of course google wants every developers id the second they get into bed with a fascist federal government
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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I’m bothered that big companies, especially tech right now, no longer see their customers as people they need to please to stay in business, but instead as something they’ll inconvenience and squeeze as much as they can possibly get away with.
They all got to where they are making, at one point, amazing products. Now? Fuck making windows useful, we can throw ads and AI at you every place we can think of. Fuck all of the parts of Android that made it stand out, we tell you what to install. You don’t want all of your data scraped and sold? Fuck you, there’s 3 of us and we’re all doing it. In fact we’ll never stop finding new ways to harvest data.
Phones have basically stagnated entirely in the US. Sure you get moderately better chipsets, but what else? AI? I haven’t had a phone struggle with anything in… maybe 10 years. Instead features that people didn’t use enough just get removed.
Users are the commodity to be traded. They have what they see as a business model that's too big to fail. And the users agree!
First time?
Nah, just cranky about it.
I'm actively looking for a new phone that has 0 Google in it, and am looking ad de-Googling the rest of my life.
I remember being genuinely hyped about Gmail in 2008. Now, I don't want them accessing any of my data.
I’m taking steps, slowly, as well. I’m getting off windows very soon, I’m working on getting off of various services these companies run one at a time. Depending on what really happens with Android and Google we’ll see.
I feel like this is the new normal cycle of every software company. Once they become a leader, it's never enough. It replicates the rise of billionaires. Just as the billionaires being rich beyond anything they and all of their succeeding generations could ever spend is not enough, being the industry leader and producing an amazing product that people want is somehow not enough. It always turns to control and power.
At some point they get large enough that the whims of users cease to affect their decision-making. If Google, Meta, and MS tomorrow rolled out a social credit system that made the Chinese version look generous, 95+% of their users would not change a THING to avoid it. Maybe 98% of their users.
I can't wait for AI to become a living corporate trillionaire entity and fuck us all to the end of humanity.
I came here specifically to ask about alternatives to Android now that google is becoming too abusive in the relationship.
I was looking into it a few ago. I found something made in Europe which advertise as more consumer friendly (Fairphone). If I got it right they want to stand out of the crowd by:
- Selling phones that can be repaired easily;
- Offer a de-googled OS based on Android.
The second point could be interesting, considering this Google abusive behavior towards users. Moreover, there is another thing that caught my attention: their devices (the last one is missing, but maybe it's just too new?) are supported by Ubuntu Touch, which should be just a Linux OS running on phones. That would be my dream, so that I can consider my phone just a computer with all the freedom I can get, such as write down my bash/python/C applications to do what I want to do without having to mess up with all that Android development suite.
However, if I am not mistaken, in the past I heard some bad reviews about Fairphone, so you should perform your due diligence.
Custom Android ROMs based on AOSP, which is the open source parts of Android. I used to use LineageOS back in the day.
Before buying a phone, make sure that it has an unlockable bootloader and a custom ROM of a recent Android version. Note that some phones have multiple versions for different regions and some might not be unlockable, while others are. For example many Samsung international phones are unlockable, but none of the USA models are.
Note that many commercial apps like Netflix, Pokémon Go, bank apps, etc. will refuse to run if your bootloader is unlocked. It also permanently trips Samsung's Knox.
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GrapheneOS works well. But only on pixel devices.
Ironic that you need a Google smartphone, isn't it?
That's unfortunately a dealbreaker for me. I have a free phone from some company I've never heard of and I don't plan on buying a new one. Hopefully we will see more progress on mobile operating systems in the coming years.
Unfortunately, things are heading in the opposite direction. The number of phones you can install other os's on is dwindling by the day. Even the phones designed solely for this purpose are failing to capture enough market to remain sustainable.
The OS's are getting there by leaps and bounds, but you being able to install it on anything is the hard part.
Not android or apple. I'll go to a prepaid flip phone before I give apple a cent. They're essentially the paragon of greed.
Time to back to the analog world and short wave radios.
Lemmy would rock in Morse code
It would only be days before someone builds logic gates using Morse code somehow (who am I kidding, it probably already exists), and we recreate the entire thing again lol
The year of the Linux mobile is coming.
IS THAT A FUCKING HEADPHONE JACK!?
Let's go 🔥🔥🔥
Standards are low huh?
Well all the major brands are below that...
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As shitty as M$ is, it would have been nice to see Windows phone become moderately successful and be a third primary mobile os.
I'd prefer that firefox os had caught on and turned into a big player today
That's would just be Windows 11 S ~Mobile~ ~Edition~, but you do not get the option to upgrade to Windows 11 Home ~Mobile~ ~Edition~ as you would on a PC
Or maybe you do get an option, but its a subscription for $50 per quarter-year. 🫠
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Are we already nostalgic for analog oligarchy?
We burned down the past we can burn down the future too.
Fuck them. I have a guitar a pocket watch and a wind uo radio. Everything have is a nicety.
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now it's just a race for the giant conglomerates to make the worst decisions for consumers
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