Which (De-Googled) OS(s) are you using on mobile?

I agree. Maybe we should start a thread, as there are many reasons people might not choose a pixel, the first being unavailability in their country.
I’m a little surprised no one seems to be using a Linux OS

Because Linux phones are insecure and shouldn’t be used.

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I have a phone with UBPorts installed but only for testing and keeping updated on the subject.

I am with iOS. Even newest Samsung phones are not compatible with my bank (Deutsche Bank) and autofill function of password managers are not as fluent as iOS counterpart.

Which hardware? What changes would it take to use as a daily driver?

I also suspect the title of this post has massively skewed the results, compared to other polls we’ve had over the years. I imagine the iOS and stock Android users here wouldn’t open a post appearing to focus on de-Googled systems in the first place.

Obviously all these polls are very unscientific though, so who cares? :laughing:

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Using stock Android without Google because I still want a phone with microSD and headphone jack.

Banking apps, essentially.

I make many bank transfers daily, and doing this through the bank’s website is impractical.

I won’t go into details about security and privacy because I leave that to the experts, but from what I know, they are also behind in relation to GrapheneOS.

Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC.

They are behind PostmarketOS as well. PostmarketOS uses a new mainline kernel instead of an outdated Halium one and it also supports FDE. I wouldn’t personnally daily drive a Linux phone, but if someone pointed me at gun point, I’d do PostmarketOS

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This does feel like an issue that’s easily solved with a ~$10 adapter if you did choose to go with a more privacy oriented phone os.

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I went with Samsung Galaxy A14, which was dirt cheap. I would like to be able to charge and use headphones at the same time. I can use a bluetooth amp when my phone needs to charge, but even then I still value headphone jack and expandable storage. I love my KSC75 too much to give that up for wireless. I would probably go with Google Pixel as my next phone if there’s nothing else I’m interested in.

At the end of the day it’s all about finding the right tools for the job.

Every single one of us have different needs, different priorities and different expectations and that’s okay.

It really depends on your threat model. Compare these two Linux distros: ChromeOS and Debian.

Debian is good if you want to escape surveillance capitalism and mass surveillance but you don’t think you’ll be targeted by a hacker.

Chrome is good if you want to protect your data from (non-government) hackers, but don’t care about Google using your data for targeted advertising and having to create an account with them.

Ideally you have the best of both worlds (like GrapheneOS which excels in both security and privacy) but sometimes you have to think what’s more important for you and why.

The headphone, yes, the SD card, no. It’s crazy how we’re paying through the nose for more built-in storage, now that SD cards have pretty much disappeared from all Android flagships, and how e.g. the normal (non-Pro) Pixel maxes out at a mere 256 GB. A brand-name 1 TB MicroSD card is now about $70 on Amazon (just checked). But that doesn’t sell the higher specced model or cloud storage subscriptions.

(When I switched to my Pixel 8 (paid extra for 256 GB) I had to convert all my music from FLAC to OPUS to fit it on there, while previously I just used a cheap 512 GB SD card and didn’t bother with converting files and keeping two music collections in sync.)

I found a bunch of adapters on Amazon in the ~$10 range I mentioned. It seems like you are talking about the price of the actual SD cards not the adapters.

Off-topic

Out of curiosity, aside from stability, but why on Earth would one use Debian when there are so many better alternatives that exist?

Also, someone to keep in mind, one can’t have privacy without security; one can have security without privacy. So really Debian wouldn’t be considered truly private, if I understand it correctly.

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I’m having trouble visualizing how to connect charger, headphones and and SD card all at once via USB. Then there’s bluetooth, but isn’t security supposed to be the selling point of a pixel here?

Okay but nobody is going to keep having an SD card USB adapter dangling on their phone to store their music and photos/videos on. It’s only useful for file transfers, not to expand your storage.

I think there’s 2 problems with that logic. First, security is not a binary thing (yes/no) but there’s a sliding scale from more to less secure. It’s not like all Debian machines get hacked all the time. Second, it really depends on your threat model. If you just don’t want your data used to for targeted advertising, you don’t need to be running the most secure system.

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Yes, they were talking about the price of SD cards. I could live without a headphone jack (prefer not to), but I don’t think I can live without expandable storage.

I am completely done with subscription services (although I use Spotify Premium on and off), so I would have to put music and video files on a microSD card.

The SD card wouldn’t be connected via USB, it would be in my phone. I usually use cabled headphones while charging my phone (if I need to) when I’m in bed. I know it’s easier to use bluetooth headphones, but KSC75 is a godsend that’s cheaper than any wireless headphones.

It reminds me of the same logic that a guy used to argue against Rust in the Linux kernel. "Linux kernel is written in C, and it runs on a lot of very critical infrastructure and doesn’t get hacked all the time, therefore, C is secure, and we don’t need Rust.

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