I mostly use apps installed from F-Droid, so I’m not sure how I’ll use the phone, except that it’s sometimes required as a contact method.
TL&DR; PinePhone. Longer explanation below
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I’ll prepare for sacrifices. I should not blame the Open-Source alternatives that they’re not on par with Android yet. It was Android’s decision to become more closed, and I’ll keep remembering it.
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I’ll start using my PinePhone that I already own anyway. I’ve used it for a while, but there was less push for me to use back then. Without F-Droid, I’ll press myself hard to adapt to PinePhone and will just stay there until it improves. I have 1-2 decades of experience of using non-mainstream software and see it improve with time. I’ll learn. I’ll adapt.
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I guess just don’t by one of these “certified Android devices”. Might become a selling point. Other option would be to run SailfishOS (buy a Jolla phone) or install Ubuntu Touch / Mobian and use Anbox.
DeGoogled Custom ROMs
Keep waiting for a Linux phone that actually works as a daily driver.
At that point I’d rather use a half functioning Linux phone than a locked down one. Hopefully stuff like Framework and Fairphone will follow through on making parts available for real old devices.
Continue using a custom ROM.
If more brands start locking down their devices I’ll have a conundrum, and it’ll start being about antique hunting. More apps requiring an “approved” OS would also do it, but geopolitics will stop that from going too far in the near future.
I don’t have to do anything. I use GrapheneOS btw.
The problem for all these things is proprietary firmware.
What problem? Firmware for my phone works fine.
The firmware is made by the phone makers, and partly needs to go into the ROM. And if they don’t make it available, you can’t run Linux on them.
For example, on some phones in order to install Sailfish, you need to update Android first. Plus, that firmware is usually proprietary and not available as source code.
It is easily conceivable that smart phones become so locked down that it is not possible to install something else.
Get a pocket pc, probably. And only use the phone for what strictly requires it.
It’ll likely end up being more comfortable from a usability standpoint than it is now anyway.
What are good pocket PCs running linux?
I had a Nokia N900 and now own a Gemini PDA running Sailfish and it is quite nice to have a programmable device wit a physical keyboard (it runs Python, Guile, and cross-compiled Rust CLI programs). A small PC running waydroid would be fantastic.
I was thinking of something like the Piccolo. But I admit I absolutely haven’t researched that market. So I don’t really know what’s available.
Not many good options out there but will likely change as Google destroys android and creates a market space for these types of devices.
Is SailfishOS good?
It… works. barely. I tried it and kinda liked it but if you’re looking for comfort custom ROMs are way better. (this was almost a decade ago so I don’t know what it’s like now)
Already can’t find a phone with the hardware I want. Might as well get an iphone since I won’t be able to do half the shit I want to either way.
Use Droidify with Shizuku
Droidify is just a wrapper for f-droid and various repos… it’s affected in the same way
I know, but it also supports installing apps on Shizuku, and adb shouldn’t be affected
Cry, -as it would seem my carrier only supports Android & Apple phones and I am stuck with my carrier.
Will this effect distros like eos?
I’m going full dumbphone with a flip phone and using single purpose devices like mp3 players for music and handhelds for gaming and emulation.
I’m still rocking Android 8/10/11, will continue to do so until I can’t run a proper web browser.
install them with adb. its a crucial feature for developers, so they won’t easily get rid of it.
How do you get updates when installing via adb?
Install them via adb, probably
Is this manageable for the non-dev by chance? I can get by on a tutorial or too but if enough things break I’m feeling a dumbphone alt may be the only viable path
Depends on your comfort with CLI tools. Here’s the process (assumes Windows):
- Download and extract platform tools
- Add that location to your PATH
- Win + R, type “cmd”, enter
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\your\path\here\<- Temporary, just for the current sessionsetx /M path "%path%;C:\your\path\here\"<- Permanent
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On your device, go to
Settings -> Aboutand look forBuild Numberit can sometimes be buried inSoftware Information -
Tap
Build Numberrepeatedly until a message appearsYou are now a developer -
You should now have a new
Developer optionsmenu item somewhere in your settings. Sometimes it’s top level, sometimes it’s buried underAdditional SettingsorAdvanced Settingsor the like -
Make sure
USB Debuggingis turned on -
Connect the device over USB
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Back on WIndows type:
adb devices- You might get a popup on the device asking if you want to allow USB debugging. Select Yes, and run
adb devicesagain. You should see your device listed
- Download the APK of the app you want to install (AAB files are a PITA, but can be installed too. Try to get APK files though)
- Install with:
adb install C:/path/to/app.apk<- ifadb devicesonly returns one deviceadb -s <device_id> install C:/path/to/app.apk<- specific device
You can install updates the same way, just download the updated APK and add the
-rflagadb install -r C:/path/to/app.apkSo no
Most of that stuff is automatable - except the bit about activating Developer mode and USB Debugging on the device (steps 3 to 6) which only needs to be done once per device - so I expect we will soon see several nice GUI tools that automate the rest and eventually we might even just see stuff that talks directly to the phone over USB via libusb and using the same protocol as ADB, so installing the Android Platform Tools won’t at all be needed.
But yeah, at this point it requires people to at the very least be familiar with using the command line.
Someone suggested elsewhere (I can’t remember where) that Shizuku could be messed around with to allow installation without any computer’s involvement at all, to emulate
adbon the phone itself. Would you know anything about this workaround?A quick look through its documentations shows that it instructs the user how to got through a subset of the instructions the original user provided (or an alternative set of instructions if using Android 11+ as there it can use a different mechanism) plus a few more, in order to run a Shizuku service as user “adb”.
From then on, that Shizuku service can then be used by other apps to do everything the “adb” user can, including installing and updating applications.
So I guess it could be used by something like F-Droid to go around Google’s new mechanism to close down app installs.
For Android < 11 it’s is no more non-expert friendly than the instructions already provided by the original user, though it’s better in Android 11+ as there it’s all interacting with menus on the Android side (see here under Start Shizuku)
That’s why I posted it. So people can decide for themselves. Doesn’t seem that bad to me, but then I’m a dev, so it’s really hard to judge what a non dev would be comfortable with
yes actually, it’s just not that practical.
which i think might be the entire point anyway.
No it’s not. Not because of that it’s too difficult but it’s too much work on a weekly basis just to update your stuff.
I have no rooted phone because I have grapheneos but it should be possible to do it directly on your rooted phone with shizuku et al which wouldn’t be that bad.
How’s graphene been serving you? I’ve wanted to take the plunge for a while now and this no side loading bs has me looking into it again
Gos is good. It is a solid os. I like it a lot. I have a lot of freedom that I don’t have on other phones. But it is also just android. other brands like samsung added a lot of goodies to their os. It is a phone, it works, it’s alright. It took me a while to understand that graphene’s exploit protection slows down apps. I disable that for all important apps like osmand where speed is crucial. Osmand is still slower than on an iphone 6. Do I have to use it security wise? No, but I like supporting it. Will my next phone have gos as well? Yes. It has no annoyance on it. There is no unwanted app or anything. That’s amazing.
Can just confirm the other comment
GrapheneOS is serving me very well
No problems (currently) with banking apps eitherI’m very happy with it - although a real Linux phone would be really cool
There is also Shizuku that might be utilized in der Future to install apps (Im just speculating here)
Yes it is.
It will probably be something similar to ios altstore. You would have an app which has a list of your non-playstore apps and repo for their releases and would notify you for upgrades that you would manually have to install (for example I suppose obtainium will implement adb), the setup will be annoying but far far less cumbersome than apple where you have to reboot your device multiple times self sign ipas and refresh once a week otherwise the apps don’t load at all. This iOS experience is awful but still doable and non-dev. Android will have a better experience for sure.
Is this manageable for the non-dev by chance?
Not really.
I’ve not been following things super closely, but the idea would be that each user would get their own developer key and then locally compile and deploy whatever apps they want as though it were a project they themselves were working on. The first bit is not too dissimilar from how a lot of people with XBOXes made dev accounts to install emulators. But the latter is going to get real messy and REAL compromised REAL fast as people just use third party tools and binaries that will inevitably be compromised.
I’m feeling a dumbphone alt may be the only viable path
It really depends on what your use case is. If you actually just talk to people on phones? Uhm… I am not even sure where you would find a dumb phone at this point, but that will probably work for voice calls and SMS using just your carrier and MAYBE wifi. But anything that involves apps, which is a shockingly large part of the world, will be a mess. Some you can (and should) do workarounds (banking apps, for example) but others you are kind of up a creek since your options are to use a modern phone or not be able to (for example) see your kid’s daycare schedule.
where do you get that stuff with a dev key?
sideloading is completely fine, only requirements are the tools on the pc and a cable.
I’ve seen differing reports on that one. One Q&A with a google rep that made it sound like android studio (? The IDE/toolkit) could still do whatever without a key but with a lot of vague reference to other modes and programs.
Which, to me, reeks of “Sooner than later, all devs will need a key”. Because if it were really that clean cut, they would be screaming it from the mountain top.
I think that goes similarily with the plan that app publishers need to be authorized to publish on play store? same as with a key. KYC everywhere
so you mean unauthorized apps wont be running on android?
that would be anyway the enshittification of android.
so you mean unauthorized apps wont be running on android?
That is indeed the plan and what is meant by “starts restricting FOSS apps” (which is an incorrect statement but whatever)
However, making that happen outside of its app store will require Google to take a page from Apple’s playbook and flex its muscle in a way many Android users and developers could find intrusive. Google plans to create a streamlined Android Developer Console, which devs will use if they plan to distribute apps outside of the Play Store. After verifying their identities, developers will have to register the package name and signing keys of their apps. Google won’t check the content or functionality of the apps, though.
(…)
Google says that only apps with verified identities will be installable on certified Android devices, which is virtually every Android-based device
What was argued was that people can basically just compile/download and deploy their own apps via development tools. Which is unfeasible for the vast majority of users for skill reasons but also, as I said, likely to be blocked by google themselves in the not too distant future.
LADB can have a phone connect to itself over ADB and install apks which are stored on the phone. Maybe F-Droid can utilize this as an installation medium.
