The "Post-PC" era (smartphones)

[UCyborg]

That bank still uses crypto voodoo from HID Global. Which means, at least in theory, it may still be possible to use HID Approve, which is also made for Windows 10+. Then you'd only have the the banking in a web browser. I did have this working for some time on the laptop. But since the crypto voodoo locks it to a device (or rather specific Windows installation), I didn't bother to activate it again when they updated their infra. If I have bank's app on the phone, I can use that phone to access banking stuff. That and it seemed the old phone is unlikely to change. I was uncertain about what Win10 build to stick to. But who am I kidding, they always eventually deprecate and obsolete, be it mobile or desktop.

The other family members, they're on different bank each. And in one case, the app is nagging each time you open it that you should update the OS. But that Samsung smartphone no longer receives updates.

I happen to have access to Samsung Android 14 tablet, I tried it there, but no go. Either it was screwed from the start or that code was made invalid from failed attempt.

Now I'm supposed to pester them over phone for new codes and expect it'll work. What a load of horseshit!

[frostknight]

That bank still uses crypto voodoo from HID Global. Which means, at least in theory, it may still be possible to use HID Approve, which is also made for Windows 10+. Then you'd only have the the banking in a web browser. I did have this working for some time on the laptop. But since the crypto voodoo locks it to a device (or rather specific Windows installation), I didn't bother to activate it again when they updated their infra. If I have bank's app on the phone, I can use that phone to access banking stuff. That and it seemed the old phone is unlikely to change. I was uncertain about what Win10 build to stick to. But who am I kidding, they always eventually deprecate and obsolete, be it mobile or desktop.

The other family members, they're on different bank each. And in one case, the app is nagging each time you open it that you should update the OS. But that Samsung smartphone no longer receives updates.

I happen to have access to Samsung Android 14 tablet, I tried it there, but no go. Either it was screwed from the start or that code was made invalid from failed attempt.

Now I'm supposed to pester them over phone for new codes and expect it'll work. What a load of horseshit!

The internet is becoming horseshit...

Whose dumb idea was it to give the worldwide web to corporations to lead?

Whoever did that should be fired and replaced with someone sane and if it keeps happening, keep replacing till someone does it right.

[Mæstro]

I have a bit of ongoing headache with my bank right now, but smartphones do not directly factor into it, and it would mislead to construe it in that light. I plan to telephone the bank about it, which I could have done myself with my old clamshell if I bothered to renew the subscription, but for which family will help me sometime in the next few days. As for the net as a whole, while I keep discovering websites (one did so just today!) which stupidly adopt a mobile-centred interface after decades with a sound, traditional one, I have no difficulty in finding the kinds of artwork, reel and books which I like, and this goes online and off. Switching VPN server or mirror for this or that site is the most headache I encounter. If a site goes bad, I dig up an older version of it and carry on.

Friends and I with whom I speak daily through IM have exchanged home addresses, and I have even lately received gifts from them to do with some of the anime we like. Physical, substantial representatives (not just tokens) of the things which I enjoy online are dear to me. Among other things, they remind that the internet is a choice, There are other ways to enjoy my various interests offline without encountering any special difficulty. The internet is nice to have, but I could live without it.

[UCyborg]

Corporations are lead by problematic people at the end of the day.

I just hate dealing with support people. They're useless. Ironically, I'm one of them. And I know it's the puppet-master behind that pulls the strings.

I'd still be in the dark about some realities of this world if it wasn't for the internet. Granted, there's a lot of toxicity and lies to filter through. Maybe one day we'll all be plugged into the cloud, then this reality can be forgotten.

[Mæstro]

Today, I learnt that Huawei have lately replaced Android with Harmony OS. What is more, Harmony (since version 5) is no longer Unixlike, but as far as I can tell, reflects the first attempt (excluding hobbyists, of course) at founding a new family of operating systems in many years. It is apparently being released for desktop as well as mobile. Reportedly, it can run with as little as 128K store, which is pleasant to hear still being minded in 2026! Although I have got no reason to favour Open Harmony over Linux (or BSD), it is happy to know of any development which could turn the mobile duopoly into an oligopoly and has, in any case, made the realm of existing OS genuinely more diverse. I welcome meaningful innovation.

[moonbat]

Whose dumb idea was it to give the worldwide web to corporations to lead?

Yeah, government bureaucrats are so much more noble, competent and selfless. And technical folk also get along so well, it's not as though they'll fork and branch off a project over some disagreement.

The general public all chose to move to a handful of proprietary silos, Nokia utterly fucked themselves up by hiring the Microsoft trojan Stephen Elop who gutted it from inside and ensured there would only ever be an Android/iOS duopoly, and here we are.

[UCyborg]

Got the app activated on the tablet with new code. Good lord, Samsungs are so laggy.

Something's screwed on my phone. Aurora Store suddenly doesn't show any app's page anymore, says it's not available for the device. It's probably not passing Play Integrity bullshit anymore either.

I hate Google.

[moonbat]

Samsungs are so laggy

They want their own ecosystem of apps so they have several built in ones that mirror what Google offers. There's a Samsung account you need to use these - health app similar to Google Fit, a payments system, a voice assistant (Bixby) - and many of these are baked in and can't be uninstalled. If you're staying on Android, better to use Google's own apps so that they're phone agnostic and you can try a different brand next time, else all your data stays locked into Samsung.

[Mæstro]

I would rather share my anecdote about my current business with the bank as it pertains to smartphone-free life, for it might be of some interest to readers here, after that business has settled, but there has been some progress within the last few days. I cannot say how long it should be to settle, but trust it will be in my favour. For now, I will say that all the complaints about headaches smartphones cause, even from people who insist on keeping them and using them wherever possible, have done nothing to make them seem more appealing.

Google is another firm which could catch fire tomorrow without my noticing beyond the random website outages. Since I no longer use Discord, the fact that it depends on Google for virtual servers no longer affects me or my ability to stay in touch with friends in the least. I can say the same about Samsung. Any effects on Korean society at large that a chaebol’s sudden collapse would cause would be quite the spectacle, probably the only way I would know of it. I wonder how it would compare against the martial law stunt not too long ago.

[UCyborg]

The Samsung tablet is actually my brother's, he doesn't use it much, it was a gratis that came with the smartphone. I just borrowed it to have the banking app working somewhere since the old version on the old phone will stop working soon and the new version of the app is being tripped by something on my rooted Unihertz that I haven't pinpointed. Modding has become a hurdle if working with financial apps and such is desired. Now they apparently made it so if it doesn't like something, it lies about the cause and makes you think you put the wrong codes in it. And you can't try again as they're invalidated after failed attempt and have to get new ones.

When we setup the tablet for my brother, he made a Samsung account. I didn't think of possibility of bypassing it by turning off Wi-Fi at the time, which I realized recently adding myself as the user. So I got around Samsung account at least. Can't say they have anything that would convince me to buy into their ecosystem. I had only one Samsung smartphone so far, a Galaxy Mini from 2012, another era. Though it got bad rather quickly, the hardware buttons and the battery. I only used it for about 2 years.

[frostknight]

They want their own ecosystem of apps so they have several built in ones that mirror what Google offers. There's a Samsung account you need to use these - health app similar to Google Fit, a payments system, a voice assistant (Bixby) - and many of these are baked in and can't be uninstalled. If you're staying on Android, better to use Google's own apps so that they're phone agnostic and you can try a different brand next time, else all your data stays locked into Samsung.

When google is in the better category, you have to ask yourself, if they aren't the main villain, who is?

Whoever they are is a massive douche to be worse than Google.

[UCyborg]

Yay, I get all red crosses in Integrity Checker. Even last time, I had to install some random fork of Magisk for the other app to not trip. Ironically, the upstream developer of Magisk works for Google. So there is a potential conflict of interest.

Why are they putting so much resources into fighting this war?

[Basilisk-Dev]

Today, I learnt that Huawei have lately replaced Android with Harmony OS. What is more, Harmony (since version 5) is no longer Unixlike, but as far as I can tell, reflects the first attempt (excluding hobbyists, of course) at founding a new family of operating systems in many years.

I've been looking into HarmonyOS on mobile. I'm still debating on whether I should get it or not, don't want to spend potentially hundreds of dollars on a device that will end up not getting any use.

I've also been looking into making a small handheld Linux PC with a BlackBerry keyboard and some sort of SBC with an e-ink screen. Something exists like that already but based on a Raspberry Pi and without the e-ink screen so I will probably download the STL files for that and then modify it to whatever SBC and screen I decide on (not a fan of Raspberry Pi). It'd be nice to have a true handheld Linux experience with Pale Moon/Basilisk and a physical keyboard.

[Mæstro]

It is nice to see handheld Linux getting more attention. I have noticed before that some Linux enthusiasts like to point to Android as a success story, when there are enough differences between Android and Linux proper that transferring the credit is unwarranted. That 16 TB SSD I returned was compatible with Android, according to the box, for example.

Off-topic:
Out of curiosity, why do you dislike the Raspberry Pi? I ask because it has been among the candidates I have kept in mind for a potential successor to this computer, so being aware of its demerits could help me make an informed choice.

[andyprough]

I've also been looking into making a small handheld Linux PC with a BlackBerry keyboard and some sort of SBC with an e-ink screen. Something exists like that already but based on a Raspberry Pi and without the e-ink screen so I will probably download the STL files for that and then modify it to whatever SBC and screen I decide on (not a fan of Raspberry Pi). It'd be nice to have a true handheld Linux experience with Pale Moon/Basilisk and a physical keyboard.

Sounds incredible! Let us know when you are ready to sell some to friends.

[Basilisk-Dev]

Off-topic:

Out of curiosity, why do you dislike the Raspberry Pi? I ask because it has been among the candidates I have kept in mind for a potential successor to this computer, so being aware of its demerits could help me make an informed choice.

The fact that there are still ARM machines and SBCs that don't ship with UEFI, Petitboot, or some other standardized BIOS-type system out of the box is just absurd to me. I also believe the Raspberry Pi in particular is overpriced for the performance you get. Not a fan of ARM either, although I do use an Apple Silicon laptop. In my opinion if your goal is to get away from how locked down/proprietary x86 is, ARM is a poor choice because it's just as proprietary and arguably even more locked down than x86. I just want to write an ISO to USB and it work on every single piece of hardware on a specific CPU architecture, and ARM still (somehow) doesn't provide that. RISC-V is even worse, I'd rather use ARM than RISC-V.

[moonbat]

When google is in the better category, you have to ask yourself, if they aren't the main villain, who is?

Whoever they are is a massive douche to be worse than Google.

Everyone wants into the walled garden ecosystem game. What better way than to hold your data captive because you were dumb enough to prioritize 'convenience' over everything else.

[Mæstro]

I said it before, and I will say it again.

Ecosystem has always been a funny word to apply to software. The word conjures pictures of lush rainforests, monkeys and jaguars prancing on trees and whatnot, little to do with software.

[UCyborg]

We use term "bug" as well.

[UCyborg]

Off-topic:

I also believe the Raspberry Pi in particular is overpriced for the performance you get.

I found the marketing regarding its dual 4K screens support absurd. Desktop alone struggles with single 1920x1080 screen.

While I said at some point that I might switch to it for a while if my main desktop goes, I'm not sure for how long I would, also considering my general dislike of Linux.

In my opinion if your goal is to get away from how locked down/proprietary x86 is, ARM is a poor choice because it's just as proprietary and arguably even more locked down than x86.

Someone on another forum said something along the lines better to keep old machines running for as long as possible. Mine has no SecureBoot, no UEFI, no Intel Management Engine, no AMD Platform Security Processor, no TPM.