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1 • GrapheneOS (by shep on 2025-02-24 01:32:15 GMT from United States)
I'm surprised iodeOS was the first review while GrapheneOS has been ignored. GrapheneOS was the ground breaker in regards to a De-Googled, security and privacy oriented system.
If the Pixel 6 does'nt have to be returned, I'd suggest evaulating GrapheneOS on the same phone.
2 • GrapheneOS (by Jesse on 2025-02-24 01:39:05 GMT from Canada)
@1: "I'm surprised iodeOS was the first review while GrapheneOS has been ignored.... If the Pixel 6 does'nt have to be returned, I'd suggest evaulating GrapheneOS on the same phone."
Funny you should put it that way. The reason iodeOS got reviewed was they offered to send in a test device. GrapheneOS was approached about sharing a demo device and declined.
3 • Iodé (reads more like "yoday") (by Bizbi on 2025-02-24 02:04:28 GMT from France)
Murena (which use Nextcloud for sync) is indeed doing a good work to offer a simple experience to list and block trackers. Hiding IP and location (GPS) may be more for experienced users.
But the way Iodé shows and allows to manage trackers is neat. The map, even more a gadget that a real insight to catch trackers, is a pretty good idea. I wonder how much it is relevant (because of CDN and the plenty of unreadable URLs) but it's playful.
Now both OSes offer a different solution to the same problem that are trackers (at least they become a problem once we know they exist, and how much there is). And given how much money databrokers are making (and it seems that only a infinitely small part is securing these data), supporting both projects are pretty fair.
4 • Do you write software? (by Ivan on 2025-02-24 02:09:17 GMT from Italy)
I must say that I have no advanced skills other than pure SHELL and at an amateur level.
I started scripting about 5 years ago, and my interest was (and is) the management and construction of AppImage packages.
Since the existing solutions did not satisfy me, I started studying a way to update them, and then how to intercept them from the sources and integrate/install them at system and local level. This is how I started writing "AM", a package manager in SHELL that I was pleased to note that RhinoLinux has recently integrated into its installer to manage AppImages.
In addition to this, I opened dozens of repositories for illustrative purposes, where I published and still publish AppImage packages for many mainstream programs (VLC, VirtualBox KVM, Bottles, Steam...) for a total of 70 AppImage packages.
My work in this sense has served as a spur for the original maintainers, to push them to create their own officially.
The first team I convinced was the Firedragon browser team (GarudaLinux), and a few months ago I was contacted by the GIMP team, which is about to release a working AppImage for version 3.
I also met many other people who share my passion and who have started working to improve the AppImage ecosystem, through increasingly new development methods.
I don't think it's something exceptional what I've done so far, but I hope it can help in the adoption and improvement of AppImage as a packaging format.
5 • AppImage (by Friar Tux on 2025-02-24 03:10:40 GMT from Canada)
@4 (Ivan) Thank you, sir. I have actually noticed that the AppImage format appears to be increasing. I love the concept of one file per program/App. It works wonderfully for portability. I do not use Flatpak or Snaps as they take a long time to download and most of the time do not use the OS themes. Nor can you simply bring them with you. I would love to see all Apps and programs in AppImage format. It would make Linux so much more user friendly. And it would eliminate so much duplication of effort. Developers could spend their time actually breaking new ground. Thank you again.
6 • GrapheneOS (by shep on 2025-02-24 03:19:55 GMT from United States)
@2. GrapheneOS strictly runs on donations and would not have a phone to provide for evaluations. That said, GrapheneOS is completely opensource. It iis a free download and install via the adb utility. They also provide an option for a scripted install for those who are not comfortable with the command line.
7 • upcoming iodeOS device (by J.D. Laub on 2025-02-24 03:44:04 GMT from United States)
iodeOS is going to be what is installed on the Brax3 privacy-oriented phone currently raising funds on indiegogo; expected delivery is 2025-03 (next month). Ubuntu Touch a.k.a. ubports is planned to run on the device, but users will have to install that themselves.
8 • Poll (by Friar Tux on 2025-02-24 04:32:10 GMT from Canada)
Oh, I forgot, the poll question. I picked "No, but I am learning." Not really any of the actual languages, but I'm tinkering with CSS. I've had to pick that up as I find, lately, that most of the OS/desktop themes are atrocious. I hate that ugly dark grey colour (#xx xx xx). And the "flat" themes are just as bad. So I've had to teach myself how to alter the CSS file to my liking. I was surprised at how easy it actually is. Which begs the question, if it IS that easy, why are all the present themes so bad?
9 • Iode (by Kruger on 2025-02-24 04:53:08 GMT from Australia)
In terms of privacy:
Graphene is best
CalyxOS is 2nd (DivestOS no longer exists)
IodeOS is 3rd
After perhaps Murena or Lineage
Last of course is stock Googlefied Android
10 • Graphene (by silberlocke on 2025-02-24 05:20:19 GMT from Germany)
@9 Mike Kuketz, a german actor, who wrotes and test about secure it and privacy, says:
Graphene
iode
.
.
.
CalyxOS
He tested it on 10. Januar 2023.
Link: https://www.kuketz-blog.de/android-grapheneos-calyxos-und-co-unter-der-lupe-custom-roms-teil1/
11 • @10 (by kruger on 2025-02-24 07:30:55 GMT from Australia)
Check the link for a real side by side comparison of Graphene, Calyx, Iode, /e/ Lineage and stock ROM
Link https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
You will see Calyx is better than Iode but Graphene is best.
This analysis is from January 2025
12 • Poll options (by Arve Eriksson on 2025-02-24 07:30:57 GMT from Sweden)
I feel I've made a niche category of nerdery for myself. See, I only study programming (VERY SPORADICALLY!!!1) to learn to *read* code, not actually writing it myself. I do some translation/localisation work, and being able to understand what a bit of code that references a string does, or what context it is used in, has helped me decide what word to use on more than one occasion.
(TL;DR: I can haz option for 'I learn only in order to read'?)
13 • WRITING SOFTWARE (by rhtoras on 2025-02-24 07:41:53 GMT from Greece)
Jesse in the next post i would like to show us how to maintain a package in various linux distributions and not only linux but on bsd's. This is a process they still keep secret like they do not want people to be involved in distributions. Spread the secrets.
I am new to developemnts and in a learning process. Linmux made me wana try to program and lear the secrets and how to find a job . I am learning python because it is flexible, linux compatible and open source. I also saw jobs asking this skill. I am poarticullary in web development and django is great way to start the learning process because the steps are more clear than flask.
And for the people who realy like development there is alpaquita linux which is based on alpine linux but also works with glibc and is designed for java development. There is no better distribution for java developers, try and see.
Last but not least Adelie linux has a nice documentation on how to help the distribution and so void linux has a nice form to become contributor. Devuan and Pclinux os ask in the forum how to help. They search for people willing to help but there is not any guide on how to package debs or rpms. I don't for all distributions and how's the process. These are more clear imho. And last but not least dragora gnu linux has an incomplete documentation if anyone is willing to help ask the guys they are quite helpfull.
Have a nice week.
14 • writing software (by lincoln on 2025-02-24 08:48:59 GMT from Brazil)
After years of observing how students learn to program, I can say that the most important things are a good textbook and a lot of practice (nothing beats solving hundreds, thousands of exercises from competitive programming sites like HackerRank, Codeforces, LeetCode, Topcoder, BeeCrowd).
15 • Do you write software? (by James on 2025-02-24 11:17:26 GMT from United States)
No - not a programmer and not learning to code: 307 (52%)
I am a user, a very causal user too. I have no desire to learn code. That does not mean I cannot contribute. Both OS and software developers need supportive donations. You can donate to your favorite OS or software and you WILL BE contributing.
16 • Programming (by Jeffrey on 2025-02-24 12:16:33 GMT from Czechia)
First, programming and coding are different (though related) things; you can tell a lot about people's skills (or lack thereof) who keep using "code"/"coding" wrong.
Also, I think Scratch might be good for teaching some basic programming skills, but I also had a serious problem with it. During an online course, we had to make a simple Scratch program where a "sprite" was supposed to move in the programs window: for every arrow key press, it would move a few pixels in the appropriate direction. If I made a single compound if-then-elif-then... block to handle all four possible arrow keys, then it wouldn't work, but when I made it into four separate if-then blocks for each of the keys, it worked. Sorry, it doesn't make sense in any other (reasonable) programming language, so that's when I dumped Scratch to the proverbial bin where it belongs.
17 • GrapheneOS (by Jesse on 2025-02-24 13:12:21 GMT from Canada)
@6: "GrapheneOS strictly runs on donations and would not have a phone to provide for evaluations. That said, GrapheneOS is completely opensource. It iis a free download and install via the adb utility."
Yes, but this is missing the point. To review an operating system I first need a compatible device to test it on. It doesn't help me if GrapheneOS is available for free and has a nice installer when it doesn't run on any of my test devices, or ones available to me. For me to review a mobile OS, the project either needs to support devices I can get my hands on easily/cheaply or they need to supply a device. GrapheneOS doesn't do the former and was unable to do the latter.
18 • Learning to program and improve Linux (by Carson on 2025-02-24 13:31:25 GMT from Canada)
The python argument about mixing numbers and strings with math kinda falls apart when you get to the multiplication operator
19 • iodeOS (by BluPhenix316 on 2025-02-24 13:46:51 GMT from United States)
First time i've ever heard of this OS. I'm wondering if anyone else is like me and when they first saw this they thought it said inodeOS?
I thought it might have been a NAS OS.
20 • @17:iode then GrapheneOS (by vmc on 2025-02-24 17:05:10 GMT from United States)
Couldn't you take the Pixel 6 you received from iode and install GrapheneOS on it for testing, then reinstall it back to iode. compare the two that way.
21 • Learning to Code (by John on 2025-02-24 17:10:41 GMT from Canada)
@Jesse - so what does your line of C code do? I was curious and pasted it into a couple of online C Compilers, but it fails with errors:
int main(int b,char**i){long long n=b,a=b^n,r=(a/b&a)>>4,y=atoi(*++i),_=(((a^n/b)*(y>>b)|y>>b)&r)|(a^r);printf("%.8s\n",(char*)&_);}
22 • GrapheneOS (by Jesse on 2025-02-24 18:32:18 GMT from Canada)
@20: "Couldn't you take the Pixel 6 you received from iode and install GrapheneOS on it for testing, then reinstall it back to iode. compare the two that way."
Yes, I can _now_. The post I was responding to was asking why iodeOS got reviewed _before_ GrapheneOS. ("I'm surprised iodeOS was the first review while GrapheneOS has been ignored")
As I was explaining above, I couldn't review GrapheneOS first because I didn't have hardware which would be compatible with it _prior_ to iodeOS sending me a phone to try out _their_ OS.
I was also pointing out GrapheneOS wasn't being ignored, as the earlier comment suggested, I'd already talked to that project about trying to do a review on their OS, but they couldn't supply a device.
23 • iodéOS Camera App (by Kairuku on 2025-02-24 18:33:41 GMT from United States)
I've been using /e/OS for about 5 years, initially on a Moto X4 and later on a Fairphone 4. I was not favorably impressed by the photos I could get on either phone, until Murena replaced the /e/OS generic camera app for the Fairphone 4 (and 5) with a native Fairphone camera app. So I'm wondering whether iodéOS includes the native Pixel camera app (which, it seems, most reviewers really liked) or a generic one.
24 • naming your project or product (by Gosh Gollied on 2025-02-24 19:10:38 GMT from New Zealand)
Yoda but softer, iode, what? Did I also spot an umlaut-i in there - wtf!
If half your effort is tied up explaining how to pronounce the name, pick a new name!
JIF or GIF chaos all over again.
Is is Lean-Ugs, Leenoox or Lie-nix?
Anyway good on them to send a sample. I wonder if any phone not running Apple or Android would even work in my location - would the providers freak out or allow the phone to operate?
25 • Phone OS (by Jesse on 2025-02-24 19:29:50 GMT from Canada)
@24: "I wonder if any phone not running Apple or Android would even work in my location - would the providers freak out or allow the phone to operate?"
I often see this sort of question and I'm curious where it comes from? As far as I know there aren't any phone carriers which filter network access based on phone OS. How would they even enforce that since, at least in North America, phone companies are considered common carriers and can't filter out content/devices.
26 • Escape from Google (by Snake Plissken on 2025-02-24 20:13:11 GMT from United States)
For de-googling phones I settled on leos-gsi.de over everything else: iodé, Murena, LineageOS, or vanilla Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Thanks to harvey186 for LeOS.
What iodé lacks is (1) official support for Generic System Images (GSI) and (2) full de-googling by default.
(1) Android was long ago refactored to abstract the hardware layer from the OS, allowing one GSI to run on many devices. However the FOSS mobile world has not taken this opportunity. If you want to run GrapheneOS, for example, you need a Google Pixel device, of all things. There is no GrapheneOS GSI support to my knowledge.
As for iodé, it is ambivalent: "We don’t actually intend to give a lot of support to the GSI, nor make original development on it. This can more be viewed as a gift to the community...This is for the starting point, nothing being set in stone."
https://community.iode.tech/t/editable-list-gsi-support/2919/7
Meanwhile indy developers working on Murena GSI abandoned ship just last month.
https://community.e.foundation/t/unofficial-gsi-android-13/63791/51
(2) Perhaps hard de-googling iodé is possible with iodé network filtering, but I'd rather have an OS-wide default configuration already de-googled. The only such FOSS option is LeOS. Others use a clone of Google Play Services called MicroG, which is not fully de-googled, and AOSP certainly not.
https://xdaforums.com/t/aosp-12-1-leos-ungoogled-gsi.4356501/post-88660651
27 • First language (by Slurp on 2025-02-24 20:48:55 GMT from United States)
I started with a little MAD, but not much. I quickly moved on to Fortran IV.
28 • @22 and @26 GrapheneOS (by Keith S. on 2025-02-24 20:56:54 GMT from United States)
Jesse, I really appreciate your review of iode. I've been running GrapheneOS for four years on three successive Pixel models as my daily driver and love it. I hope that you will find time to review it now that you have a Pixel. It is super easy to install.
Snake, I have been working hard for several years to entirely escape Google. I won't use Apple products, so until I get back to the point where I can entirely ditch having a smartphone, I'm stuck with Android which is still basically just Google (unless you can audit the code yourself I guess).
Graphene uses Pixels because they have the only hardware that has a secure core for installation. I know it's often given as an incredulous objection to using Graphene, but used Pixels are relatively plentiful and cheap, so you don't even have to let Google know you own one before installing Graphene. And they are de-googled by default, but you can add sandboxed Google Play and Play Services and Google Service Framework if needed. They are sandboxed, so even though you give up some data to Google if you must use them, it is far less than on any other Android device.
And, with a little extra effort, Graphene offers additional workspaces and services which allow for even more control over using apps that require Play and Play Services. A good guide is given here:
https://sideofburritos.com/blog/grapheneos-how-i-install-apps/
29 • Programming Poll (by follyfarmer on 2025-02-24 22:50:07 GMT from Australia)
No option for retired Programmer. I got my first Programming job in 1974 thats fifty years ago.
30 • iodé subscriptions (by Jacob Kauffmann on 2025-02-24 23:15:37 GMT from United States)
I reviewed iodé myself back in 2022, which was before they open-sourced their firewall app. I'm glad they ended up open-sourcing it, since it being proprietary back then really undermined the privacy/security usefulness.
It's very interesting to see that they're offering paid subscriptions for some of the firewall app's features now. I wouldn't have pinned it as a polished enough experience to necessarily warrant a recurring payment, and I don't see anything in the screenshots that would change that analysis. I'm also surprised they don't include a year of subscription or something with the purchase of a phone. This all makes me think they're seeing a lot more people installing iodé on their own used devices instead of purchasing used or new phones directly from iodé, which would necessitate a different stream of revenue than hardware. (I just checked to make sure they didn't re-close-source the Blocker app, and it appears to still be open-source on their self-hosted GitLab instance, with a note that it's only intended to be used within iodéOS.)
I wonder what "ethical social media" means in the context of their parental controls, and whether the ability to block all social media (and not just "unethical" or non-free social media) is present. If I was a parent wanting to restrict my kids' access to social media, "free" social media such as Mastodon would be just as much of a problem (if not more) than the mainstream "non-free" stuff.
31 • GrapheneOS Caveats (by Snake Plissken on 2025-02-25 00:55:04 GMT from United States)
@28 Keith, I have done my homework, and have also worked in firmware development for a living. Security claims of GrapheneOS have their critics, among them, the JaguarOS dev.
https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/18unfbx/murena_2_thoughts/
"Pixels, by definition CANNOT be secure, because unlike other OEMs, Google has total control over...processors...Hence, unlike the other OEMs, who get [firmware] binaries only (no source code) from chip makers, Google could insert in its processors' [firmware] code the same spying garbage that it inserts in Gapps, except that Gapps need Android to run, and chips do not need Android at all....[Graphene's developer claims] that he 'fixes' major Android flaws, and that AOSP takes his commits....In fact, there are very few interactions shown on Google gerrit where they respectfully decline his few commits....There are many more [examples] including his false claims about 'sand boxing' Gapps etc (I wrote about those before)."
@All Until true FOSS-firmware phones exit their beta phase, and then ALSO drop in price, a nice if little-explored option is a cheap RPi with add-on modem boards. Several DIY projects online show how to build a semi-portable RPi phone. Granted ARM is not FOSS per se, but it's better than Googlechips.
32 • No Such Sandbox for Android Apps (by Snake Plissken on 2025-02-25 02:15:24 GMT from United States)
Never mind chips. Here's the referenced commentary on software-sandboxing GApps, or really anything from Google Play Store. Even the Signal app could be compromised. (Myself, I prefer SimpleX.chat sideloaded by adb, another story.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/JaguarOS/comments/1f1qz3q/fake_gmscompat_and_sandboxing/
Keith's link on "How I Install Apps" is crazy complex just to stop Google from data collection (tor, VPNs, fake accounts, etc.). The best answer is not to use GStuff at all.
33 • Do I know how to write software? (by penguinx86 on 2025-02-25 03:29:34 GMT from United States)
I learned programming in college, Basic, Cobol, RPG, Pascal, Fortran and Assembly language. This was back in the day with mainframes and dumb terminals. I started learning C, but gave up when mainframes, dumb terminals and UNIX workstations all went away after Y2K. But my programming knowledge did help me get sysadmin jobs and for writing some shell scripts. I sadly answered NO to the survey question, because it wasn't really called Software back then. Now I'm retired and I'll leave writing Software up to the younger generations.
34 • AT&T prevents some devices from using its network (by J.D. Laub on 2025-02-25 04:50:34 GMT from United States)
@25: "in North America, phone companies are considered common carriers and can't filter out content/devices."
From what I've read, AT&T won't allow certain devices on their network, be it direct or via a reseller like Consumer Cellular. I don't know the mechanism they use to prevent certain devices. Example: in the indiegogo page for the BraX3, under the FAQ tab, there's an entry discussing how AT&T hasn't yet signed off on that new device: "Q: Will BraX3 be compatible with AT&T network in the US? A: [...] We have filed the necessary documents for approval, and we expect to get official approval from them soon so we can guarantee the service."
35 • Banking software on rooted devices (by Karsten Pfeiffer on 2025-02-25 11:32:20 GMT from Germany)
As two factor authentification is more and more common and even necessary these days a de-Googled device is no option for me if my banking software is not working. I once tried LineageOS and eventually gave up, as my bank would not accept a rooted / uncertified / not trustworthy / unknown device (or whatever you like to call it). With some lengthy tricks I got it to work only to redo this every time something got updated. Maybe it also depends on the bank (and its App) and I just was unlucky.
I do not like to carry around two phones: one to feel safe and the other to do important jobs for me (like accessing my bank account).
Sad but true: I returned to Google with my Pixel 6 eventually.
@Jesse It would be nice, if you could also evaluate these aspects in the future or write about your experience with Murena :-)
36 • Banking etc (by Jesse on 2025-02-25 11:48:44 GMT from Canada)
@35: "@Jesse It would be nice, if you could also evaluate these aspects in the future or write about your experience with Murena"
It is completely non applicable in my case. There isn't a business (bank or otherwise) in my experience that does not just send an email or text message for 2FA. I have never needed a specific app, let alone one on a non-rooted phone, to access anything. I don't think that would even be legal in Canada.
37 • Banking (by Jesse on 2025-02-25 11:53:32 GMT from Canada)
@35: "I once tried LineageOS and eventually gave up, as my bank would not accept a rooted / uncertified / not trustworthy / unknown device (or whatever you like to call it). "
As I mentioned in the review, iode devices are not rooted. You should be able to run any apps you like on your device that requires the system to not be rooted.
38 • Banking software on rooted devices, part 2 (by Karsten Pfeiffer on 2025-02-25 12:07:11 GMT from Germany)
@Jesse:
Maybe I should have said, that my banking App is not working at all.
I have the impression that bank apps and streaming apps are mostly relying on the google integrity checking, so most of them do not work on LineageOS. Once I unlocked my bootloader I can't pass device integrity anymore. Maybe there are several ways banks evaluate the phone as *some* (maybe even most) banking apps work. This is little comfort for me if my banking app does not.
Yes, I could use the bank's website in Firefox, as well as look up the weather, news, etc.
But the whole point for having Apps is to have a streamlined, focused tool for just one thing: bank, emails, messanger, weather forecast, games, music and movie streaming (is this not also the idea of LINUX, on program does one thing right?). I do not want to use Firefox with 25 open tabs. But no offense, I understand that this is a viable solution for some and that is totally fine... :-)
39 • Apps (by Jesse on 2025-02-25 13:22:26 GMT from Canada)
@38: "But the whole point for having Apps is to have a streamlined, focused tool for just one thing: bank, emails, messanger, weather forecast, games, music and movie streaming (is this not also the idea of LINUX, on program does one thing right?)"
It's true that part of the Unix Philosophy is doing one thing and doing one thing well.
However, the Unix Philosophy also calls for programs to use open standards, be portable, and usable (not locked down). I'd argue that apps that don't work on rooted devices or which lock you into an ecosystem are the exact opposite of the Unix Philosophy and are counter to Linux culture.
40 • This Week's Poll Question (by Slappy McGee on 2025-02-25 13:50:01 GMT from United States)
This poll query is one of the most interesting/useful I've seen here, with regard to readership of Distrowatch. We'll see how it pans out over the week, but for now it appears that about half of respondents do not code and do not plan to. The other half are spread out among those who are learning, already do it, or plan to etc.
I've always wondered about this, thus one of my "background" reasons for frequenting this site. Good to see it's a range of Linux knowledgeable people. It's obviously smart to go to Linux, but some of us are not as smart about Linux as others may be.
Of course knowing code does not necessarily mean coding for just Linux, but you get my drift.
41 • Writing Software (by Robert on 2025-02-25 15:44:55 GMT from United States)
No, not really. Just some shell scripts for personal use. And bs-ing my way through some Lua for Factorio modding.
Many years ago I took some C++ classes and a Java class. Decided it wasn't for me. I kind of liked C++, except for the part where you'd miss a semicolon somewhere but the compiler error until would be something completely unrelated like 200 lines later so it was impossible to find the actual problem. I hope compiler errors are better these days, but they were useless back then.
Java just made no sense to me at all. I got nothing out of that class.
So anyway, I don't do any real coding these days and don't have the skills to do anything remotely complex. I would kind of like to pick it up again (maybe Rust or Python?) but have no concrete plans to do so.
42 • Banking Apps and De-Googling (by Snake Plissken on 2025-02-25 22:24:16 GMT from United States)
@Karsten Speaking as a developer, I'd rather trust a hardened Firefox fork, or vanilla Firefox, than a one-off banking app from an in-house IT team that may be a sole developer. Browsers have dozens. Best advice here is to use the bank's website interface.
However, here are related links, one from the developer of LeOS.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/107cz62/tutorial_make_banking_apps_work_on_rooted_phones/
https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-howto-use-banking-apps-on-your-rooted-device.4530801/
https://community.e.foundation/t/howto-installing-banking-apps/5875
If you don't want to root your phone or flash a modded Android, there are still many ways to de-google it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/srieo1/privacy_on_android_without_resetting_phone_custom/?rdt=51241
Google Android employs scare tactics to keep us cattle in our box stalls, frightened of green pasture. Many scare methods are very silly.
I have an unrooted, off-the-shelf, stock Android device on which I disabled all GApps and Google Play Services. The device beeps endless scare notices about how the phone will not work, but it does. I can call, text, etc. What Google has made hard to do is shut off its scare alerts. A switch exists to shut off Google Play Services availability scare alerts, but, somehow, the switch does not operate! I can see it, but not use it. Surprise, surprise.
Having run websites before, I know from weblogs how aggressive Google is. Their bots are everywhere and disrespect robots.txt.
Here's another example. Someone recently took photos at a social event. Within two days, those photos suddenly appeared on the Google Maps photo list for that location. Nobody put them there. Google data harvesting is nuts.
I do not trust Google "services" to "protect" me. Review the slides from Snowden about how disabled web certificates functioned inside Google's network. That massive breach was arranged with inside help, in my opinion, as I think as Apple's "goto fail" so-called "bug" or rather "feature," depending which side of the game you're on. Our true threat model is not hackers, but OEMs.
43 • Android Privacy (by Kruger on 2025-02-25 23:38:37 GMT from Australia)
@42
sure you can uninstall some apps on a bog-standard phone from Samsung, Moto etc, but you cannot uninstall Google apps, only disable.
Anyone who actually does care about privacy will go out of their way and use a privacy focused Android OS, which means they will go to the trouble of finding a phone that is boot loader unlockable, download the ROM, flash it, and not have to worry about whether or not some Google blob is still phoning home every few minutes delivering data.
>>I have an unrooted, off-the-shelf, stock Android device on which I disabled all GApps and Google Play Services.
This is like saying you care about privacy but still use Window with "privacy enabled" knowing full well that even by enabling (rather disabling) all the Windows spy features, it still sends a ton of data back to MS.
Link: https://umatechnology.org/windows-10-sends-data-to-microsoft-despite-of-privacy-setting-set-not-to/
If you care about privacy, just do the needful and use Graphene or Calyx or even Iode. Don't gaslight yourself into thinking that a standard Android phone can give you privacy just by disabling a few apps.
44 • Correct You Are on Android Privacy (by Snake Plissken on 2025-02-26 00:46:38 GMT from United States)
@43 You misread me; we agree; I use LeOS. And I would never allow a banking app to dictate my choice of phone or mobile OS. I presented halfway privacy options for those who might not be bold enough for flashing or rooting, or who get scared by silly Google warnings. With root all things are possible, and adb still does much without it, far more than stock Android screens. I agree that halfway measures are not enough for hyper-aggressive Google/Apple/MS data harvesting. That was my thesis: even alternative mobile OSes may not be good enough.
45 • Thank you! (by a humble hobbit on 2025-02-26 13:32:09 GMT from Chile)
@4 Man, you're awesome!!! I really like Appimages as a concept over flatpak or snap, I always though they are neat, you just download and execute them like little books, no need for a second package manager for an alternative set of software.
Thank you for selflessly helping spread a little piece of software that I enjoy using, that's the embodiment of what I love about the open source community and why I want to learn to program.
46 • Please add a tag to this distro. (by mintyonionbreath on 2025-02-27 04:42:09 GMT from The Netherlands)
Love this website. Please NEVER redesign it, as modern-style websites are so much less functional. I am leaving this note just to mention that I am surprised that the SparkyLinux distro does not show up in the list when a user is looking for a lightweight distro, because for whatever reason, it doesn't have the "Old Computers" tag. It should. It is even mentioned in the description that it is intended as a lightweight distro, and it is.
47 • Learning Programming (by SiriusBacon on 2025-02-27 07:56:13 GMT from Germany)
As someone who tried learning programming with Python i can say it didn't work for me (personally). There was too much abstraction for my taste, i felt like i was just copying commands without understanding what was happening. I enjoyed more "manual" languages like C/C++ a lot more.
Again, this was for *learning*, not actually creating a program. I agree that if your goal is to start working on an applicatoin as soon as possible, Python is a good choice, it just wasn't for me as a beginner because i wanted a lower level of abstraction.
48 • Murena (by Hrolf on 2025-02-27 08:24:29 GMT from United States)
Murena - I have only used the free murena.io (appears to be nextcloud?) service via web browser for secondary email, etc.
I do not have murena installed on any phone. I was thinking about it so i tried the free web services to test it.
Ater researching I would avoid Murena for these reasons:
- Murena web services went down completely for days and weeks.
And for several months as far as the files storage. . there was no access to the files at all.
In fact they only recently sent me a 'file recovery download link' @ 1/2025.
(I really did not care much as nothing there was important. But it was inconvenient.
And since it was / is apparently a nextcloud instance this is baffling. I mean how do you lose a nextcloud instance?)
So as far as the backend no, I would never trust Murena to be reliable. There seems to be something wrong with them. I am not sure if it is the company which is actually a French company and is not located not in Finland / Suomi as I had thought altough they claim their servers are.?.
Also I live in the U.S. and from all reviews I have read only say these alternate OS for phones (for a Fairphone, etc.) only really work reliably in EU or elsewhere NOT in the U.S. due to the Carriers.
So as much as I hate Google I think we in the U.S. are still trapped here ;/ by the Moguls.
49 • USA OK (by Snake Plissken on 2025-02-27 18:52:46 GMT from United States)
@48 Fairphone ships to USA with /e/OS preinstalled. I also mentioned DIY RPi cellphones. Bad reviews may have involved beta hardware, which is another topic. Software is software. Google itself runs AOSP, the foundation of most "alternative" mobile OSes.
50 • Learning to program and improve Linux (by Cornel Panceac on 2025-02-28 08:32:13 GMT from Romania)
Hi Jesse,
Thank you for the nice article.
Still, I don't think comparing ugly obfuscated C code with ... nothing is fair.
Just because C allows you to do unusual things like that line it does not mean you have to do it.
You can write that line like this :
int main(int b,char**i){long long n=b,a=b^n,r=(a/b&a)>>4,y=atoi(*++i),_=(((a^n/b)*(y>>b)|y>>b)&r)|(a^r);printf("%.8s\n",(char*)&_);}
or you can write it like this:
int main(int b,char**i)
{
long long n=b,
a=b^n,
r=(a/b&a)>>4,
y=atoi(*++i),_=(((a^n/b)*(y>>b)|y>>b)&r)|(a^r);
printf("%.8s\n",(char*)&_);
}
Now let's compare it to the Python equivalent (as per ChatGPT so please let me know if something is not correct):
import sys
def main():
b = len(sys.argv) # Argument count
if b < 2:
print("Usage: python script.py ")
return
n = b
a = b ^ n
r = (a // b & a) >> 4
y = int(sys.argv[1]) # Convert the first argument to an integer
_ = (((a ^ n // b) * (y >> b) | y >> b) & r) | (a ^ r)
# Interpret the result as bytes and print the first 8 characters
print(_.to_bytes(8, byteorder='little').decode('utf-8', errors='ignore')[:8])
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
I would say that in this particular case C code is simpler.
*
Now, this does not mean Python is actually worse to learn as the first language, it's just about this particular example.
I believe there are some out there who would prefer C as their first language, and others that would prefer Python et c. .
Maybe trying various language and found the one that fits you best is the way to go.
Let me know if i'm just too biased towards C and against Python ;)
51 • Carriers disallowing some devices (by Slappy McGee on 2025-02-28 15:14:59 GMT from United States)
@34 Yeah the device manufacturers themselves used to do the disallowing, remembering the exclusivity of iPhones on AT&T, and of course the Blackberry RIM dealio. But the carriers themselves throwing up nulls on devices now days seems a bit strange and counter productive to those carriers. I know too little about why they're doing that, and took notice of the quote there about "necessary paperwork" etc.
Number of Comments: 51
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| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
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