Yeah, I’ve seen some other alternatives (including Java) but I don’t have time to search them all.

Honestly is rare to find a feature phone that runs android around here as most run some other java based software.

In any case, here are 3 (although there are more):

• https://www.clove-technology.com/products/doro-6880?shpxid=ab43c9e1-39dd-42b2-92a2-f4a4e68c549c
• https://www.tracfone.com/phone/nokia-2760-flip-prepaid-v2.black
• https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp02-4g-mobile-phone/

Not all, but there are several ones with android

So, hear me out, but what if we all go back to feature phones? Smart phones are convenient, but do the pro’s weigh more than the cons at this point? I am also including mental health into this btw.

I remember a couple of months ago it was reported here that Google was making Android closed-source and I commented that this will be the end of custom rom’s and this was received by the community poorly as many stated that they would still be releasing the code but not their AOSP apps (or something like that) but I already see the writing on the wall. Google doesn’t want to be open-source, they where in the past because that gave them free coders to fix their shit and make them more profitable, but now they just want our data and the open-source community is against that, so they are closing doors to the community in order to be able to truly make money with people’s information. Wouldn’t surprise me if the next Pixel in the works is going with a similar approach as the iPhone and only allow for an eSim as well.

Honest noob question. I currently connect to my self hosted server using Twingate. How would this be different? can you give me an Eli5 what a reverse proxy manager would make my setup better?

The thing with tailscale is that its just a VPN connection – from my understanding. Why not just self host your own VPN server?

Backups?

Does it even matter at this point? Any phone that costs more than $1000 is too much regardless.

Yeah Good point. the storage is the most expensive part. I did find these SSDs at a good price and with high reviews on Amazon which would cost $356 for 4 before taxes (a little better that 480€, but not by much).

Edit: Another thought would be to use the sata hat on the pi and get some sort of adapter to work with the platter drives but that would just add in the complexity and would likely require a PC power supply for the drives which would also add costs.

Haven’t read the article, but unlockable bootloaders are on the rise.

What part would be too expensive?

Pi 5, SATA hat, 4 SSDs and you would be good.

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/radxas-sata-hat-makes-compact-pi-5-nas

Not sure what is going on with your setup, but Signal should work with any internet connection.

Well, with RCS everyone already has a baked in app that supports the protocol, but still doesn’t do anything better other the alternatives (I mean other apps, not sms).

I’m slowly moving all my friends and family over to Signal

No

I would recommend a Samsung S24, its pretty well built and closest to an iphone as far ecosystems are concerned. There are better android phones, out there but I would start slow if shes never had android before.

You and also use crypmator to encrypt your notes inncase google ai starts reading them.

Doesn’t seem to work on the samsung keyboard. Any keyboard alternatives?

You skipped the step where you need to first aquire a pixel phone