Yeah for sure, it’s pretty fucked. Hopefully I can do my banking through a web browser if my bank ever decides to pull some dumb shit like that.

One thing that really fucks me off, are schools requiring students to use proprietary nonfree software. Windows, adobe, MS office, etc

IMO all schools should be using desktop Linux, and teaching students on free and open source software.

It respects student freedom and privacy, and doesn’t unfairly punish the less financially fortunate. On top of that, it teaches students important lessons about sharing and collaboration. Imagine what the FOSS movement might look like if free and open source became the standard in education.

Debrid is scummy, it hit and runs torrents without seeding. It makes torrenting worse for everybody. Only 1 debrid service I know of seeds, and it only does it for 72 hours.

This is yet another reason why public trackers are getting worse and worse.

Torrenting only works if people seed after downloading. Please consider getting a VPN with port forwarding (I use proton), and seed your torrents. (Depending on your country you probably don’t even need a VPN, but it’s wise to use one anyway).

If you want to direct download, consider a seedbox instead. There are probably good options for streaming directly from your seedbox too, but I haven’t investigated.

Well, I wouldn’t recommend anyone who doesn’t have basic computer knowhow try and install a custom rom on their expensive new phone.

But outside of hurdle of getting the custom rom loaded, I don’t think you need to be techie to appreciate or use LineageOs (even with microg).

It’s true that you make some sacrifices when changing to a custom rom. But you are already making significant sacrifices by NOT using one.

Consider the sacrifice of having to create and sign in to multiple accounts when you set up your phone. The sacrifice of not being able to uninstall preloaded bloatware/spyware/adware. The sacrifice of your privacy as Google, Samsung, and a dozen other proprietary apps harvest and sell all your personal information. The sacrifice of your sanity and freewill, as you are bombarded with manipulative targetted advertisements. The sacrifice of not being able to modify, control, or even inspect many aspects of the behavior of your own device. The sacrifice of not actually owning the device that you paid for.

So yeah, my custom rom doesn’t (quite) have the polish of a flagship OS (then again, can you really call an OS that comes preloaded with a bunch of unremovable bloatware polished?). But all those features you listed are basically just fluff, and most people who aren’t hardcore consoomers probably wouldn’t even notice the difference.

I’m not willing to sacrifice my privacy, be exposed to advertising, and have multiple big tech companies control and monitor the use of my device, just to have a camera thats 10% clearer and some ‘HDR enhancements’ etc.

I think that there are many, many non-techie people who would agree with this. But simply buy the latest Samsung or whatever because they don’t think they have a choice, or are scared because they think it will be too different and they will get stuck if they try something else.

LOS by itself is perfectly good and usable by anyone, in fact its probably more suitable to non techies than Samsung is, thanks to the clean UX, and lack of bloat.

LOS with MicroG is also completely usable by most non techies. It just comes with the caveat that certain apps just won’t work, no matter what. That’s obviously an actual sacrifice and people should know in advance before they try it. But most stuff works great, and people who are willing to do a little digging can often find an alternative or a workaround.

At any rate, I don’t think I was really trying to recommend to non-techies in my original post. I figure most people on Lemmy right now are probably somewhat technically inclined, interested in moving away from big corporate tech platforms, and willing to try new things even if they might lack a little polish.

There is an option in the microg settings to enable SafetyNet. I can’t confirm whether it works, since I don’t have any apps that require it. I’ve heard it’s a bit of a cat and mouse game.

I don’t know much about this, since I haven’t needed it myself. But personally, if safetynet uses Google servers or code for authentication, then I’d rather just leave it turned off. Even if it breaks a few apps.

Not being beholden to Google in any way just feels too damn good.

Honestly, training their proprietary AI on GPL code (with no ability to opt out) was enough for me.

I don’t know what to tell you mate. Have you tried microG recently?

I’m running my banking app, social media apps, a bunch of games, mail app etc, all without play services.

https://community.e.foundation/t/list-apps-that-work-or-do-not-work-with-microg/21151

Paid apps are harder to get working, but I’ve had some success patching them with luckypatcher.

Honestly though, the biggest surprise to me was how little I needed those proprietary apps. Usually with a bit of digging I was able to find great open source alternatives.

I highly recommend lineageOS, or better yet lineageOS with microg.

Running a completely degoogled android phone right now, and it feels smooth as butter. Microg has gotten so good, the vast majority of playstore apps work completely fine even without Google services, including things like my banking apps.

Feels liberating as fuck, not gonna lie.

Only apps that don’t work for me are ones that require IaP’s. About 30% of those I can crack with LuckyPatcher. I can also crack other paid apps with license protection.

Mostly I havent needed to do any of that though, because I’ve found that there are so many great open source apps that do the things I need.

I haven’t really noticed that tbh, though I definitely believe it. A sizeable portion of people who populate ‘alternative’ platforms, are the people who get kicked off of, or censored on, mainstream platforms.

Unfortunately, that often means that those platforms struggle to attract regular users and content, since regular users are scared away by the existing users bad behavior…

The only way I can see those platforms really getting over that hump, is when the major platforms make stupid, overreaching, and greedy decisions. Pushing their regular users away, and onto those alternative platforms.

I don’t know what it will take to get ‘regular’ users migrating off of youtube. But I can tell you right now that I will NOT accept watching ads, nor will I ever pay a cent to google.

The day that I am unable to block ads on youtube will be the last day that I use it.

You could give Odysee a try. I was pleasently surprised at how well it works, and how nice the UI/UX is. Especially considering it is a decentralized platform.

It’s missing a lot of the content that youtube has. Especially if you trying to look up a specific video or niche topic. But there’s still a lot of great content available if you are happy to browse.

Odysee is a great, decentralised alternative if you are looking to jump ship.

If you do end up sticking with youtube, ReVanced is good. Smart Tube Next is good for TVs, and firefox + ublock origin on desktop.

Check out Odysee. Open source, decentralized, great interface. It’ s a great youtube alternative but is unfortunately still a little lacking in content.

Hopefully youtube continuing to pull shit like this will drive users there, much like reddit has driven users here.

Google is an ad company. To them, a web browser is nothing more than a tool for collecting user data and delivering ads.

When you use a chromium based browser you are allowing google, an ad company, to decide what the future of web browsing should look like. And this is the result.

Firefox is the ONLY browser which is genuinely competing with google. Do you think ad and tracking blockers are going to get better or worse once they die out, and literally every major browser is running on chromium?

Use firefox and u-block origin. Enjoy a superior, ad free, browsing experience, and support the future of an open web.

SmartTubeNext is fantastic. Have you checked out ReVanced for mobile? It’s better than NewPipe imo.

You’ve sold me on nostr as a protocol, and the importance of nomadic identities more generally. Thing is, I don’t and have never used twitter, or any simililar platform, since I’m not really interested in that model of content consumption. (User/follower based)

I’m much more interested in group/community based models, like lemmy/reddit, and conceptually even futaba/chan style imageboards where users can create their own boards (though I have yet to see one that isn’t a cesspit).