Android alternative

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by Amanda, Apr 22, 2016.

  1. Amanda

    Amanda Registered Member

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    I think I might need to buy a smartphone, but I don't want to use any of the 3 most used OS's: Android, iOS, and WindowsPhone.

    I'm looking for a Linux-based OS that respects user privacy, that doesn't have as many useless "apps" as the other 3 big players, and is (almost) fully open source. I also need to be able to delete any "app" that I want, and to use a sandboxed Firefox inside the OS itself.

    Is there such a thing?

    I was looking at FirefoxOS, but I don't know much about it.
     
  2. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    The good news is that there are several other OSs being developed for the smartphone besides Android, iOS, Windows and Blackberry but it seems none are quite ready for Prime-Time just yet.

    One may wonder just how Mozilla could possibly come near to catching up to the major operating systems already available. Hopefully at least one or several of the projects on development will be ready for a go sometime soon. Perhaps it may be Firefox OS or another. We wish the best to all the developers of the OSs that can be made to operate on a smartphone.

    In the meantime, securing one's operating system is always a good challenge. If you consider Android at least for the moment you can secure it by the means spoken of in Wilders forums and be sure to use an app manager that can manage permissions so no irrelevant information leaks out. This can be set on an app-by-app basis on each permission it takes upon install.

    Best regards
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2016
  3. AutoCascade

    AutoCascade Registered Member

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  4. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    Last edited: Apr 23, 2016
  5. chrome_sturmen

    chrome_sturmen Registered Member

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    amarildojr, if you wind up on android, there's a good open source alternative to the google play store if you're interested:
    "F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform."

    https://f-droid.org/
     
  6. ReverseGear

    ReverseGear Guest

    Why would you consider cyanogenmod and not android ?

    Tizen is an option
     
  7. Amanda

    Amanda Registered Member

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    Thanks but that is not a concernt. All I want is a customizable OS that is capable of handling phone calls and a few of the most used "apps" these days, like WhatsApp.

    I wonder how easy it is to customize it? I figure I should be able to load it into my main PC and edit the source code if I wanted?

    Thanks, I think Ubuntu is a nice alternative to Android.

    I rather not use any Google projects on my OS or device :) I really don't trust those guys.
    I don't trust Canonical either, but then again Ubuntu should be more controlable and easy to maintain myself as I'm experienced with Linux in general, specially considering it (Ubuntu Touch) is pretty much an Ubuntu that still uses dpkg and etc.

    But more limited than all the others, it seems.
     
  8. Palancar

    Palancar Registered Member

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    Would ROOTING the smartphone abate some of your concerns? Being able to eliminate any unwanted apps is childsplay on a fully rooted device. Android provides quite a bit of control once you have control of the device at root level. Just a quick mention as a passing thought!
     
  9. Amanda

    Amanda Registered Member

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    Thanks! I don't know how much control rooting gives me, because Android would still need to use tons of proprietary libraries, I think.

    I was actually thinking of putting Arch into the phone o_O But that would require too much thought, to set up every program and etc.
     
  10. Gullible Jones

    Gullible Jones Registered Member

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    Most phones do not support GNU/Linux, AFAIK. They're designed for Android, and often vendor-locked. None of them are remotely secure, or reasonably securable by any means whatsoever.

    Rooting, don't bother. It consists of deliberately running an exploit binary. Far too many trust issues there.

    I myself have a vendor-locked phone running an obsolete, insecure, and *slow* version of Android. I can't get rid of it due to job requirements etc. For now my strategy is

    1. Don't do serious web surfing from the phone
    2. Disable Javascript in the browser
    3. Have Malwarebytes running on the phone
    4. Use a password manager
    5. Use said password manager from PCs, not from the phone
    6. Seriously, don't do anything vital or personal from the phone

    So far, so good, but that's only due to luck.

    In short: don't be too worried about the options, they all suck.
     
  11. BoerenkoolMetWorst

    BoerenkoolMetWorst Registered Member

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    CopperheadOS is a security focused Android ROM. Still Google because of Android of course, but it's free from all the other bundled Google stuff and it comes with PaX kernel and other cool stuff.
     
  12. AutoCascade

    AutoCascade Registered Member

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    There is another thread somewhere on Wilders where a user reported using a firewall to block apps they didn't want to communicate automatically. You should be able to do this with any android phone blocking all google apps.

    With cynogen you can start with using phones that work well in your backyard so to speak, meaning the right frequencies.
     
  13. Amanda

    Amanda Registered Member

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    Interesting, I'll take a lot at it. Thanks.

    It indeed looks very attractive. I'll check it out as well :)
     
  14. dogbite

    dogbite Registered Member

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    You may want also to consider ParanoidAndroid, is a hardened android fork.
     
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