TLDR: i complain about samsung’s flagship and newer android.
I use samsung flagship phone and it’s crazy, how unable I am to use full potential of my phone, just because I don’t want to log in to google neither to samsung. I try to use F-droid and Aurora Store whenever possible, but its so bad experience…for maps I use Organic Maps, but google forces it to be installed specifically from Google Play Store to work with Android Auto, so I have to log in every time there is an update. Most of games won’t work, because they require being signed-in to google, and thats actually kinda weird…before my phone now I had an old Galaxy S5 Android 6.0 and games there didn’t complain that much as here on Android 14 (so the newer android the less privacy you get, while them all companies “focus on privacy”, bullshit liars), samsung requires signing-in to usd like 1/10 of the flagship features…It’s so sad, as I love samsung’s quality, phone is really outstanding, overall all samsung products are very good quality, but pushing these fucking accounts is convincing me not to buy samsung’s flagship anymore. We need to finally unite and make some alternative to those close-sourced bloatware, as phone industry is nowhere near to being as free as desktop industry. I feel more free using Windoze than those fucking " smart"phones. Really if you have to buy new smartphone and are into privacy, think twice before you buy samsung…phone itself is great, but software side is a nightmare.
This is why I specifically pick phones that have custom ROM support. Then I don’t need to install gapps and I just use fdroid
As someone who’s used android literally since the first android phone was released, it’s a massive disappointment how locked down and enshittified it’s become.
to respond to the title, I’m not sure about that. your problems are with the samsung system, not with all the custom roms. I think it’s not only graphene that’s the solution. It’s even only available for a little subset of the phones.
I am surprised it took you this long.
The next step in this evolutionary thinking is simple. Buying hardware specs is a fool’s folly. I don’t compare hardware. Ads and marketing are totally nonsense and not worth even a slight glance. The ONLY thing that matters is what open source projects exist and what hardware do they support well. This is how I shop. Open Source or F.O.
New motto: open source, open purse
Pay to play? Finance to FOSS.
That’s only as long as you have money for a Pixel (and most people don’t).
The biggest problem is the scarce availability outside the US.
Or should I say, that the biggest problem is software (OS) compatibility with other devices than the Pixel?
My money is on the latter.
The a series is pretty good bang for your buck, if you can’t afford that and neither used ones, then maybe you could settle for one of the cheaper Asian ones supported by Divest OS
Exactly - I’m still very happy with my 4a. A used 5, 6 or 7a would be very cheap and very usable.
Most people have no problem paying more for an iPhone.
most rich people*
If that’s rich, you worse problems than privacy.
All in all my conclusion after experiencing the same: Samsung wants to replicate the same level of surveilance Google has. So with a Samsung phone I need to degoogle AND to desamsung …
it spreads anti-libre software
