I'm ready to completely break from Google forever for everything.
I'll try anything to get away from Google at this point, even if it means downgrading hardware.
Linux phones really aren't quite there yet, it's a really cool idea but I think at this point you're better off with a de-googled Android rom.
I have a Linux phone that I use as a sort of internet tablet (my cell phone is a dumbphone). The UX (with Gnome/Phosh) is like 90% there and is actively worked on. It's totally usable for browsing the internet, messaging, watching videos, and other basic tasks. A few small annoyances here and there. Having full shell access is really great too, as I can do anything from the command line that I could on a desktop Linux PC. Ubuntu Touch, while a very polished and complete UI, was basically made and promptly abandoned by Canonical years ago and has been kept on life support by the efforts of a small community since. Its future is uncertain.
This only applies to native mainline Linux devices like the PinePhone and Librem 5: the biggest hurdle for the time being is standby battery life. The power usage when actively using the device is normal, but idling, it can barely get through one day. Hence why I use mine as a secondary device. On Android-based devices that run Ubuntu Touch the battery life is likely to be much better, similar to Android itself. The biggest downside with these is that older devices have already received their last kernel and security update years ago, and will likely never get another. Even on brand new Androids, 3 years of kernel updates max, and often only 1 or 2.
The easiest way to stop using Google services is to install a ROM such as LineageOS on your Android phone and no Google services. The UI and base experience is the same as regular Android, there are plenty of FOSS apps on F-droid and the like, you can use popular FOSS apps like Firefox mobile and Telegram with no hiccups, and you can install most non-free Android apps through APK mirrors if you really want to. I used a phone like this for years after ditching Google and before going dumbphone. It's very practical.
Thanks for the overview of the state of FOSS on phones. I'm downloading LineageOS for three of my phones now.
I should have left after the debacle that was the Google Reader wind down for Google Plus. Used to talk to dozens of colleagues on their shared RSS feeds, and G+ and Twitter never replaced that. Trusting Google with anything was a mistake, but it especially hurt having social media accounts with people I knew in school yanked. The vast majority of those people never went unto Twitter or anything else. Fuck Google.
I want one, certainly, as having open hardware makes it a lot easier for me to trust it for praxis purposes. Plus I could be p confident I could just buy that phone and not need a new one for years and years and years, always getting kernel updates even if I have to compile the damn things myself (and some people might anyways just to be more paranoid) and being reasonably able to fix the hardware instead of resigning to buy a new one just because it's cheaper than a repair.
But the software's not there yet, and I'd at least want something like Anbox or whatever running well enough on it that I could use at least some of the better-running Android apps.
Also, Plasma Mobile has me excited. A lot of the apps for it are currently available in the Chaotic-AUR for god knows why, and while they're very feature incomlpete the fact that they're desigend for mobile means they're fantastic for tiling desktops, so you can have a Mastodon app that you can reasonably use in a very tiny window. Even if the phones themselves don't take off, the software made for the phones will still be very useful for those of us that like to keep way too many windows open.
you should only get one if you want to work on an OS for it or an app
its not very good right now the screen backlight often flickers strongly the screen instantly scratches when you put it down the battery only lasts 1 day maxThe Volla Ubuntu Touch is $400 with a P23 and decent screen but no VoLTE or VoWIFI support :(
Looks like the Ubuntu Touch project has lost primary funding as well.
But a phone with a local linux terminal is tempting.
the pinephone pro is also at $400+ and claims to have a better screen
The PinePhone Pro features a vibrant in-cell IPS display covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 4™ with an oleophobic coating, offering superior scratch resistance and image clarity.
but the software still needs a lot of work and i would only recommend it to people who want to actively work on the software
Is there an actual point of doing this, from a privacy standpoint?
I feel like getting such a phone would only make your data be scrutinized harder
i mean there would be a considerably lower volume of it, which is what is most important for the myriad of companies that vacuum up metadata and process it and sell it to other companies to drive advertising. if you're worried about surveillance from the state there's no reason to expect different treatment. most of the people who buy these things are professional class nerds in the tech industry. i'm pretty sure a burner nokia dumbphone is more typical of a government surveillance target.
i’m pretty sure a burner nokia dumbphone is more typical of a government surveillance target
is there even a way to acquire these anonymously anymore? asking for a...friend
Looking at the Volla phone:
https://tuxphones.com/volla-phone-x-ubuntu-linux-phone/
Ubuntu Touch:
https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/
You could install something like GrapheneOS or LineageOS with microG (assuming you have an Android phone that's supported).
