TikTok Is Reportedly an 'Essential' App for Some Samsung Installs
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I would personally recommend, if that's your thing, to look into "clean" Android devices such as Fairphones. Once the bootloader is unlocked, it's really trivial to install a decent Android distro without spyware, like /e/OS. I used to recommend LineageOS but it seems like it phones home by default these days: /e/OS is a Lineage fork without the spyware/telemetry.
Of course the best solution if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty is to compile Replicant Android from sources, but from what i heard it can be troublesome, and it's quite possible that blobfree Android does not fit your feature/usability expectations (eg. no GPS/camera/wifi), in which case a blobbed Android without OS-level spyware may be a good compromise.
I personally never had much faith in Apple (although i was a big fan of older MacOS UX), but these latest developments have completely broken any expectations i had from them:
- Apple Disables FaceID if you change the screen yourself [video] : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28666836
- Old iPhones become faster if you change the region to France https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28291768
- macOS unable to open any non-Apple application https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25074959
There was also this comparative study of iOS/Android telemetry: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_google.pdf
It concludes:
> We find that even when minimally configured and the handset is idle both iOS and Google Android share data with Apple/Google on average every 4.5 mins. The phone IMEI, hardware serial number, SIM serial number and IMSI, handset phone number etc are shared with Apple and Google. Both iOS and Google Android transmit telemetry, despite the user explicitly opting out of this. When a SIM is inserted both iOS and Google Android send details to Apple/Google. iOS sends the MAC addresses of nearby devices, e.g. other handsets and the home gateway, to Apple together with their GPS location. Currently there are few, if any, realistic options for preventing this data sharing.
Most Android phones nowadays are bootlocked and will make your life miserable if you try to gain root, but there's still a few models that you can easily unlock to install a libre system of your choice (/e/OS, PostMarketOS, etc). That's undoubtedly the best approach if you don't want to be "forced" into anything malicious.
Apple is a notorious enemy of free software, and especially on the iPhone products getting to boot alternative systems requires crazy hacks which is why we still don't have mainline Linux and mainstream distro support over a decade after the first hardware release. I'm not saying that Google's Android lines (Pixel etc) are much more libre-friendly (mainline support on Pixel was achieved by outsiders, not Google), but it's still possible to find new or refurbished Android phones without a locked bootloader and with good mainline support.
I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to. I remember in older Slackware that not everything was very user-friendly, but ever since the GNOME2 era under Ubuntu i've had no complaints... and i'm providing user support for many inexperienced or outright tech-illiterate users.
I can't say the same for Windows with cryptic boot messages leading to full reinstall every now and then, and since Windows 10 users getting their account randomly & remotely locked for unobvious reasons... don't even get me started on the "i clicked the ad that said i had viruses and now everything's broken".
> iOS definitely does not come with malicious non-removable apps like tick tock or Facebook.
I don't exactly disagree with your point, but just because an app is not 3rd party doesn't mean it can't be malicious. See this comment for a (short) overview of evil software things Apple is doing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32354388
I also strongly recommend reading the spyware/telemetry study i linked at the end which completely debunks Apple's "privacy" bullshit: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_google.pdf
I have a Samsung TV too and they are just adding more and more bloat to it.
Despicable practices for something a thought of as a quality brand.
bxActions allow you to remap the button if you have a S9 or S10. It's a game changer having a user re-mappable hardware button, and I'll miss it when I upgrade from my S9.
For me - Play/pause is a single press; skip to next track is a double press; long press activates multitasking and double press and hold toggles the torch.
The best thing with those cripplewares is that it show Samsung that they are missing out on money which makes it easier internally to override some scheming PM that is hunting Bixby metrics.
Like the start menu program that were sold for Windows 8 for like 20 USD. Eventually MS readded it (in a still worse than Win7 form though).
No root required.
I have a nokia 7.1. Quite happy with it, as it came with stock android. Altough, the charger port getting loose is somewhat of a problem. Allegedly fixed in newer models.
Ok, not just because of fortnight, also because disabling all google crap basically bricked it & their icons where still everywhere and when you accidentally clicked it, it take you deep into the settings to enable it. Sure, you can install a custom rom etc, but I dont' want to. I just want a phone with a few apps and no spyware. Or fortnight installersftm ;)