This is exactly what i just did. No regrets. Foss everything, no mainstream social media. I love it
The Fediverse is not perfect, but it actually blew my mind a bit how much it lowered my blood pressure to not see the constant ragebait, and the calm of not being exposed and monitored at all times. I still have Snapchat just for one person, and WhatsApp which is Meta but still E2EE. Other than that, I'm all in on FOSS privacy approved apps and man does it feel great.
Here it's us, real people rage-baiting you on employer time!
Ah yes, organic rage bait instead of Ai swirls fancy wine
I made the switch to Linux and Lemmy right around the same time. Once I was free of it all it was like relaxing a muscle I didn't know had been tense for decades. Android is next... Just as soon as I figure out jellyfin....
I also just switched to Linux! Well dual booting Windows for now but only for gaming really, and until I figure out if Ardour is good enough for me for music production. But still: Microsoft has nothing except my game saves now, no tax documents or web history, etc.
What distro did you go with?
I'm also looking into making a home server to ditch streaming services and so I dont need 250 GB of music on my. phone. Got to be able to afford the RAM though...
Mint. I'm not a "tech genius" and it was presented as an easy intro to Linux. I feel no need to distro hop, getting by just fine with my little minty penguin thank you very much!
Mint is pretty legit. Their Cinnamon desktop is looking a lot prettier these days too.
I landed on Fedora KDE because I need gaming features like VRR, and still wanted features like Secure Boot & a distro with a lot of users and documentation.
It really goes to show no little of the abuse we suffer is inherently the Internet's fault. Lemmy feels like the reddit I knew and loved of 15 years ago. Sure there's some assholes I argue with but that's the normal amount of shittieness not the turbocorpo abuse
A lot of it is hitting critical mass too. Reddit used to be tech enthusiasts and stem students the same way Fediverse is currently. Now any town idiot yahoo from the sticks will angrily yell at you on Reddit for no reason.
But yeah the algorithm is a lot stronger than it would seem.
WhatsApp which is Meta but still E2EE
As far as you are told. There is no verification that is true.
There is no verification that is true.
But there is a nearly continuous stream of occurrences where Meta is caught lying.
They have had some third party audits. It is not totally convincing to me as being trustworthy, but I see it as more of an acceptable necessary evil. Better than Discord, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, probably even SMS. My wife's whole family uses just WhatsApp, and so do some businesses even in her country. Believe me though, anyone I can get on Signal, Matrix, Session, etc, I do.
There have been third party audits, but the conclusions have been that you can't know if it's implemented correctly or at all. Nature of closed source. Because you can't know where the keys are.
I get the doing business in their country. That is so difficult to overcome. I will not do it. Foot down on that one, and it does make it hard. My wife's family does the same as you mentioned. I just tell them they are literally paying for fascism. They don't care. Or you can pick from many of the ills of Meta products (energy use, AI, misinformation, or even simply making someone a billionaire by contributing nothing to society).
Makes it hard.
I just did this too, except I bought a refurbished Pixel, so I paid someone else $100 for Google to fuck off lol.
Not much longer im sure. I have no reason to believe that they will continue making it possible to un/relock the bootloader considering their push for google certified only android.
This is what I'm afraid of too. I could see apps like fdroid and the ability to install custom roms being taken away within the next year or two. I hope I'm wrong but I don't have a good feeling. I need Linux phones to be a thing now more than ever.
I never know what to expect from Google. They respect open source efforts to an extent, but play Calvinball with where they draw the line. In any case, Motorola will be an option soon, maybe more. And there are other custom ROMs, albeit not as thorough as Graphene. And for me? They can't take it away now that I already did it, so I'm good for up to 7 years unless my phone breaks.
Buying new is still screwing yourself over. Buy second hand and take advantage of all the fools thinking they have to upgrade every year.
But then I wouldn't have been able to make this meme.
And the only price, you'll need to see the Google logo flash brightly every time you reboot.
I hâte this reminder too. But the constant playsyore is missing permissions is a reward. Yes stay here little software keep complaining, your owner can go fuck them self.
Gives me a jumpscare when I apply updates, not gonna lie
Maybe, you could buy a Motorola as well in the near future.
https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/
I’m about to do the same … question is without the google services is it worth a pro over even an a ?
To me it wasn't. I don't think The non-a Pixels can really justify their price based on the hardware itself.
I tend to just buy a used model, I've got the 8 with graphene and no complaints, that said I do very little with my phone these days
Considering waiting to see if Motorola releases a GrapheneOs built in Razr I’d consider that. But can’t help but wonder how much they would mess up the core important pieces of Graphene for their overlords who wants AI down our throat
Certainly not a Pixel 10 Pro.
If I could write my own code for the NPU that might be interesting, but they've got it locked up like a straight boy's toilet paper.
If you want a Pro, go with the 8, 9 if you have to. 8 still has the 2k screen, 10 is a bastardized 1080p screen
I got a pro because it was heavily discounted at the time. The one thing I sort of appreciated is the display LTPO thing, which enables it to gear all the way down to 1hz to save power.
thing is kinda moot since the 9a and 10a achieve significantly better battery life than the 10 pro (10a uses the prior gen SoC which seems to have better idle power characteristics).
It's why I made sure to get my newest phone used, but that comes with the risk of getting a Verizon model (in the US) which can't be bootloader unlocked. Had to return the first one I got off eBay for that reason, and the second one I made sure to ask the seller where they initially got it from.
It's wild to me that that's legal here. Devices should have to be carrier agnostic.
The only reason I don't use GrapheneOS is because of thte tight coupling they have with Google's hardware.
It's not that they have a deal with Google, it's that Google's hardware security is best bar none except maybe iPhone. And Graphene is the best way to degoogle, as counter intuitive as it may seem. They are working with other manufacturers to get these security requirements for new phones so Graphene can be put on them.
Why, because you can't afford it (reasonable), because you think it helps Google (unreasonable), because you think it's a privacy risk (unreasonable), or because it feels icky (unreasonable)?
The profits from Pixel hardware sales are a drop in the bucket for Google. I'm pretty sure the only reason it exists is so they can have insight and control over the hardware ecosystem, as without it they'd be driven by whatever Samsung wants to do.
The walled Android ecosystem is where they make the bulk of their money, and Graphene actively pulls people away from that and to something objectively better. Graphene is fully de-Googled and safe from their spyware, and exists outside of their business model. Using and promoting Graphene actively hurts Google, even if you have them $1k for a phone.
Also, there are plenty of cheap second hand pixels on ebay, and Google doesn't see a penny from those sales. Recycling is good for the planet anyways.
Motorola announces partnership with GrapheneOS.
https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/
I'm glad that GrapheneOS exist, and it's sad that they are the exception and not the rule.
I think projects like CalyxOS and LineageOS should adopt some feature from GrapheneOS like contact/storage scopes, sandboxed Google Play Services, Network and Sensor toggles.
At the same time, I think GrapheneOS needs to reevaluate their presence in social media.
Lmao this is perfect
This is the way
GrapheneOS seems to feel the same way about Google: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116159602850585685
I didn't want to give google any money, so I am using a Pixel 6 I got for free at this time. Actually moved from an iPhone 15 and it does not feel slower at all with Graphene OS. I'll have to upgrade in October when support runs out though, so I'll be eying used Pixel 9a's in the summer.
I couldn't do it myself. Ended up going Fairphone and Calyx instead. Just patiently waiting for Calyx to start releasing again.
I really wanted GrapheneOS, but ended up with /e/OS on a fairphone because I refuse to give Google any more money.
After replacing the default launcher with Lawnchair, I'm pretty happy with it. The physical switch (remapped to control the torch) is a nice touch.
Worth it. Try any Samsung phone with Google's shit and Samsung's shit on top: I swear you these one are practically unusable, like you carrying an bloated mini-ad-computer with you. A implanted bug in your teeth or ass would hurt probably less then this. Before I use any of those, I rather use a "dumb" phone again.
Has Hunter S Thompson always been in Trailer Park Boys?
Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)