should add that even these people are a symptom of the sickness, and while they may seek to perpetuate it, they're not themselves the root cause)

Right, left... it doesn't matter. The whole system is coming down. There's a lot more to that, but as it stands... there's a reason a lot of us feel driven to go live on a mountain top or in the depths of the forest. It's a withdrawal from an unjust system. But we still need the social fabric, it's our substrate that makes us who we are. We need to embrace our communities, locally, and focus on making the lives we want everyone to be able to have as we eventually pull through this period of authoritarian fascism.

Yup, no way I'm enabling play services and installing Messages just to use RCS. I mostly use Signal, anyway.

What we should really be fighting for is more federation between messaging platforms.

It will probably have an SD card slot like the FP5.

Now if only I could get a meaningful reply to a bug preventing complete account deletion, either on github or from support. It seems they modeled their support structure on Google's.

I was pleasantly surprised with Evolution the last time I tried to use Gnome, it used to be a buggy, bloated mess. But alas, I can't manage to use Gnome for more than a release or two. Now I'm looking for a decent Wayland native alternative to Thunderbird, but it just doesn't exist without DE bloat at this point. Maybe someone will build a modern replacement for Sylpheed/Claws.