No, but when remote attestation reveals that you're running an OS that's not blessed by Google, the megacorps will make their apps all refuse to run on your phone. A few already do so today, e.g., the McDonald's app. In practice, I expect a situation where we have two phones: one to run Big Tech's apps, and one to run indie apps.
Roms face a different problem: bootloader locking. But the more Android changes drastically, the harder it is to integrate the AOSP changes into the different open projects
That’s possible on very few phones these days. Only a handful of OEMs still ship phones that can be bootloader unlocked at all (at least in the US), and even several of THOSE require phoning home to the OEM to get an IMEI-dependent unlock key to pass to fastboot.
Source: 7 years of running deGoogled Android phones and 11 years of running ROM’d Android phones before recently moving to iOS and giving up.
Just found this [0] in another thread. Some few allow no unlocks, most allow them under certain circumstances. Some few without a waiting period or additional sacrifices.
So not as great as I thought, but also not as bad as you made it seem ;)
Two of my deGoogled Android phones were Pixels (4a and 7a) and one was a Nexus (6p). I know them well, though I never ran Graphene on them.
Pretty sure I read Google was no longer going to publish device tree sources for Pixel phones, which will make ROM development for them significantly harder, whether or not the bootloader is open.
It is actually getting worse over time imo. In the days of Froyo, you could run Cyanogen easy without needing keys from anyone. Now you got to go to your manufacturer's website to get the key needed to unlock it. Even after you bought the device, you are reliant on the goodwill of the manufacturer to get the unlocking key.
In my opinion, the biggest problem that comes with this, is the fact that google play independent apps will become A LOT less popular. To a point where alternative roms are even less interesting to people which in return makes developing apps for them even less interesting.
Some people even sideload on iOS, which doesn't allow sideloading. They do this by getting an apple developer account, installing Xcode, compiling the apps themselves and refreshing them on their phones every week. And this seems about as popular as Android sideloading where you just download an app and install it...
Both parties are globalist TBH. I used to vote Repub but got out 15 years ago, disillusioned by the unapologetic hypocrisy. Would love to see a God-fearing minarchist or libertarian succeed but I know that’s not realistic.
I believe we have different definitions of “globalist.” The dictionary says:
glob·al·ist /ˈɡlōbəlist/ noun 1.) a person who advocates the administering or planning of a political strategy, economic system, etc. on a global rather than a national basis.
“[Right-libertarian populists] are unapologetically anti-globalist while at the same championing free trade and a realist foreign policy.”[1]
Both parties have furthered the advancement of global rule, one world government, top-down planning. In different ways, to be sure. Repubs for example voted in JD Vance, a man who was led by Peter Thiel, who as you know is advancing the surveillance state with Palantir. Peter made him who he is, and certainly has his ear. And Dems marched in lock-step with other globalists around the world in 2021-2024.
Global free trade, where individuals and not politicians decide who to trade with, as I understand it, is the _opposite_ of the dictionary’s definition of globalism. It is the smaller government that Republicans ostensibly stand for and then don’t provide.
Get government out of the way and let people be people.
Have any benchmarks been made that use this paper’s definition? I follow the ARC prize and Humanity’s Last Exam, but I don’t know how closely they would map to this paper’s methods.
Edit: Probably not, since it was published less than a week ago :-) I’ll be watching for benchmarks.
I definitely prefer iPhone over Android—-until I need to copy and paste something. Then I just want to throw it out the nearest window. Android does text selection FAR better.
Other than that, you can have my iPhone when you take it from my cold, dead…
I’ve been a Linux sysadmin for 25 years but always preferred Windows on my desktop. Reason: Software compatibility.
Windows 11 changed that. I have to reinstall it every six months or so due to instability. Last time it happened, multiple monitor capability disabled, audio out to my headphones kept disappearing (reboot to fix), and every few days upon rebooting, boot would fail requiring the Bitlocker PIN. I don’t install any weird drivers/software or visit weird sites, never get malware. It’s just Windows fragility. I really miss Win10.
I’m scheduled for a new laptop in June and I’ve decided it’s getting Ubuntu. I’m done. Windows 11 is just too fragile. I checked and all of the important apps I use now have near-perfect Linux counterparts. So the software compatibility issue is no longer a concern for me.
Those symptoms sounds like breaking hardware though, cold joints somewhere or even worse a swelling battery, I literally had a multi-monitor disappearance last week on an older machine because the broken battery somehow caused the Intel GFX chip driver to fail and a colleague had some bitlocker failure when his last machine died.
If it were breaking hardware it would persist through the reinstall. But since the day I got it, it’s done this kind of thing about every six months and every time, a reinstall fixes it. For about six months, and then I need to do it again.
Work laptop has done a little better but if memory serves they did have to reinstall it about a year ago. I only use very bland software on that.
Well you may be partly right. Two weeks after reinstalling Win11 it's exhibiting frequent lockups and audio dying--often on the same day. Clearly some issues were resolved with reinstall (so those were software-caused), but potentially not all of the issues. I'll have to reinstall it once more to confirm.
That, or I'm installing some software causing this. I don't install weird software, and it was software that I had used in Win10 on another laptop, so that's probably not it.
I just installed it on my son’s desktop with Cinnamon. It’s good enough for me. It’s the server OS I prefer to use so I’m most familiar with it. And has the same excellent software compatibility as Windows; Most tutorials assume Ubuntu.
Oh and I’ve been using Lubuntu for the past year on my road laptop. No issues.
Linux desktop is having so much positive changes happen to it. Something like Bazzite or Cachy is a significantly better experience for general desktop usage.
Also, most tutorials when we’re talking about desktop no longer assume Ubuntu.
There’s a reason steam decided to be based on arch for the steam deck.
I mean, you're the sysadmin, so I probably shouldn't explain things to you. But I spent 20 years with Ubuntu and recently switched to Debian. The tutorials work the same.
The disadvantage of Ubuntu is its weird mixture of apt and snap. The snaps self-update when they feel like it (eg when you're on a train, wasting your precious data). Debian uses apt for everything. It's a lot simpler and you have more control over it.
I worked at an ISP in 1997 (the “You’ve got mail” one) and thankfully the software included a winsock. Our headaches were different; They had just come out with unlimited hours and busy signals were the cause of many complaints. After that got resolved, custom modem strings were really the only complicated bits.
I’ve been following Open Source Ecology for years and they too are moving quite slowly. One part of the website points to a 2014 presentation. I’ve seen very little progress in the last ten years. Sad, because it’s a great idea.
Yeah I came looking for this comment. I’m in Florida, USA where high winds are the norm. A big shingle sitting there not tied down would flip real quick.
