It will be a long tough uphill battle, but digital freedom is possible.
Purism is for example providing the Librem 5 phone with PureOS. Closing the app gap is big challenge, but I use the Librem 5 as my daily phone. Yes, I may have some inconvenience, but I have freedom, and the software is getting better and better.
You got to take a small toll on comfort if you want anything not backed by a huge evil corporation to have a chance.
Before it was Linux and now it's Ubuntu Touch, sure it's not perfect but it's a very much usable system which needs more people to try it out as their daily driver. I made the shift a month or so ago because I don't want to have to choose between two evils.
How can I use an OS that's not iOS on Android as a daily driver? 99% of what I do on my phone is chat to my friends and pay for things, which I won't be able to do at all with the free OSes. I might as well go without a phone at that point.
> 800$ for 720p screen and 3GBs of RAM
> Can't even use a bank app with it
I'm sorry, but this will never see adoption wide enough to be useful.
I can't imagine paying 800 and still having to carry a "backup" phone for payments, public transit and such.
At that cost I'd think more about seeking out a second hand phone that's survived and has good parts availability/repairability to keep it going. It would seem with both you're in the situation where google doesn't about you but at least the phone would be semi-smart enough to do some tasks and less drain on the wallet.
i read the exact same comments about the Librem 5 on HN back in about 2017/18. hope they'll continue with progress but it is giving, "This year is the year of the Linux [phone, desktop]!"
Purism is a shit company. It took 6 years to get a refund for my Libem 5 order (it was ready to ship after 3 years). I had to file a complaint with my credit card company.
Other people who paid over $1,000 got their shit out of date phones before me! Fuck Purism. They can go die in a fucking cesspit.
It will be a long tough uphill battle, but digital freedom is possible.
Purism is for example providing the Librem 5 phone with PureOS. Closing the app gap is big challenge, but I use the Librem 5 as my daily phone. Yes, I may have some inconvenience, but I have freedom, and the software is getting better and better.
For more info see also:
* https://puri.sm/posts/googles-new-sideloading-restrictions-w...
* https://puri.sm/posts/closing-the-app-gap-momentum-and-time/