Degoogled since 2018
hardcore mode, google domains blocked by DNS
YouTube scrap data
GrapheneOS with used Pixel
“degoogle” - uses Google phone
100% These people think they are sticking it to Google by buying a pixel and installing a custom ROM. Instead they just inflated Google’s user count.
GrapheneOS is not a custom ROM and I bought my phone second-hand, so I didn’t give my money directly to Google
This will be a problem until a non-google open OS is adopted for mobile phones. Right now that list is incredibly short and nothing competes in the flagship department. I don’t see it changing anytime soon because gen x and millenials may be the last generations that have a signifigant portion of itself that has a grasp of how computers work beyond “tap app icon, app does things”.
Thing I took for granted like how a file system works is lost on my kids (late Z early alpha). Explaining what a file extension is like teaching a new language. I used to think “training wheels” for learning computering via tablets and phones and touch screens were a good thing but there is nothing that compels people today to shed themselves of them. It feels very reminiscent of my childhood and teaching my boomer dad how to right click. I think computer literacy needs to be required education, but I’m afraid that the definition for computer literacy might be meaningless nowadays if it doesn’t go beyond open app store, install app, run app.
US public education computer literacy is dead, and it’s not going to get better for at least 5+ years, best case scenario. Even if the person that is elected after Trump is a Democrat, it will take years to rebuild to where we were before big tech started bribing school IT departments. You think Apple/Google/Microsoft give a flying fuck about computer literacy being taught in schools? Because that’s who currently decide the computer literacy program that the public school will provide. Whichever vendor they decide to go with. At this point I’m not convinced that Google is a better choice than the others, but it’s also akin to choosing the least shitty sandwich at a shit-sandwich buffet.
In hindsight, this has been a downward trend since the proliferation of smart phones circa 2012. Google (android) isn’t the best choice, but it is much better being open source over other ecosystems namely Apple. There is also an issue I strongly suspect that wireless carriers wouldn’t allow open hardware/software on their networks because they have baked in restrictions in the major OSes on how you can access the network like tethering. I don’t expect that to change for the better either because even when net neutrality was a thing wireless was exempt from the rules. Kinda reminds me how back in the day ISPs had to be forced to offer naked DSL (internet from the phone company without requiring phone service). This all has deep issues that won’t be resolved anytime soon if ever. I’m putting my money on Linux becoming an actual threat to Microsoft and Apple in the desktop, laptop, handheld space and then that spreading into the mobile and tablet space. Depending on how Apple and Google antitrust situations are handled, we could start to see a shift by the end of the decade at best. This is why the tech sector will cozy up and do the bidding of whoever is in power. They won’t run the risk of drawing the ire of the government to break up their monopolies so long as the party in power believes tech companies are in their party’s pocket. This shift happened when Biden’s election was inevitable toward Democrat favored polices and it’s happening now for Republican favord polices since the last Biden Trump debate made a Trump victory inevitable.
My points are the tech sector is blatantly doing whatever it can to keep its power and change won’t happen quickly if it happens at all.
This trend started waaaay before 2012. When I graduated highschool the only computer class that was offered was a basic MS Office and advanced MS office. The people making these type of decisions for public schools are rarely tech literate themselves, they physically cannot make an informed choice. This will not be resolved until big tech is dissolved, or strong regulations are pushed by the voting population. If anyone wants their children to be tech literate I recommend getting your kids in front of a keyboard and mouse instead of a touchscreen as early as you would allow them to use a tablet. The tablet will be easier for both of you, and that’s exactly what they want.
It’s a funny irony but a Pixel with GrapheneOS is the gold standard for mobile device security. Buy it secondhand and cut out their profit.
Sure, sure. As long as you can trust Google’s custom silicon and custom security processor. I sure as fuck don’t, regardless of what Graphene OS claims. They are going to need to go to much greater lengths to assure me of that, and I can pretty much guarantee the Graphene devs won’t be able to do that.
Leaked Cellbrite docs indicated they couldn’t get in. I’d consider that pretty reasonable assurance. If you’re implying that Google has a backdoor… I think the argument against large/unstable conspiracies would apply.
This is so much horseshit I can’t even begin to unpack it. You really think those docs aren’t edited? They are 100% verified truth? That is a hunch at best. And so is my claim, it’s a ‘vibe’. I have zero proof of my claims, but I wouldn’t do anything I consider ‘secure’ on any Android device.
There is no fucking way in hell I would consider any Android device a secure device, in any way shape or form. It is, at best, a controlled device that most users do not have control over.
And claiming that anyone that doesn’t buy into the cellblite ‘leaks’ is a conspiracy theorist is also horseshit. (Or any leaks for that matter)
You can literally monitor the outbound DNS on a pixel with graphene and no apps and you’ll see zero DNS requests to any Google servers. Quit spredding FUD
What’s the alternative?
Honestly? In 2025? In the real world? Apple is the only alternative. And it really actually hurts my soul to type this reply out. I hate Apple. I think they are clowns. I hate closed platforms, and I think Mac’s are trash because of it. I have used every single version of Android. All of them, even pre-stable. The only alternative to Google is 2025, in regards to a mobile OS that works with my services and devices that I already own is iOS. The only way to get that is to buy a phone from Apple. And ‘normies’ care VERY MUCH about being able to use their already purchased shit. I wish Europe or Asia would actually try to compete against US big tech. It’s a very strange marketplace, nearly the entire planet trusts US companies with basically their entire infrastructure. The only major players in computing are US based companies, aside from MAYBE Canonical/Ubuntu. In the mobile market, I don’t see a way out of the duopoly at the current moment. If my phone died today I would replace it with an iPhone. And I wouldn’t be happy about it.
Apple is the only alternative.
Nah. Fuck Apple! I know it may be too much but they’re dead to me after I bought AN OFFICIAL REFURBISHED Apple device for my dad (old had problems) and received it with a motherboard problem (?), it couldn’t read the sim for more than 1 hour straight. Contacted support multiple times and “Try this useless troubleshooting steps you already tried countless times” or "The sim is ruined so it doesn’t touch the sim pins correctly (or some bs like that) " or “It’s your carrier” or “From our remote tests, the phone works perfectly” or other Apple shit I forgot. After my last call I said “You either take my phone and check it or refund me”, they took it to check if was the phone, got it back ~2 days later FUCKING WORKING as it should. I guess was really the sim, not the phone 🤔🤔
The worst part is: They didn’t even care to give me something in return for the trouble! No, not money but they could’ve extended my warranty for a month or 2 as an apology but “Nah, we can’t. Fuck you now”
I’m reading this as Apple fixed your refurbished phone like you asked them to. I do not see how you should be entitled to extra warranty because of this, or any other compensation. I can assure you that Google would also not extend your warranty for an issue of this nature. My friend is dealing with pixel warranty support as we speak and it sure as hell doesn’t sound any better. I totally understand ‘writing off’ a company after you feel personally wronged by them, but I wasn’t including warranty issues on refurbished phones in my requirements for my next mobile device. You asked what the alternative is and realistically that’s the only one for 99.99% of the population.
My choice is to just not have a smartphone. Something like an old Nokia is what I use, CatB40 specifically but the company licensed to make those no longer exists. I hope Cat find someone else and they still make a line of dumb phones not just smartphones but I don’t really expect it any time soon.
If mine dies probably just get a regular dumbphone for like £10. Can’t collect much data if all it’s capable of doing is calls and SMS which I rarely even use.
That’s super cool for you. If I didn’t work in IT I might try to achieve something similar. But honestly suggesting that the average person on the street go back in time almost 20 years in regards to their mobile device is just going to get you laughed out of the room. Do you use mobile banking? Do you carry a camera around with you at all times? Do you listen to music? For me music is a big one, I’m not listening to any god damned radio commercials and I don’t have CD player in my car anymore. How would you entertain yourself on a long car ride alone in this scenario? Do you have any IoT or smart home devices? How do you interact with them? I know a few people that are a bit older than me that don’t ‘get’ smartphones but then use a tablet on the couch pretty often. My uncle doesn’t have a smartphone, and is kinda smug about it, but also doesn’t really leave the house without his android tablet. I guess if you don’t actually want to do any computing on the go a dumb phone is fine for short texts and phone calls, but finding one that works with 5G is another challenge these days.
Apple phones make a simmilar enough number of calls to google that I would say that youre probably better off with a pixel running graphene.
Nah. If it’s a choice between GrapheneOS on a pixel or an iPhone I’d take my chances with the pixel.
It would be pretty easy to detect if there was unexpected traffic with any google services.
You do you but IMO Graphene is your best chance in 2025.
Nah. If it’s a choice between GrapheneOS on a pixel or an iPhone I’d take my chances with the pixel.
Why? Not trying to be a dick about it, I just want to hear your justification. Thanks.
For me Linux has been working pretty well
On a phone ?
Linux on a mobile phone? Which device? Which Distribution? What works 'pretty well? What doesn’t work all that well?
Same, same. Fuck Google.
I’m never going back.
Preferred search engine?
SearXNG, personally.
Self hosted Searxng for me
I’ve been using startpage for about a year now, has worked great.
Isn’t that just Google with an extra MITM for everything? Sure it protects your privacy a little bit but the same bad actors are still getting their ad revenue from your searches, correct? Or do I just not understand how start page works?
Osmand+ still gulf of mexico… Just sayin.
Google has the ability to stand up to trump. To destroy him, frankly.
But they’d have to not be little bitches, so I guess they don’t.
I wonder how location dependent it is?
I just need to use Gemini until this semester is over, then I’ll be degoogling completely. I just wish I could deapple too, but nope. Nearly every OS for mobile is built on android, browsers that are for “security” are run on chromium, safari is good for security but you have to pay for iCloud plus or whatever they call it to get the private relay option, it is infuriating that we just can’t get freedom from this garbage. Things are purposefully made to be so expensive that only huge companies can afford to run it, openAI and meta literally pirated books, articles, journals, etc and although WE don’t like it, the government doesn’t care because OpenAI and meta are big companies who can do those things; neither Trump nor Biden gave a shit about it. We need
HERE WeGo still has Gulf of Mexico. Use HERE WeGo instead of Google shit.
I prefer OrganicMap. Free and Open source made with the help of the community. Your suggestion is only play store and as a degoogled user I don’t have access to it (Aurora store, I know but still). Not sure which one is better in terms of UI/UX but the fact It’s not open source is a no go for me
Open Steet Maps also shows Gulf of Mexico. Most maps seem to get their data either from Osm, Bing or Google.
I’d really love for someone to come up with a phone OS that I could use on my cell phone. Mine runs on Android and I want to dump all things Google! I read that they have an exclusive deal with reddit where ALL data on reddit would be made available to them for training their AI algorithms. I went on perplexity.ai to check for this and here’s the response I received to my query: The deal between Reddit and Google to share data for AI training and search purposes will likely have significant impacts on Reddit user privacy:
- Increased data sharing: Google will have exclusive access to Reddit’s Data API, allowing them to collect real-time, structured content from the platform13. This means more user-generated content and activity data will be shared with a third party.
- Enhanced user profiling: Google will use this data to improve its AI models and search capabilities, potentially leading to more accurate user profiling across Google’s services36.
- Potential for more personalized advertising: With access to Reddit’s data, Google may be able to create more detailed user profiles, potentially leading to more targeted advertising both on and off Reddit26.
- Reduced anonymity: While Reddit has traditionally allowed for relative anonymity, this data sharing could make it easier to connect Reddit activity with other online identities13.
- Increased scrutiny of user content: As Reddit seeks to maintain its value for AI training, there may be stricter moderation and potential removal of certain types of content or communities4.
- Changes to user agreements: Reddit may update its privacy policy and user agreement to reflect this new data sharing arrangement, potentially granting themselves broader rights to use and share user data6. It’s important to note that while Reddit claims it does not sell personal information to third parties, this deal represents a significant change in how user data is shared and utilized23. Users concerned about privacy may need to be more cautious about the information they share on the platform and may want to review their privacy settings regularly. P.S.: Ignore the weird numbers as those are reference links. I copy-pasted this stuff.
Organic Maps is still keeping it real for me
Organic Maps:
Organic maps updates its dataset once a month or so. It will eventually be updated to the gulf of America, as it is now, technically named the gullf of America in America. See discussion here: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/gulf-of-america-gulf-of-mexico/124571
Organic Maps is really cool :-)
Yeah, it’s even better than GMaps for me, because GMaps doesn’t have bike navigation (where I live) while Organic Maps has all the bike lanes marked and navigatable.
Yeah it’s way better for biking and walking. I also find the map a lot more coherent, with GMaps I often had to resort to the satellite view to see what’s going on.
I’ve reported an issue. Enough people do it they might do something.
“There’s no saving America – we need to pull it out by the roots. Wipe the slate clean. Burn it down! And from the ashes, a new America will be born. Evolved, but untamed!”
— Senator Armstrong.
Time to make the mother of all omelettes. Can’t fret over every egg!
Im calling it the golf of low egg prices :3
Meanwhile on Openstreetmap:
name Golfo de México
name:en Gulf of Mexico
official_name:en_US Gulf of America
Showing just enough acknowledgement to confirm they’ve discussed the executive order, but they aren’t going to follow it.
Surely that is following it? Change the name in American. Leave it the same in English.
It’s kind of a malicious compliance thing. The new name will not show up on any map renders, moreover it’s not likely to be shown in most apps even if you select the object (because
official_name:*is not supported by most apps).Ahh nice, I like it
I’m gonna download StreetComplete, it’s a neat incentive for exercise.
That’s pretty cool, I didn’t know about that app before you brought it up. Downloaded already!
Tip on using StreetComplete: Don’t be afraid to turn off a bunch of things. If you leave everything on you’ll often find yourself standing around one place instead of enjoying more of the area and answering a smaller set of questions.
Ooh I would LOVE to do it and I did that with 2 places but I don’t like:
- The fact it doesn’t show you the best match of your search based on distance by your location (or is because)
- It doesn’t show the 2 places I sent ~1 month ago or they’re hard to find (available on site, not on organic maps)
Google maps was exactly like that before it became the defacto navigation software for most of the planet and we all started answering innocent little questions for our new overlords. I really feel like OSM is on the verge of becoming top tier, we just need a bit more momentum to push it there. And unlike their competitors, it’s highly unlikely you will see anything in any media publication to push users towards them. Google had multiple ad campaigns for maps before it replaced things like Garmin GPS and in car GPS. Garmin and TomTom sold millions of dedicated GPS devices before Google killed their business model.
Its a great app but has some problems I can’t just ignore, the ones mentioned above are what I need and I can’t get it working
The fact it doesn’t show you the best match of your search based on distance by your location (or is because)
That highly depends on the search engine you’re using, OsmAnd for example sorts the search results by distance to your location.
It doesn’t show the 2 places I sent ~1 month ago or they’re hard to find (available on site, not on organic maps)
That’s an Organic Maps problem, they only update the OSM database once a month, and you have to click the update button manually when they do so.
I kinda recommend against Organic Maps at this point. It’s a dumbed-down app with bad routing, bad search, and slow updates. The only thing it has going for it is that it has the best UI/UX (especially for new users) compared to other FOSS openstreetmap apps. If you’re ok with proprietary nonsense, mapy.cz is a lot more fleshed out, and otherwise you should just learn and configure OsmAnd for yourself.
I use Organic Map and both my locations are on the site and if I open the location through the app, I see it but searching lead to no results. No idea why, maybe I can see them because I’m the author?
That’s an Organic Maps problem, they only update the OSM database once a month, and you have to click the update button manually when they do so.
I thought was more. But it’s up to date and I still can’t see the place I uploaded more than 1 month ago, sadly.
Eh I strongly prefer FOSS apps, OrganicMap was a cool project, can’t find a Google maps alternative FOSS and reliable
Just use OsmAnd. It’s old-school in terms of its UI and can be clunky, but it’s FOSS, has hourly map updates (free for OSM contributors), and a lot of customization and features.
Someone at OM forgot to click the “reindex-db” this morning 🤣
America is so fucking weird!
Only most of us. Please send help.
Putin is on the way 😝
…putin got us into this mess and couldn’t be happier…
Something adjacent to degoogling: I am concerned that Microsoft would collaborate with the Trump Regime. I never used Linux before, but I am now downloading Ubuntu. It feels like that I should do a dual-boot setup and get ready to abandon Windows if I hear about MS HQ in Washington having a DOGE presence.
Here’s hoping that Europe and the Blue States are watching Microsoft for anything weird.
