Every for-profit entity hates FOSS as a concept, and they hate all the hard-working developers who put in time voluntarily. They hate all of it with a seething passion.

They’re not tightening Android up to protect users, they’re doing it to abuse and exploit them and restrict their ability to circumvent the data mining they conduct. There’s only one way they’d theoretically stop this course of action, and that’s if sales PLUMMET. Which won’t happen because the portion of people willing to abstain from new phone purchases to fight this is minimal.

There are millions of terrible trends that the consumer market has allowed to happen simply because the vast majority of consumers will bend over, drop trow, lube themselves up and say “Go ahead, I’m ready!” If we united and made an example of one brand and got even a six-month period of a drop in sales by 50% or more, they would beg us to tell them what do we want in return for buying again. We could have all the control we want, but people just don’t have spines.

Why has every company in the world turned pure evil?

FYI except for some phones like prepaid cheapies, Motorola always issues the unlock code. I’ve done it on a dozen different Motorola phones. It’s a fairly quick procedure.

Honestly it has surprised me given the giant plunge in quality that they took around the time of the first Razr until the early Droid units. They seriously dropped the ball and I had pretty much written them off. But nowadays their devices are absolutely beautiful. I’ve changed to custom ROM probably more Motorola units than any other, that’s not to say because of not liking them; I don’t like any stock rom. But Motorolas are just really nice phones. As a supplemental device to my primary phone I use also a Moto G Stylus 5G 2023. The XT2315-1. I’m actually about to ROM Iode onto there soon. But it’s a terrific phone. Just a little skinner than I’m comfortable with but I just put it in a bulky case and it’s fine.

Just thought I’d let you know, because you seemed to express apprehension at the idea.

Any Android I can’t either root or change the ROM I will never use. Period.

Salud, cheers, prost, l’chaim!

I would never buy a Google branded phone just honestly I know there’s ease of use and supposedly some of them are the most compatible with custom ROMs but really… they’re Google. They are not not evil.

I wish! I have a Samsung and I used to have an LG. One thing I anticipated which turned out to be on the nose is that these TVs stay operational just up until the maker decides they want your money again. I never bought into it to begin with. I only got a Smart TV to begin with because it has everything else I want. But I go straight to hooking up a computer. The apps on the TVs are all ooh and aah until a couple of years go by and then suddenly the apps are not compatible with the sites or backends what have you, and guess what? No more updates. You need a new TV despite the fact that yours is 100% perfectly fine, other than the inherent sabotage built in.

So that’s why I never even had any expectations. But I would love to find the best Linux distro for a media machine that my wife could learn to use. Right now I have to do all of it because it’s just browse to the files or load a playlist. I’d like something like Kodi or Plex but they have issues with one thing or another. I just want an SMB based connection in an interface that shows friendly thumbnails kinda like Nova player on Android. That app is highly underrated. Free, as far as I know open source and aside from a few control designs not being too great, the app is terrific. Kicks VLC’s butt. Why are they still designing the software like it’s 20 years ago and it’s on Windows XP?

Anyway I digress. Smart TV running Android or Linux would rock but I don’t expect it to be too feasible. But what do I know, because I’m not a professional dev.

Prevent, or create? Lol. Nothing sells new phones like current ones melting.

Correct.

Honestly fine by me. I prefer Linux remain non-mainstream. It has integrity like this. The moment any suits see dollar signs on it, it’s as good as ruined.

Why? Office is such shit.

Not at all. More like not wanting to see some corporate entity start to turn it into another monetized trash heap that’s enshittified to be sold to the masses in bloated and corrupt form. There’s a legitimate argument for remaining the way it is.

Well then no compliance. I’ll take a dumb flip phone if it came to that. And with tethering I can use whatever I damn well please behind it.

We chould be fighting back. We could pick one huge company that has done a lot of bad, one that relies on willing patronage, rather than a utility or the like, and we could collectively boycott them to death. Overnight the worst offenders could be shut down. But try to get anyone to give enough of a shit to sacrifice so much as a fart.

I’m not blaming individuals at all; the corp CEOs are the true evils. But they will never change, and we have minuscule to no power over them. Government regulation could have in the past, but the corporations are the government now; anyone who still thinks otherwise is just in denial.

So it’s up to the individual to choose not to give their money and information to these companies. It’s up to the individual to starve them of their lifeblood. Even then, they might double down - these gluttons are not known for their sense of humility. So one or two must be made into examples - and it would need to be companies that don’t have backing like the auto and banking industries, otherwise it would just be our tax dollars bailing them out like last timeS where the worst of them retired on multimillion dollar “golden parachutes.” All that would need to get slaughtered at the conceptual level.

I will refrain from sharing more of my perspective on what I expect because I really don’t wanna be that much of a bummer, but we are really approaching our very last moment before we would be labeled as terrorists for installing our own ROM. And if we don’t wake up average Joe/Sue, they’ll just go along and eat it up.

One of my favorite lesser-known sci-fi shows is Continuum. Their depiction of the future society was so spot on it’s scary. Everything down to how good people can actually believe that individuals who don’t want to be born into slavery should be considered aberrant, and those who fight back are terrorists… it’s uncanny how close to that we already are. You should watch it, because it’s pretty much a road map for where we are almost at.

On the positive side, lots of people are getting to the point where they are fed up enough that they just might be receptive if the ideas are presented in the right way.

Nah… no matter what they do, people - especially Americans, are too lazy and apathetic to care. We all know about all the spying that has been publicly divulged and admitted to - by the phone company, by the NSA, by Facebook, the list goes on. And how many Americans made any change to their lifestyle? None. They still line up in droves to pour out their money for the latest spy device. How many times was Alexa demonstrated empirically to have uploaded conversations recorded without the owner’s awareness or consent? The sheep still BUY such devices.

Please don’t delude yourself that people have any reluctance whatsoever. Open arms indeed.

And that’s what the sheeple welcome with open arms.

If the day comes where it’s impossible to at the very least, clean off spyware stuff you don’t want, or install custom ROMs if necessary, then I’ll stick to older units that have the ability still. And if that ever becomes impossible, then stop using a smartphone.

And all the arguments in the world about how everything requires a smartphone - I don’t care about. That cannot be literally required, at least not for anything important because it’s not possible to assume/ensure that every person has one and that it is fully operational etc.

If this creates a nuisance for providers of various services, so be it - in fact, all the better because they can potentially be a source of pressure to maintain the availability of customizable devices. But that’s a very very miniscule likelihood; more likely is that they say well, too bad, if you don’t have a smartphone then this hospital can’t treat you. There may come a point where it literally will be impossible to functionally integrate in society without being spied upon 24/7. And in America at least, this will be welcomed with open arms because - well, you know: sheep.

But even then, there will develop a bigger and bigger fringe subculture of off-the-grid individuals who still value the concept of privacy.

So - like every sci-fi dystopia depicted in film and literature throughout history. Well, anyone who complains won’t be able to claim they weren’t warned a million times literally.

Ah. Ok. I guess that could be of some comfort. Like 0.00% oz of it.