I probably can’t get a new phone super soon, but it’s been quite frustrating how little support there is for iOS versions of open source software I’ve been slowing moving towards or investigating. I absolutely get why though!
I have the capability to understand complex topics but it takes me quite a few tries to really get it, so I’d like some help or recommendations of things that aren’t “just use linux”. (I am slowly dipping my toes by using WSL for things, though.) I am always searching for software, but I’ve never been active enough in communities to ask for personal recommendations and be warned of short comings. Obviously if you find recommendations, they want to look the best to you and hide their faults. I do try and research as much as possible, but like I said, I can get confused or not understand the drawbacks or full level of manual work/environments needed to operate at times.
Mostly I’m looking for day to day things that I can operate from my windows computer, but can also connect to my phone, assuming I get an android next. (Librem phones looks cool, but switching carrier providers is not feasible for me at the moment.) The boring things, like calendar, email, notes (I do use obsidian already). But if you’d like to gush about your daily drivers, I’m all ears!
I use pixel with CalyxOS. I’m pritty happy with it. Its easy to setup but you do need a pixel phone for it to work.
Looks like it also support fairphone which I’vr heard about. It supports really old pixels too! 'cause I don’t really play games or use the camera much so something older/refurbished I wouldn’t mind.
Keep in mind that the project it will work on old phone but at some point update will stop. Don’t remember after how many years google stops supporting a phone I guess its around 3-4 years.
In most cases this is not an issue if you don’t care about the latest features.
I know google ends up not supporting older android versions, but I would assume an open source OS could make it updatable for longer? Or is there a physical hardware lockout at times?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but i believe software updates would continue depending on ROM, but hardware / firmware / security updates would cease after a set amount of years?
Nope. I have a Lenovo P2 that recently got android 13 (last official was 9 or 10), security patches are up to date to march. Hardware and firmware yes but you don’t generally care that much about these.
So lets take a Pixel, with 6 years of updates guaranteed from Google. After 6 years, you can continue to install newer and newer OS versions and these will include security fixes for software. However, no new security updates pertinent to the device hardware will be available past that date? (I am asking)
Oh right, that makes sense.
Until recently I used CalyxOS with my old Pixel 3 and it’s amazing how the Calyx team prolonged it’s life
not only did they push one Android version more than Google ever did (and probably also will support Android 14 on it), while fixing the security incident with the lock screen and also made the battery life better due to not shipping Google Play services which drain it like crazy
That’s really exciting, I usually keeps phones for a very long time, but the problem that always gets them is having battery problems.