#Samsung devices from today can no longer install custom ROMs.

[fabio@manganiello.eu]

#Samsung devices from today can no longer install custom ROMs.

Odin is gone and the Download Mode is also gone, which makes life hard also for repair services that want to restore a device.

This is your daily reminder that #Android is a liability, and major hardware manufacturers who ship Google's version of Android are a liability too.

We need to get Linux phones to work, and we need manufacturers who are aligned with our principles.

https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-disables-odin-removes-download-mode-3648469/

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@fabio

This is why phones are not real computers. You can't write a program and put it on your phone. Unless you make a server and make it a website. And now my husband will want me to make him a website for all his programs.

And I will make it since I need it for my horrible iphone.

I would love a linux phone, but I wonder if that will ever be workable. I have this goofy work app and I bet it won't run on that. And what about wireless payment?

Anyway this sucks.

[jessebot@social.smallhack.org]

@fabio what's your suggestion right now? I'm on a fairphone running eos and it's fine, but I got this as more of a stepping stone to a linux phone. I just for the life of me can't decide which linux phone to go to. Agree with Android going to absolute shit though.

[fabio@manganiello.eu]

@jessebot@social.smallhack.org I wish I had a silver bullet but I don't. I've got a Pixel with GrapheneOS myself and I'm trying to get it to last as long as I can. But in the meantime I'm tinkering with #PostmarketOS on some older devices (especially now that they've got systemd support so I don't have to reinvent too many wheels). If I could get a decent Android virtualization layer to work with the same sandboxing layer for Google Play Services as GrapheneOS I'd probably be ready to make the jump.

[fabio@manganiello.eu]

@futurebird@sauropods.win I think all it takes is a decent virtualization layer. I use GrapheneOS and I can get most if not all of my Android apps to work, all while sandboxing Google Play Services the way I want. If PostmarketOS, Sailfish, UBPorts or anything else could manage to get the same sandboxing model to work in something that resembles Waydroid and it's reasonably efficient and stable, I'd probably be ready to make the jump.

[the_codifier@libranet.de]

@fabio Now Motorola joining forces with GrapheneOS would be the fuel that Graphene needs to hit massive markets... Or what do you think about it?

[joroingo@mstdn.social]

@fabio question: Why not say android/iphones, equally bad no?

[fabio@manganiello.eu]

@joroingo@mstdn.social well iPhones have been bad from day 1.

Android at least found for most of the time a way to strike a balance.

But I knew that it was just a matter of time before the enshittification faction in Google managed to get the upper hand.

It's just appalling how unprepared we've all come to this day, with age verification APIs, external APK limitations and broken download/recovery modes perhaps all coming within this year, and the Linux phones ecosystem still struggling to get together something usable after two decades.

[fabio@manganiello.eu]

@the_codifier@libranet.de I have a positive hunch about the collaboration between Motorola and GrapheneOS. And I think that it's going to be a win-win.

GrapheneOS needs a reliable hardware partner, without being exposed to the risk that the next version of the Pixel phone will permanently lock the bootloader.

And Motorola needs to carve its own niche, and taking the crown of tinkerability that once belonged to Nexus and Pixel sounds like a good strategy (and they've already been making good phones with more-or-less stock Android for a while). According to some back-of-the-envelope estimates ~10-15% of the Pixel users run GrapheneOS - Motorola has identified a reliable niche to penetrate.

But the software side of the equation is still a problem.

I'm honestly not sure of how any future age verification APIs may be implemented on the OS, if and how they will percolate into the AOSP too or will be mostly contained in the Google Play Services and can be sandboxed, how easy it will be to get rid of them, how many Android apps will break if you try to bypass it, and how doable it would be for GrapheneOS to keep maintaining their forked version.

And I'm also not sure of how future modifications to the Android apps ecosystem through the developer verification process will impact also open-source implementations of Android - since in the worst case scenario they will also impact F-Droid.

GrapheneOS+Motorola is probably a good patch for the immediate problems, but probably not one that I'm likely to invest on the long term. For the simple fact that the Android ecosystem in general has become increasingly hostile and it's trying at all costs to become more like Apple.