Conversation

Months ago my phone died and now I need 1+ man-week to de-backdoor my new Pixel 4. Being mostly phoneless warms me up to a simple device that respects my rights out of the box. Continuing phone detox until I get a Pinephone or Librem 5. I'm done funding #SurveillanceCapitalism twitter.com/ashk4n/status/

This Tweet is unavailable.

Lance R. Vick ( @lrvick@mastodon.social )

@lrvick

Apr 14, 2020

Devices like the Pinephone and the Librem5 don't have biometric unlock options. I now understand this is a feature. A: Biometrics have limited 5th Amendment protection B: Biometrics can be used without your knowledge C: A long password makes you check your phone less.

Lance R. Vick ( @lrvick@mastodon.social )

@lrvick

Apr 14, 2020

Opting out of both Apple and Google ecosystems for over 2 years now means services only usable by closed apps don't get my money. Mobile webapps can be done well. See Lyft/Uber. You can live without most apps. Be an advocate for open standards and people without smartphones.

Lance R. Vick ( @lrvick@mastodon.social )

@lrvick

Apr 14, 2020

The only apps I actually need on a phone: 1. A matrix.org client 2. Web browser 3. Music Player The first fully open source device that checks these boxes will become my daily driver.

Replying to

and

Closest thing i found is a

@e_mydata

phone. Fully ungoogled OS (or as close as you can get on a massproduced hardware)

Lance R. Vick ( @lrvick@mastodon.social )

Replying to

and

have you given this a once over yet for hardware security features and userspace blob requirements already?

Replying to

It's an OS based on LineageOS + microG, not a phone.

7:06 AM · Apr 15, 2020Twitter Web App

Lance R. Vick ( @lrvick@mastodon.social )

Replying to

They sell phones but now that I found the page I realize it us just old gen phones that have had a lot more time for reverse engineering work (but also shit hardware security features) Sigh.

Replying to

It's largely just LineageOS. I don't think there's any effort to build vendor components from the sources that are available, let alone replacing the closed source components like the Adreno GPU driver with freedreno. The hardware comes and goes, so does interest in it.