The "Post-PC" era (smartphones)

[UCyborg]

It's not exactly unheard of for open-source software to be abandoned.

[UCyborg]

Like most people, I cannot read the code because I cannot programme. Perhaps unlike most, even attempting runs up against disability-related limits.

Another catch, there's a lot of code to read. Longer than your average novel.

[Mæstro]

…if everything was open sourced, you'd have a better chance of fighting this cat and mouse game.

This is true, a fact I have appreciated in Jabber. Any client should work with any server, and it is trivial to move from one to another if ever needed. I have done this before when my original one was down for a prolonged period. Vendor lock-in does not exist when there are no vendors. You are neither paying for the product nor yourself the product if there is no product. Approaching these matters non-commercially is much easier with open-source software.

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Meanwhile, I have been told that somebody in my family might try to push smartphone use onto me in the springtime, when I am in the States. (Of course, I will resist. Nobody can make me use a smartphone.) Apparently, some people, especially in their culture, just cannot resist ‘a deal’ if the smartphone is free of cost. Why are the firms even giving away smartphones like this?

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In still other news, I have just found out that Google intends to impose Appley gatekeeping, never mind that the EU have already pressed against Apple’s misbehaviour.

※Edited to correct a misprint.

[UCyborg]

So much for the happy new year 2026. And I'm the odd one for saying that every new year is the same shit that isn't any better than the last one, or even worse.

[Moonchild]

S.S.D.D.

[frostknight]

In still other news, I have just found out that Google intends to impose Appley gatekeeping, never mind that the EU have already pressed against Apple’s misbehaviour.

Google is lead by arrrogant people, that's all.

Meanwhile, I have been told that somebody in my family might try to push smartphone use onto me in the springtime, when I am in the States. (Of course, I will resist. Nobody can make me use a smartphone.) Apparently, some people, especially in their culture, just cannot resist ‘a deal’ if the smartphone is free of cost. Why are the firms even giving away smartphones like this?

GrapheneOS pixel devices if you have to.

They are giving them (android phones) away because the data collection makes them make tons of money probably. So they can afford to not make money on the individual phone

[Gemmaugr]

Google is lead by arrrogant people, that's all.

GrapheneOS pixel devices if you have to.

I'm sorry, but I just have to point out the irony here. GrapheneOS is Rebuild of google Android, and a Pixel smartphone is a google-built smartphone. That's only giving them more data, power, and arrogance.

[Moonchild]

GrapheneOS is Rebuild of google Android, and a Pixel smartphone is a google-built smartphone. That's only giving them more data, power, and arrogance.

And money.

[frostknight]

And money.

Yeah except, that kind of is a given, I mean we both know that Google sells data about people.

GrapheneOS is Rebuild of google Android, and a Pixel smartphone is a google-built smartphone. That's only giving them more data, power, and arrogance.

Except, Android does lots of spying, GrapheneOS doesn't. So you aren't giving them squat, unless you are using a carrier like Verizon.

But even then, its better to limit the power of data collection as much as possible.

Actually the only thing you could be giving would be direct payment for buying the device. But once you have it, might as well use it in the best way possible.

[Gemmaugr]

Except, Android does lots of spying, GrapheneOS doesn't. So you aren't giving them squat, unless you are using a carrier like Verizon.

But even then, its better to limit the power of data collection as much as possible.

Actually the only thing you could be giving would be direct payment for buying the device. But once you have it, might as well use it in the best way possible.

It's not only about the spying. It's about the control and influence (which will allow them more avenues of spying). Their vertical web integration. With a google made phone, they control the software. GrapheneOS is built from the latest google Android version, and google can include or remove whatever they want, and the GrapheneOS devs can mostly only rip out select things that don't overly "inconvenience" the end user. Then comes the software for google Android, often being google Flutter, google Electron, or similarly google-dependent apps (QT or CEF). Not to mention google chromium-lite, WebView. Chromium Rebuild devs can again only remove select things that don't break sites. Sites made with frameworks dependent on google V8 and targeted towards google chromium. Relying on the latest API's/Standards google push or re-write. Sites using google third party content like gfonts or google Tag Manager or google ads. Each of these things is a new potential source of spying for google.

[frostknight]

Then comes the software for google Android, often being google Flutter, google Electron, or similarly google-dependent apps (QT or CEF). Not to mention google chromium-lite, WebView. Chromium Rebuild devs can again only remove select things that don't break sites. Sites made with frameworks dependent on google V8 and targeted towards google chromium. Relying on the latest API's/Standards google push or re-write. Sites using google third party content like gfonts or google Tag Manager or google ads. Each of these things is a new potential source of spying for google.

Android still does everything worse though. GrapheneOS is like Android with some privacy and security.

Supposedly people have tried and failed to hack it as of recently.

[Night Wing]

I had to "negotiate" a new one year contract with my ISP, Comcast (Xfinity). Included in the contract was a brand new, latest model "smartphone". I did not inquire whether it was an iPhone, a Samsung phone or any other type of smartphone. I declined on getting the smartphone.

When I declined the offer for a a smartphone, the Comcast (Xfinity) sales agent wanted to know the reason why I was passing on getting a smartphone. My answer to the agent was, "The Road to Hell is paved with good Intentions".

I grew up in an age when there was no such device known as a smartphone. Three main reasons. I do not need a smartphone, I do not like a smartphone and I do not want a smartphone.

Beside, with my surgically replaced lenses in both my right and left eyes, the lenses I chose for the this medical procedure are for "distance". Anything within eighteen inches from my eyes, is blurry to "read" in print. I carry a set of reading glasses but I rarely use them.

About the only time I use the reading glasses is when I am doing banking like writing a check (I am old school and rarely use a credit card) or signing a contract in person at a bank. Ditto for medical forms.

This is why I like my two desktop tower computers which share my 32" external monitor to look up anything in this digital (computer) age where at my home, I do not need reading glasses to access information in print.

[Mæstro]

GrapheneOS pixel devices if you have to.

The device he has earmarked for me is whatever random one he had got. I neither know nor care the make. In any case, I refuse to accept it. Like I said, even a Stallman-approved smartphone is a smartphone. Small touchscreens, using the same device outside and in bed and flat design remain objections. I second this:

I grew up in an age when there was no such device known as a smartphone. Three main reasons. I do not need a smartphone, I do not like a smartphone and I do not want a smartphone.

I have been enjoying my smartphone-free adulthood. Keeping it this way has long since become part of my identity. New technology is always opt-in.

They are giving them (android phones) away because the data collection makes them make tons of money probably. So they can afford to not make money on the individual phone

I wonder how long before we see cheap Windows 12 laptops handed out like toasters for a new bank account.

But once you have it, might as well use it in the best way possible.

I think this manner of thought is why that family member, despite my mother’s attitudes (she had warned me about this; she keeps in closer touch with extended family) as well as my own, wishes to thrust smartphones upon me. When I was studying in the States and living with him, he respected my smartphone abstinence. Buying a smartphone meant wasting money on something that would never see any use. Now that he is receiving free smartphones with conditions attached, viz they must be used at least once monthly, he wants ‘to make the most of it’, whether it reflects our actual needs or not. It might also have been amplified by his annoyance on those rare occasions when I have requested somebody place calls on my behalf, avoided before because I had a clamshell.

[frostknight]

The device he has earmarked for me is whatever random one he had got. I neither know nor care the make. In any case, I refuse to accept it. Like I said, even a Stallman-approved smartphone is a smartphone. Small touchscreens, using the same device outside and in bed and flat design remain objections. I second this:

I can respect that. I really hope though you don't ever wish you had one because of getting stuck somewhere.

In any case, always avoid the worst options whenever possible.

(android phones and iphone fits that bill)

[Mæstro]

I can respect that. I really hope though you don't ever wish you had one because of getting stuck somewhere.

Thank you for your concern. In fact, I already know how it feels to be stranded and lost at night in an unfamiliar town, unable to reach out to anybody I know. This happened to me almost three years ago, shortly after moving here. I suffered a panic attack then, but a kind local heard me outside, comforted me and gave me directions for how I could return to my flat. This was about the beginning of my prolonged ebb which lasted from late 2023 to early 2025, when I was generally struggling to cope with independent life, a deteriorating (and ultimately false) friendship and adapting to a new university system unlike those with which I was familiar. When I was literally at my worst, I did not wish for a smartphone. Using a smartphone simply does not occur to me as a choice, in the same way that, as a convinced pacifist, it had not occurred to me to fight back when struck once, or it does not occur to any of us to take a spoonful of bleach or march naked into the street. It just isn’t done. Need cannot compromise my principles, or they are hardly principles at all. I do not believe in trade-offs.

[UCyborg]

S.S.D.D.

Shit at work hit differently this week. One server handling multiple applications went kaput over the weekend in a way it rendered Windows unbootable. Things are often hectic without hardware failures. Or maybe it's just my brain being too slow. Well, second day and things still aren't set straight. One thing that was presumably restored, but not surely. They put the salvaged copy of Subversion repo on another Linux machine, it used to be on that Windows machine. Trunk folder is there, but branches and tags are gone! Tomorrow might be interesting.

[Mæstro]

How fares your disaster plan disaster?

[UCyborg]

I expected some tense action / drama, but things are back to normal. Well, "normal", because normal at this company isn't exactly what one might assume. Though I don't know how they managed to end up with messed up Subversion repo, I heard it was simply because it wasn't restored right the first time. But from what I saw from my experimentation, even the backup function just ZIPs its folder minus 0 byte lck file and some cache SQLite database.

On "normal" and more on-topic, because nobody with the brain has any influence there, major update to the main software was released recently without the accompanying updated mobile app (still WIP). Naturally, it caused grief with some customers since some functions they used are now broken. And internal beta version still has quite some issues to work out.

I tested connectivity when server is HTTPS enabled. It's currently unusable in case phone doesn't come with CA certificate that the server certificate is linked to. Even if CA certificate is manually imported as user CA certificate on Android.

Obsolescence through outdated CA certificates is an interesting phenomenon. There were already a number of reports of broken app from before. The common factor was one particular CA certificate and Android 13 or older. But web version works in Chrome, they said. Turns out Chrome on Android comes with its own certificate store. But Android's own store only gets updates since Android 14.

I hope it's something small to address working with imported certificate, maybe just passing certain flag to a certain function.

[Mæstro]

That describes my life also, both with the XMPP problems I described and with academic problems and their by-effects. The relief is immense. I am not out of the woods yet, but the trees seem less dense now. It is good that our worst fears never came to pass.

My earlier speculation about Windows 365 computers turns out to have been fulfilled since last year. I wonder how long it will remain for businesses only. Perhaps the real question is whether ‘no more backups!’ would drive more sales than OneDrive subscriptions made redundant. Then again, the price could be set dearer than one. The record should also note that Microsoft considers ‘AI tools’ to be at the same level of importance as application software in general.

[UCyborg]

On the topic of Google's plans, Samsungs were already better avoided before due to Knox.