Do you use a device with open source Android firmware? What device, which distro and what do you do with it? I have a Samsung tablet with LineageOS and apps from F-Droid. Other than displaying dire warnings about the unlocked bootloader every time it cold boots, It’s great for a “recliner system”: email, Web browsing, E-book reader and MP3 player. What do you have, what do you use it for, and how well does it work for you?
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Android isn’t firmware. It’s OS. Firmware is embedded on things like the camera, wifi chip, etc. I don’t know of any that have FOSS firmware. I hope I’m wrong.
Unrelated, but oh my fucking god, I just realised that “firmware” is not a separate etymological category compared to “software” and “hardware”, it’s literally “firm” as in between “soft” and “hard”.
I am a professional firmware developer.
It’s ok, we all need a wetware update every so often
I don’t believe any Samsung device has fully open source firmware. I assume you mean software seeing as you mention LineageOS?
Yes, of course. I’m not aware of any fully open source tablet that actually works - I got a PineTab2, but it’s more like a mini laptop, and the onboard WiFi does not work, which is too bad.
How do you like the PineTab2?
Disappointed. The killer is the lack of a working driver for the onboard WiFi. They say this is a priority, but no checkin on the github page for months. It works tethered to a phone, or with a USB network adapter, but that’s not good for my use case. Touch integration in Linux is not really there, and the snap on keyboard is kind of thin and floppy. That said, I have a Quartz board that is excellent. The pine guys have excellent technology, but maybe their manufacturing vendors are better at circuit boards than finished products.
Thx for the reply. I’ve been waiting years for Pine to become a good option for end-users. I would really like them to be!
Pixel 6Pro, GrapheneOS. It’s my daily driver and minus battery life (soon to be upgraded) it’s great.
To be pedantic though, Android (AOSP) is open source either way, it’s the Google shit that isn’t. On firmware though, they all have the proprietary blobs in there, no way around that. Same goes for Lineage, as well as Graphene. Only difference with Graphene is there’s a lot more protections in place. But that’s not an option for a Samsung. But Lineage as long as it’s been further De-Googled is fine for a non daily use (phone) device is still pretty descent.
I tried Lineage (actually /e/OS) on a Samsung phone, and it was great, except voice calling did not work. It turns out that the Samsung VoLTE hardware has never been figured out by open source devs. Graphene looks interesting, I may trade in my phone to try it.
You might want to consider CalyxOs since runs Android without any Google, just microG. Very easy on your battery 🔋
It does, but also means that things like paid apps are likely dead, lots of banking apps have issues with it, and you’re at the mercy of things like Aurora which Google has been fucking with hardcore lately.
There are easy ways around it. People should be happy with whatever their decision is and try different options/softwares
Therea no way around the play store verification subscription when an app implements it. Not like the old days when you could crack apps, which is stupid from a security standpoint anyways, but either way that’s gone, and many apps are moving to that.
That said, yes, people should try different things, but should know all the up/downsides of the decisions so they don’t waste their time as well. microG giving people push ability doesn’t really do the job anymore for many peoples use cases.
A couple months ago when Google out a beating on Aurora and everything was near useless because of rate limited accts and people either had to log into Google accts or not get anything done, a shitload just went with Graphene and the sandboxed play services that they didn’t have to worry about. The Matrix room full of new installs showed that on a daily basis for weeks.
I dont think there is any phone with open source Firmware. Even Laptops with Coreboot contain blobs most often.
The pinephone might, not sure
I really really want to say yes to this. Fuck Google play, Google play does nothing for me as a user. It’s actively a nuisance, even. The cpu/storage drain alone is unacceptable. And it’s like, fuck, I wouldn’t be as angry about them gathering/selling my personal data if they cut me in on that but decency is nonexistent in big tech, not even in short supply.
also samsung fabket performance is much better without all the bloatware. Same with my xiaomi phone. OS type is lineageos
I had a Xiaomi with Lineage OS for MicroG I would nust use it to communicate and organize my schedule while tying to make the cleanes interface. Ive been trying to get Carbon OS in my hand but I do not have any device that supports it.
I have the same tablet and OS (and apps, but I use aurora store as well). I am not happy that the fingerprint sensor doesn’t work, but other than that is great.
I use it as reader, media player, some school apps of my kids.
I’ve used it (with a Bluetooth keyboard) as remote desktop client.
Sometimes web browsing but not really much.
Got the fairphone 5 and installed e/os on the device. It’s degoogled.
I use it as a.daily driver. E/os has some bugs but overall it works great. I am really happy with the phone and the system.
Im also using only open source apps on the device.
I use Evolution X which is not completely open source since it comes with Gapps pre installed.
Im currently using a Samsung galaxy s10+ with lineageOS, since the support ended in the beggining of this year. Works prettty good, but with some downsides, no voLTE, one of the front facing cameras doesnt display image, was working in stock. The heart bit sensor doesnt work either. But this issues arent a dealbreaker, so its a nice experience overall.
I really liked /e/Lineage on the phone, but no VoLTE means it’s not a phone in my case.
I use a SHIFT6mq with GApps-less LineageOS and only apps from F-Droid.
And I do lots of things with it. Media consumption, email, web browsing, music, social media, RSS, messaging, note keeping, shopping list, navigation tool (map & public transport), ticket wallet, 2FA etc…
I don’t care to use proprietary services, so not having access to the respective apps is not a problem for me.
Really, I’d want it to be even more open. Android has some real limitations to it, like no way to just quickly script something, and just generally, it disallows apps from doing lots of useful things, because it assumes apps to be malware.
Pixel 7 with Calyx OS. This is probably my all time favorite setup for a phone. Most of my apps are foss except a few (banking apps, discord, lyft, and Instagram)
Firmware is foss???
PlayStore if you want to have it. Not everyone wants to have Google sniffing on your background just like Graphene with their “playservices”… Which is indeed Google with just a few options off. But people will never be able to get it pass their heads. Op is asking about open source… Not Google source
