Definitely a rant.

I mean you've gotta love how samsung does not allow you to remove facebook and its derivates: insta, whatsapp and some other junk. Yeah, it allows you to "disable" them. But today I found whatsapp running and consuming >50M of storage even though it was DISABLED

precious, ain't it..? Facebook is a system app.

...

@CoffeeNcode don't really feel like spending time on rooting et al.

Is there a decent smartphone these days that's as open as it gets? Or do I must buy any one on the market and root/flash custom os on it right away

@netikras fairphone.com

The least evil of them all

OnePlus has served me well. Though if you dislike Chinese phones I guess it's nothing for you.

Aren't all Samsungs unlocked? Rooting should take less than ten minutes then.

@netikras like already mentioned, the Fairphone. Shiftphones seem to be good, too: https://www.shiftphones.com/en/

@PrivateGER my Samsung S8 is basically unrootable on current versions of Android since nobody cares about rooting it any more.

After my experience with Samsung I'm never buying a phone that doesn't come with stock Android ever again, if I can help it.

OnePlus is the mother of modding and rooting.

Then Motorola, most Sony models, samsung (although not sure about their newer ones) and such are very good and easily rootable! (Typing this from my Sony Z3 with a rooted custom ROM without google services or such)

Nokia is making it harder, too badly :/

@EmberQuill If I remember correctly, Resurrection Remix should be available for you.

@linuxxx any thoughts about linux phones? Pine [though the specs look poor]? Libre5? Just curious

@netikras Oh yeah I love them already! Going for a PinePhone as soon as I can! (Stable version)

Just didn't mention them since I presumed you wanted android or iOS :)

@linuxxx why pine over libre? Again, curious

I also like how every update fucks something in my config.

Once I even had google now turned on after an update...

@netikras For me, the fucking price. I get that the company behind the librem wants to be as open as possible but for someone who at the moment is just coming by and who doesn't want to spend more than 250-300 on a phone...

@netikras But the price thing is also a principle for me.

Librem has all the right to ask the amount they want but IMO this also puts a rather high price on a privacy friendly phone.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn't afford the librem.

The pine phone is very affordable and although a little low-spec; come on, a fully functional Linux phone for under 200 dollars?!
They also have other relatively cheap products like a cheap Linux laptop for 100 dollars (and a 200 dollars pro version) and they're working on a smartwatch of 25 dollar included docking station and such... entirely open source, again.

I'd rather support a company doing all the above at a very affordable cost!

@linuxxx fair point. Though it would be painful to switch from 12mpx to what.. 5mpx if I recall well?

Thank you

@netikras Sure, I guess, but except for the occasional selfie for a friend or at a festival, I don't use the camera at all 😄

ah, back when i was using 2.2.2 it'd roll back to the APK in /system/app and prevent it from running. Now it's just glorified home screen cleanup.