yup, mostly because of capitalism

Ah yes, I too blame the overworked and underpaid population that were never given a real education besides a dysfunctional and authoritarian public school system which contains at least 50% pro-status-quo propaganda and omit real useful information, and teaches kids to obey teachers and the school admin, and subjugate their free will. /s

This is cruel, now I feel like some kind of criminal. Who knew that the most dangerous criminal is an ordinary consumer who wants freedom...

Linux is just the Kernel, Android is the OS. There's a ton of stuff on top of Linux that makes an Android device.

Making an Android device (or Android device hardware) run Linux isn't hard. In fact, you can just use Termux on pretty much any Android device to run a regular desktop Linux distro run in a container on Android. That way, the Linux distro uses the kernel from the host Android OS and just runs its own userspace parallel to Android's userspace.

But if you want to make a stand-alone Linux phone without Android, your biggest issue is that you won't have phone apps. There's close to no app support for phone-linux. So on your Linux phone you won't get any banking/authenticator/messaging/games/... apps. You can run desktop apps, but that sucks on a tiny touchscreen display. And many use cases (e.g. authenticator/two-factor/buying public transport tickets) are very cumbersome or sometimes even not possible on desktop OSes.

Now you an make your Linux phone run Android by emulating the Android userspace. That's possible, but then again you are basically running Android at that point anyway. But Android with one big caveat: It's not a Google Play Store Certified device, and it will never be if it's not running full Android.

And missing Google Play Store Certification means no google services and no apps that rely on Google Services or require Google Play Store Certification. That means e.g. no Banking/Authenticator apps and many games won't run.

Also, if you aren't actually running Android but some kind of Android emulator, you will always be outdated and buggy.

So essentially you made a phone that

• Runs Linux apps a little better than an Android phone
• Gives you more control
• Allows you to do much, much less in regards to it being an Android phone

People have done it. There are a handful of Linux phones (e.g. Librem 5, Pinephone) that are barely usable as phones due to lack of app support.

They've done the opposite as well, so running Linux on a phone originally designed for Android (e.g. PostmarketOS), also barely usable as a phone.

There's also the middle-ground with custom ROMs, some of them degoogled (like LineageOS, GrapheneOS, /e/ and many others). They run full-fat Android, but without all the Google apps including Play Store, Google Services and of course also without Google Play Store Certification. That's more usable as a phone, but you will still be cut off from anything using Google Services. There are some hacks and workarounds that sometimes work and sometimes not. You might get stuff to work but it's a constant race.

The problem is that currently if you want to use a phone as a full phone that covers all phone usecases, it's got to be an iPhone or a Google certified Android phone.

"I get in line to buy shit phones because I'm oppressed, overworked and underpaid". Alright. Hopefully the corporate overlords will do something about it, then.

you'll just have to built your own apps too

We are well on our way.

I was confused before I made the switch. So many of the most useful kinds of apps weren't maintained anymore by anyone on the Google Play store. I had this surreal feeling that the app ecosystem was getting worse every year.

And then I installed F-Droid and figured out where all of my favorite app developers went. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Not sure how pricing/value actually compares, but it does seem like if you want a phone now for emergencies you’re going to get fleeced (also required data package).

What? You need data make calls now?

I’ll break my sons phone the day that he comes phone with a data harvested machine.

Voice over l t e is not standardized and the carriers on the I p to connect to their system. So every carrier has an encrypted blob that only works with whatever version of phone they want to sell. If you have a major phone like an iPhone or a pixel, then apple and Google work to make sure that those seemlessly download.But if you're any other brand you're kind of screwed. Even Samsung has issues since I can't use the Play Store to distribute it in their own app.Store doesn't have good support from the carriers. The carriers really push that only the phones are purchased from them work. Spokennoise, they also pushed it unsecured.Devices need to be wiped, including them voiceover Lte data.

Look at the issues with australian service right now , they are even trying to stop iphones from other countries from using it. Apple has a whole system to make sure that all phones work with the same voice over lte stuff following the bands match and auto download the blobs.

Even with Graphene, it's increasingly likely that it'll be dead to new Pixels in the coming years. And I say that as someone posting this from a Pixel 9 running Graphene.

If you're fine with buying and carrying around a flip-phone or something, no.

If you want the inactive smartphone you already have in your pocket to receive calls yes, because it will not work with the non-data SIM card. Even if you have 0 interest in data. EDIT: SIM compatibility might be part of that too, like how dual SIM adds another layer of bought-the-wrong-thing.

Similar to @[email protected]. I am sure better plans exist here (like another user pointed out), but aside from device type it may depend on what store you're at or just how much research you're willing to do into if certain options are still good.

Wait what ? Side loading blocked

Well it was a good run, time to look into custom roms…

For those wondering what happened, the Android Open Source Project (ASOP) launched in 2007, but started decoupling major parts of the project from the main in 2012 instead forcing them to update through Google Play store and over time restricting access to the codebase before just this year deciding to shut down the ASOP.

In their defence, they've also made lots of changes to make android compatible with more devices and to make third party stores work better, but they've just as often made changes that intentionally harmed development of alternative android-based OS.

I’m glad I chose iPhone instead!

I left them only because Pixels were good enough, clean enough, and custom Roms couldn't update themselves.

If there's one that can, I'll happily switch back.

Bootloader is blocked so no custom roms. You will take whatever shit they are slinging and like it.

To add to this, the only redeeming quality of Android is that the Google Play Store developer account currently only costs a $25 one time fee, meanwhile the Apple App Store costs $99 per year. Google also seems a bit more permissive with its apps. You can still use an adblocker extension when you download firefox, even torrent clients are there. Apple doesn't really allow alternative browsers, every browser is just Safari reskinned, no extensions, absolutely zero usable torrent clients whatsoever. And, there aren't really any Tor browsers on iOS (probably because of the same reason why iOS browsers have no extensions), those that do exist seem very badly built, not officially made by the Tor Project, and some even require you to pay for it (which make sense given the $99 yearly fee).

But you know, its capitalism and the current pricing could soon change...

(Edited phrasing for claification)

Capitalism is never going away unless people build a system to redistribute wealth and so far they're doing the opposite lately.

I bought the Murena One since it was the cheapest model that was close to the specs of my phone at the time. Figured $500 was already overpaying considering how much lower cost my previous phone was, but also, who the hell thinks about a $500 phone bricking in a month? I just find it inexcusable regardless.

I remember wanting to get the removable battery, but they didn't offer that with the One, and I'd be losing specs if I got a model in my budget that did have one. I also wasn't going to spend over a grand for a phone with the Fairphone models available through them at the time.