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3 yr. ago

  • Well this next example isn't about phones but e-bikes. Unfortunately unwise me bought a fancy designer bike made by a national startup (CowBoy, to name and shame them) and I'm now stuck with a fancy metal frame on wheels because the belt is not in stock. Ordered in February, supposed to arrive 60 days later, I'm still waiting, not even an email received, nothing in now late June.

    So... yes my next e-bike will be very VERY boring, in the sense of relying on built that have easy to source replacement part.

    Yes, it did take few a first relatively large mistake (even though I did use that bike daily for years already) but that's what I meant by "only work once". You try, make painful mistake, don't repeat.

  • you might be able to get a replacement battery for your 200€ phone, but having to pay 200€ for it.

    On the assumption that consumers are somehow rational and have some memory, that "trick" only work once.

    Next time a consumer get stuck with a practically irreplaceable battery because it's too expensive from a company, they will look at other companies selling equivalent products, AND how much they are charging for batteries. I also imagine a business of spare parts because just having to give the right data, e.g. specifications like cell, module, pack, C-rate, E-rate, SOC, DOD, voltage, capacity, energy, cycle life, but also connectors and just size, will probably open up dedicated spare part vendors.

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  • Daily driving /e/OS on CMF Nothing 1 for months now https://murena.com/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-cmf-phone-1/ with 0 tinkering, just bought it and didn't stop since day 1.

    Check my post history for more details (as I discussed a bit more about it just days ago) but basically if deGoogling is important to you (which I imagine since you are posting on the privacy community) then yes, it's definitely the most pragmatic compromise if you genuinely need Android based apps.

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  • Depends what you are looking for.

    If you need a specific Android app that does not work on Waydroid, sure, go for GrapheneOS (or another deGoogled AOSP solution) but if you do no need that (and don't mind carrying a rather larger phone with limited battery) then PmOS on PP is very interesting to explore.

  • Right, I was starting to think "Oh yeah and maybe I could fzf history..." then wait, I already do that reverse-i-search then edit. If I use that often enough, alias in ~/.bashrc or even function to make it composable.

  • IMHO it goes deeper than getting your biometrics, namely do you trust your government? If you do not ... then finding "tricks", technical or legal, will not help in the long run. You need a new government either by changing the one you have or if in feasible becoming citizen of one you do trust.

    So... yes necessary "evil" but I'd argue the question is rather how to held the government holding your data accountable, not how to find ways not to have your government hold data. Your government having your data is precisely what let you legally exist and it's hard to imagine, but maybe it's just my own shortcomings, being able to exist in a legal system without identifying you as an individual. Note though that this is NOT the same as surveillance.

  • been running linux and bsd for 15 years, and now I’ve realized that my phone and the services I use have been a blind spot.

    Exactly! Few months ago a friend was home and I was proudly showcasing my HomeAssistant on RPi, all ZigBee, no non-standards IoT, no vendor lock-in, SteamDeck to play on Linux, streaming videos with VLC on my video projector via miniDLNA, etc. He was impressed... then asked "Right, and what's your phone?" to which I, quite ashamed, had to confess I was relying on an iPhone. It was secure, no Android, etc. On that day I thought "Ok... ok I got PinePhones, I got other gadgets but somehow this specific part of my digital life is wrong!" and thought I should try, even if it wouldn't work, something else. I also wanted, due to geopolitics (sadly), a non American solution so checked https://volla.online/ which looked wonderful but too expensive for a test. Noticed Murena, French based, refurbished or even new phones but much lower price but still paying for service and I hope for /e/OS maintenance and voila, found a compromise that works for me for now!

    S,T,U are build versions, where S and T are official and U is community. You can see a discussion on https://community.e.foundation/t/difference-between-e-os-builds/60585/7

  • Wow! Brilliant! Unfortunately my local library is not in their catalogue. They do have a public catalog and even a way to get online books, also with search capabilities, so hopefully they can find a way to integrate. I submitted their data to the extension maintainers.

  • Please don't hesitate to ask questions as they come. I'm not /e/OS expert but this was the last piece in my transition from proprietary tech and walled gardens, so I admit very glad I tried and happy with the result!

    PS: maybe /eOS work with a phone you or a friend has, see https://doc.e.foundation/devices

  • As others suggested the backend is probably already installed on most computers but not setup, namely :

    • ssh to manage passworldless across multiple computers (you need that for data to be safe)
    • scp/rsync/rdiff-backup to actually copy the data thanks to ssh keys

    One could imagine a dedicated user per machine that is for read-only of data (maybe after some encryption, limited to very specific directoriess) and another for storing only of data (with no access except to write on disk and with a maximum quota).

    What this highlight though is that the centralized managed cloud model is challenging to replicate as purely p2p at home, namely backing up your phone to your desktop might be find but the other way around, probably not. Maybe even more challenging, what do you actually backup? I would argue your home directory but... clearly not your e.g. Steam games (humongous) or other backups or video files downloaded from the Web. So... probably a select set of directories in home then, but which ones? ~/Documents only? This specific part implies some decision from the end user.

    Anyway I believe all the tools are there, but I think what most people lack is to view the result and for that maybe some equivalent of https://gitlab.com/ikus-soft/rdiffweb/ which shows when was the last backup done, how big it was, etc basically some form of visual to feel safe.

    Finally to skip the CLI key management part the closest I know, for end users, is KDE Connect https://kdeconnect.kde.org/ which I discovered after building my own https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline-octopus kind of equivalent, namely a way to use devices on LAN. Backup is not a default feature though but could be.

  • Ah, glad you asked because this is precisely what I highlighted to a friend yesterday : it works, even that!

    I make online purchases, like train tickets here in Belgium on the go, with the phone, via the website of SNCB (the national railroad) or any most other commercial website basically. So yes at least some banking apps do work, as I can't obviously confirm for ALL of them.

    In practice you get App Lounge in anonymous mode, letting you download and install apps from the (proxied AFAICT) Play Store. So you do not need to login to any store yet can install apps beyond solely F-Droid. That being said the vast majority of Apps I use come from F-Droid or directly install the .apk via adb.