I wanted to degoogle since Google has been most annoying so far with S21FE. Was thinking of getting Pixel 8a but due to mixed reivews I was looking for other phones. Thoughts on this? Would be also nice if I can get some opinions from people who have the phone as well.

  • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
    141·
    6 months ago

    Afaik /e/OS isn’t completely Google-free. It just uses some anonymization stuff to make Google services a bit less invasive and I think it has proprietary software too. For a complete Google-free experience you probably want something like LineageOS or GrapheneOS

    • lemmyreader@lemmy.mlEnglish
      13·
      6 months ago

      /e/OS is based on LineageOS with microG. They did make a choice for Magic Earth as maps app which is not open source. For “normies” /e/OS seems a fine choice to me to De-Google.

    • jinwk00@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      31·
      6 months ago

      Aw shucks, the porter moved on from Lineage to develop more on e/os

      Any alternative custom ROMs that are generally considered complete Google-free other than those 2?

      • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
        2·
        6 months ago

        Idk about completely Google-free ones. Most of vanilla ROMs (such as crDroid, ArrowOS, CherishOS etc) do have some pre-included fixes for Google apps because most of the users flash them and I think they use the proprietary version of Monet theming (there are 2 versions of it). Usually LineageOS is what you go for if you want a completely vanilla ROM. I heard they’re considering adding some fixes for Gapps too but I don’t think it’s going to be anything bad or proprietary

        • jinwk00@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Should I be concerned if I am not going to be installing Google Apps (or gapps) or microG?

          • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
            2·
            6 months ago

            Depends on the exact ROM (I think they’re only really tested with Gapps) but usually you should be fine. It might be relatively easy to identify a user of ROMs like this because of mismatching device fingerprints (done to unlock Pixel features such as unlimited Google Photos storage and high FPS limit in games) though

      • lemmyreader@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Have other comments made you dislike /e/OS ? microG, which /e/OS uses is not using Google but a replacement for the Google Play framework if you would for example need location feature for some of your apps.

  • telep@lemmy.ml
    4·
    6 months ago

    if you want to degoogle the only way to run some apps without unprivileged code (GMS/microG) is to use grapheneos & its sandbox compatibility layer. this is unfortunately only available on the pixels.

    I also worry you won’t be able to use some of the customization options that the nothing phone 2 offers with its hardware when using a custom ROM. if thats something u care about.

    I have the pixel 7a & have had essentialy no issues with anything for what that’s worth.

    • jinwk00@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      Do you think its worth waiting until Pixel “9” becomes available? I’m switching out on July since that’s when my installment is over + getting out of this hell hole S21FE

      • telep@lemmy.ml
        2·
        6 months ago

        honestly I would personaly look into a used option just for pricing reasons. I think the 8 offered additional security benefits though. It may be a while until the 9 drops but that would also be an option.

        • jinwk00@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Ye T-Mobile is offering Pixel 8 Pro for free if I do 24 month installment but that isn’t worth sacrificing for

          That’s why I was looking at Nothing Phone 2 which is on sale, unlocked too, for double the storage as well (I already used up 90% of my 128GB) at $550

          Heard community is growing but I was uncertain

          • telep@lemmy.ml
            1·
            6 months ago

            I got my 7a referbished for 350. the nothing phone is cool IMO but probably not going to have good support rn for nieche stuff. lineage & divest not having working versions for the phone raises red flags personaly.

            if you are anti pixel & $500 is in your price range maybe take a look at the fairphone 4?

            • jinwk00@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              1·
              6 months ago

              Not really anti-Pixel, just that pricing could be better

              But I found some used ones in sale, thanks though

          • Broken@lemmy.ml
            1·
            6 months ago

            If you need more storage, the secondhand market is better for you anyway.

            Though I just saw a 7 pro with 512GB on Woot for under $500. That’s a decent deal.

            Regular Pixel 8s are going for 500 on a deal.

            • jinwk00@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              1·
              6 months ago

              Lastly do you think 8 Pro refurbs are fine for $700? Main concern is lack of RAM from S21FE which apps closed itself very frequently as soon as I switch from one to the other

  • lemming123@thelemmy.club
    1·
    6 months ago

    I managed to degoogle stock ROM, as I wanted to have the glyphs available (I feel like I’m in a minority of users that find them useful as well as just cool).

    I did have the phone enter crash dump and at points had no ROM or recovery and it took a while as I was endlessly searching tools available.

    I’m more than happy to share what I did?

    Word of warning is you need quite a few tools, apps and packages, but they have source code available.

    I’m not a mobile developer but going through the tools they are regarded well in the developer community, or scanning the code myself didn’t raise an alarms.