Shizuku + canta and you can forget about bloatware
I haven't considered Google android as usable for like a decade, went down the custom ROM route and it's the best thing I've ever done when it comes to mobile use.
Being able to install what ever operating system I want is a hard make or break for me when it comes to purchases ever since.
It's 2025 already?
Shit, I overslept again.
Wake me up when this eternal September ends
Money
Now I got that Pink Floyd song in my head
I moved from samsung's trash-filled bloat os to lineageos, and my only regret is not doing it sooner.
Welcome to the club. I've been a member since 2019 and am definitely not giving up my membership anytime in the near future.
Member cyanogenmod?
Back then it was easy. We could even run our bank apps on rooted unlocked phones
I wasn't a member quite that far back, but I kept up with the scene enough to know that it had changed to lineage OS when that occurred.
You mean recent Samsung devices are compatible?
I buy my device only based on if I can load a differenti os
This is the mandatory prerequisite for me.
So i bought a refurbished s20u (same spec of s24u except for camera and CPU basically)
Search for lineage os your phone model if you're lucky someone will have ported the project to your device, the more popular it was the more likely
There are reasonable instructions
Your phone will need an unlocked bootloader, and it will not be able to be locked again while running lineage. This will prevent the use of any secure software which includes most bank apps, login authenticators. Local security is entirely bypassed by the unlocked bootloader
The problem with Samsungs is thar once unlocked, you permanently burn the knox security fuse. So, even if you re-lock it, it's not going to play nice with banking apps. It's a one-way install only. Also I'm not so sure how LOS plays with banking apps... The only one that allows full re-lock AFAIK is the Pixel (which is what I have now, after nearly a decade on Samsung).
The frustrating thing is all the information and materials to support Samsung devices is out there, but the custom ROM development community is so ridiculously toxic and unhelpful to newcomers that few people are willing and able to mainline new devices (and supporting a new device is complicated enough that you pretty much can't get started without someone more experienced to point out the decades of cruft, pitfalls, and vendor-specific workarounds that the build processes have accumulated). More of the old guard leaves every year without enough new blood to replace them.
Because Google and Samsung are rich and powerful.
I thought it is still 2024
You think the problem will go away this month?
Of course not! But it doesn't go away even in 2026 and I wouldn't write that in the article.
On android you also have Shizuku and Canta.
I think you just do adb commands without a computer
That probably makes more sense
I just install LineageOS. It doesn't have any bloatware or Android modifications that the manufacturer added
That's great if you have one of the handful of phones supported, but for the rest of us, not so much.
I bought my current phone specifically because it was supported by LineageOS. Before that I used an unsupported Samsung phone, which was such a shitty experience that I made a promise to myself that my next phone has to have custom ROMs available
Apart from the pixels, which current range of phones is supported?
You can find the supported devices in the list - https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
And how many are current? Apart from the pixels, there's nothing available where I live unless you buy second-hand (which has issues of its own).
GrapheneOS > LineageOS, but unfortunately the list of supported devices is even smaller.
I like what GrapheneOS is doing, but it's focused on having the absolute best security rather than supporting a lot of phones. If you aren't wanted by three letter agencies then LineageOS is good enough
If you aren't wanted by three letter agencies
Keep in mind, you don't have to be an activist or journalist to get targeted with sophisticated spyware. This very recent Lemmy post is a great example: https://slrpnk.net/post/15858999
And I can immediately say goodbye to important apps I need.
I'm so fracking tired of not being able to just use the OS 😞 want on my phone because apparently my phone isn't mine.
What does this have to do with GrapheneOS (compared to Lineage)? Did you reply to the wrong comment?
This is from some post where authy, revolut, and a bunch of other apps no longer permit Graphene OS
It seems to apply to all third party operating systems. I pretty much have to use stock or I can't use my bank apps, can't use my phone to prove I'm me when remote logging in to work
I used to use cyanogen then lineage until security stuff made the phone too useless.
I don't even pay any attention. I boot the phone for the very first time, go through the setup thing, and click no to as many things as possible, get into the home screen, open settings, open developer settings, turn on USB debugging, and turn the phone off and install lineage OS with no Google apps.
Worthless article. But the point is valid...
Simple answer: because people keep buying bloated phones
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