[rangestransform]

I used to be a custom rom guy in high school, and I also used to develop apps for my nexus 5. Now I have an iPhone and I save the tech nerding for work hours. I definitely would not have gotten this far without my custom rom days, but now my phone just needs to do phone things so I can work on robots instead.

[mckenzba]

This. I was heavily involved with the Maemo community back in the day and even made an Ubuntu 9.04 port to the Nokia N800/N810. These days I'm juggling multiple responsibilities and I need to conserve my mental energy for work. I certainly credit my career on that tinkering, but these days I just want something that works so I can put my energy elsewhere.

[idiotsecant]

>I need to conserve my mental energy for work.

Is perhaps the saddest sentence. Whats the point of working when you don't have enough energy left to do the fun stuff?

[thankyoufriend]

You might be reading into that too much. It's more likely that this person's definition of what is "fun" has changed since they were younger. Spending time with family/friends or engaging with new hobbies might be how they have fun now, and that's perfectly fine.

[encom]

Yea, messing with my computer isn't as fun for me as it once was. There's something screwy with my CPU cooler, and I've been putting off dealing with it for well over a year.

I still wouldn't be caught dead with a Macbook - I do have some self respect.

[crubier]

Dealing with broken Linux installs might be your definition of fun, but it's very possible to be a nerd and not find that particular thing fun, and prefering Macbooks

[array_key_first]

Android phones do phone things. They work perfectly fine - in many ways better than iPhones, and in others not as well.

[godelski]

I switched to an iPhone more in an act to protest Google and I regret my decision. Things didn't get easier, they got harder.

I mean for christ's sake, there's no universal gesture for "back". Do I swipe from the side? Press the x button at the top left? The top right? Is there no option I can find so I just force close the app? When I swipe to text with autocorrect turned off why does it change the word I swiped AND the word before it that was already correct? Why can't I swipe the word "racist"? Why can't I swipe the phrase "killed himself" and instead it "corrects" to "Lillies himself" or "milled himself"? (Made for a very awkward conversation about Turing...). Why can I swipe the word "suicide" but not "suicidal"? (These are phrases I've found to be easy to reproduce but it also happens with mundane everyday shit) Holy fucking shit how the fuck is this thing even a phone, it doesn't even do phone things well? I mean as far as I can tell there is no setting which will ever capitalize a singular "i", making it trivial to recognize an iphone user since well... iphones came out...

Not only that, with things like Termux they just work better. Want to sync files to your computer? Easy, rsync. With a few lines in a bash script my phone does daily backups locally. With a few lines I have a script that means my phone is a keyboard for my computer. With a few lines I have I can turn my old phone into something useful instead of garbage. Maybe these things are tech nerdy to the average person and "too much work" but for us? Come on, this shit is trivial.

[array_key_first]

I switched from iPhone to Android and I was fully expecting a world of pain but I was (am?) pleasantly surprised.

The back button thing is real. When I have to use someone else's iPhone I immediately feel the lack of consistency.

And KDE Connect is fantastic to use. So many things on iPhones are just annoying for no reason. I don't want to buy a 1000 dollar computer to look at my photos, come on now.

[godelski]

I'm not too big of a fan of KDE content but totally get why people use it.

I do want to suggest you install termux, and do it from fdroid rather than the play store.

I'm guessing you're on Wayland, so check out ydotool. (If still on x s/x/y) there's a lot of cool things to do with tools like that. Basic one is use your phone as a keyboard (like KDE connect can do, but I found it more reliable and KDEC doesn't play well with VPNs)

I wrote a similar script in Apple Shortcuts and... wtf is this bullshit. My files backup Shortcut is even uglier. I'm incredibly impressed at the hacky shit I was forced to do just to backup photos... I almost would rather pay for an app that does it. I almost would rather learn how to write an iOS app. Just to... replace a 10 line bash script -__-

Since I'm still not a big fan of Google my next phone is going to be a Pixel and I'll install Graphene on day 1. That is, unless something better comes out :)

[array_key_first]

I'll check out ydotool. I did a bunch of bullshit with shortcuts, too. I had one that would change my screen from grayscale to color when I opened the photos app. Of course it only worked, like, 80% of the time so that was great.

I have a pixel 9a with Graphene right now and I'm very happy with it. Great hardware, great price, great software. The one blindspot is messaging, which is a big problem in the US. RCS doesn't work on Graphene, and SMS is basically the worst thing ever, so I use Signal as much as I can. I'm hoping one of these days RCS becomes an actual open standard with competing implementations but... I won't hold my breath.

[godelski]

That's good to hear about graphene. I've been able to get most of my friends to move to signal but yeah the walled gardens are annoying. Does graphene not support the same RCS that Google does?

As for Android, I think the real magic happens when you just realize your phone is another computer and you can do normal computer things with it. It just starts unlocking so many doors. One thing I like to do is have my desktop sit behind my TV. Big screen for movies and games. For everything else, there's ssh. Your phone is just another terminal in that environment. But the modern version of a terminal means your local machine can actually do meaningful things too. Tbh, it's really what the big tech companies are doing too, they just pretend they aren't.

Also, since you're new to Android check out revanced. I'm not sure if you need this on graphene but you can recompile apps. Mostly used for removing ads but there's more to it than that.

I'm hoping one of these days we can just treat computers like computers. Stop creating these walled gardens. It really slows down innovation and honestly, I believe the big companies would make more money doing it. After all, their whole business sits on top of open source work. The computer is nothing without the program. The smart phone is nothing without the app. Why can't we recognize that the success of these machines is that they're environments. You can't create a product for everybody, but building environments doesn't have the same limitations

[_-_-__-_-_-]

PhotoSync and LocalSend.

[badc0ffee]

Swipe up from the bottom (which goes to the app switcher), and then swipe up any app you want to force-quit.

[godelski]

Sorry, I definitely was unclear when angry writing this

  > Is there no option I can find so I just force close the app?

I end up doing that a lot but it's honestly a bad solution that shouldn't have to be used

[badc0ffee]

I see, you can't find the way back so you quit the app in frustration. I get that

[idontwantthis]

I like iPhone and won't go back to android because I am comfortably using a 6 year old iPhone on the latest operating system with no real issues. Planning to keep using it until it stops getting security updates, or the hardware fails.

[windexh8er]

I think the assertion here is there are no Android phones that don't have long term support. Apple compared to Google Pixel phones are basically the same longevity today[0][1].

With a lot of Android devices they'll have a lifespan even beyond that. Although there are choices to make at that point. You just don't have the option with Apple.

[0] https://endoflife.date/iphone [1] https://endoflife.date/pixel

[idontwantthis]

In those lists iphones are supported up to 7 years old, while Pixels only go back 4 and they end security updates at the same time that they end OS updates. The most recent one says it will go 6 which will match my claim as of today, but I'm expecting to keep this one going for more than another year, and I'm expecting security updates to keep it usable for at least a few years after that.

[windexh8er]

Current Pixels are 7 years (showcased in the links I provided), not sure why you're claiming 6. Apple doesn't claim EoS but also hasn't provided longer than 7.

Apple makes no such guarantees, so it's not something anyone can depend on.

[idontwantthis]

My point is that right now I have one that is 6 years old. If Google develops a track record of supporting phones that long my stance will change. Also Google is the posterchild for canceling support.

[windexh8er]

That's my point. Google has commitment to support for the same timeframe. Google has zero track record of reducing support as Pixels have continued to be rolled out. This is the one area Google has been consistent in a positive direction.

Beyond that, there's no guarantee Apple continues to support for 7 years. They are literally the same level of corporate greed as Google.

Also... Apple has locked all of their users into planned obsolescence for a decade plus. At least their is hope on the slightly more open side with AOSP.

Apple is a poster child of nothing. They have put out hardware that is inaccessible and unrepairable for years. Both companies suck to their end users, let's not pretend Apple is some utopia of awesome to their customers.