I think they still have an associated number, just that it can’t be used for voice or sms (it may have changed, but the number was effectively the equivalent of an IP address in the telco system - it’s what all the switching relies on to route). They probably just don’t provision voice or sms for it.

Yet Another Call Blocker does block all calls, that is my phone never rings, and I never see any notification of a call.

Good point about platform agnostic remote for management stuff. VNC is ideal for this.

And systems like Proxmox use a web GUI for most stuff, it’s a touch slow but I think that’s mostly just waiting for the system to finish the actual changes I make, and not the UI.

It uses some form of VNC (forget the name). Performance is fine for the VMs for non-video stuff.

You can run whatever you want inside a VM too.

Works for me, but damn it’s dog snot slow. Like typing takes 1-2 seconds for each character to show up

There was a post recently about “.LAN” recently being added to the DNS spec

I’ve found disabling play services on Samsung causes weird errors.

You can try, it may work.

Thanks for the DNS link!

Without being able to root, it’s a challenge.

I’ve had Verizon Samsungs for years and dealt with this.

Start with the Universal Debloat Utility. . Note what it says about disabling some things isn’t advisable. The recommended list is safe - I’ve used it extensively on Samsung.

After that, yea, something like RethinkDNS will help. I’d use it, but chose to run No Root Firewall to control network access (there are others, this is the one I’m familiar with). It acts as a VPN to provide the firewall functionality. You could then use another DNS provider that blocks ads and such (since ReThink also needs to run as a VPN).

I’ve disabled most factory apps, and several Google apps. You can disable Play Store and it’ll work OK. If you disable Play Services you’ll get error pop-ups frequently.

This is about the best you can do without being able to unlock the bootloader.

I’d start with a reset. Then setup the phone without a Google account, then run the debloater.

After that, do what you like.

Why would you run local traffic over the VPN?

I decided there simply were not enough docker apps for downloading Youtube videos, and so I made the situation worse :p

You get my upvote for this alone!

Wow, 2 bil. Finally a somewhat meaningful fine.

Fines need to be based on the profit made, or something they can’t argue away through accounting footwork.

Currently sitting at 6.5 bil, potentially going to 7.7 bil.

Good.

The other cost to home lab serving lots of data is internet limits.

My internet will throttle after X terabytes (I forget the limit), whether upstream or down, and of course upload is slower.

It’s like playing a game of tetris with costs, performance, stability, reliability, flexibility, privacy, security, and personal effort.

I’m not saying don’t have a home lab, just that there are things to consider. It’s worth the effort for me, though I’m working to move some things to cloud storage (e.g. Hetzner/Storj.io) and a VPS to get some of the bandwidth off my connection, and remove my home internet as a bottleneck or failure point.

Wtf are you on about?

That’s not much of an answer, I’m not reading docs because you can’t be bothered. I don’t use NixOS, so if you want to use that as an example, you’ll need to put in the effort to explain how it’s different.

If you don’t want to use LDAP, don’t. Then you get to manage each user account on each device.

To be frank, it seems like you have an adversarial attitude about this, and you think NixOS is the answer. Every one of your responses has been “but” whatever. You don’t seem like you want to understand how to use things, just complain it doesn’t work the way you think it should.

You need backup local admin accounts, not Backups for each user.

Which is how enterprise does things. There are local accounts with root access, but the id’s and passwords are tightly controlled.

Meaning what?

What’s wrong with LDAP for users? (I’m trying to think of a negative, and can’t).

You can also try Universal android debloat.

It can disable Gallery, though that has its own issues on Samsung.

That Bootloader unlock link is an awesome idea!

Check lineage’s list of supported devices.

Though after 15 years of flashing phones, I’m now on the Pixel train. I love the plastic back on mine. Makes it lighter while also making it stronger. Plastic doesn’t crack like glass or ceramic.