- cross-posted to:
- buyfromeu@feddit.org
- cross-posted to:
- buyfromeu@feddit.org
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As an American, this is mostly a nonstarter, but right now, the only alternative that really intrigues me is the Jolla Phone (which I invariably have to look up to make sure I’m not getting it mixed up with Volla), because it’s the only one that isn’t just running a custom Android ROM. We need a true, viable alternative to Android and iOS and, to me, a de-googled ROM is only a half measure. Furthermore, the alternative needs to be free and open source, and community-driven.
Makes me wish I’d gone into software development 25 years ago because now I can only wish I could be the change I want to see in the world.
And I can guarantee you’d be basically helpless and mostly useless as a mobile dev in this landscape…
I’m painting a grim picture but the reality is that the task is so ginormous that it would take tremendous ressources and thousands of devs to make it happen.
if you can use your banking app on it or not.
If not, change the bank (and tell them why). This is the sustainable way.
I remember people saying this about Windows Phone. It’s a nice idea, but reality is that most banks will be happy to let the small percentage of users that make this request leave.
Not with EU data soveireignity.
Yeah. EU data sovereignty. With my Master Card credit card that I need the banking app for. That’s totally going to work.
Hopefully within 2026 we can start to refer to phones as ‘Android/Google Phones’, ‘iPhones’ and ‘FOSS Phones’ - No longer referring to them as ‘DeGoogled’.
But I am 100% understanding why we use the term now, it came from a Reddit sub. I think (and hope) if we start using the alternative term - FOSS Phones or Open Source or Sailfish/Jolla or whatever else they are… that people will start looking at that option quicker.
DeGoogled sounds to many like it is a bit of work to get rid of google (Buying a google phone and having to remove it). At one stage that was true, custom roms etc.
But I am hoping at this stage anyone buying any of these phones will already know why they are choosing them over other brands.
Shame on tuta for the headline. Sure, they’re European companies, but according to the article everything except the Volla phone is made in China.
Per the article, the Volla phone starts manufacturing in Taiwan (which I 100% support) and then finishes in Germany so that’s the only one of these that I’d actually consider.
We live in a globalised world. To demand a “pure” X phone is simply ludicrous. Children mine many important minerals with little to no protection in west African countries, and if it’s not children, it’s probably Uyghurs or some other minority for the rare earth metals, the chips are made in multiple countries but mostly China and Taiwan using Dutch machines, assembled by suicidal hand in East and Central Asian countries, and sold in Europe. And that’s not even all parts of the supply chain! Nearly every single link exploits one person or another, the money is used to lobby or forcefully keep the status quo in said country while making mostly already wealth Westerners rich.
To have a purely European phone, you’d probably have to pay 5k at least for the phone. Every European country’s citizens will resist mining in their country because they are acutely aware of the environmental damage it does and who will get rich from it, but they will gleefully buy the same product made under horrible conditions in other countries and not bat an eye when asked if it’s hypocritical. “At least it wasn’t my backyard”.
A big thing about the Fairphone is ensuring proper compensation to the entire production chain for the phone.
When it comes to electronics its essentially impossible not to have it go through China, and even if it does not go through China, there is no guarantee that workers are not being exploited. So making sure that there is no exploitation in the production processes is more important for me than avoiding China altogether.
Conclusion
The reviewed phone makers – Volla, Fairphone, Shift and Punkt – focus on producing deGoogled phones with a deGoogled OS preinstalled. It’s great to see the trend of going Google-free growing, and it’s a strong push-back against Google’s strategy of killing Android freedom and of making it impossible to install any app from any app store on Android.
That’s not a very useful conclusion
It sound like something AI written but with some human intervention to make it look like less odd.
Don’t quote me on that thoughthat though
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