Well, that’s nice that you’ve never had problems. But issues I’ve seen over the years, range from not having certain functions working after the flash (generally needed specific firmware upgrades prior to the flash), not having the device recognized by the PC without additional steps, needing specific custom recoveries, bootloops, being stuck on splash screen, needing extra steps to unlock the bootloader (e.g. Xiaomi), not being able to easily downgrade Android version (sometimes needed as a first step prior to installing alternate OS’s like Ubunu Touch), even soft bricking. Plus, in learning how to flash custom ROM’s in the first place, guess who provided me with the info on how to do it.

Nearly every time I’ve needed to learn how to get around an issue in flashing a custom ROM onto an Android device, it’s been South Asian YouTubers’ tutorials that saved the day.

Have close to zero clue wtf is going on in that video, but it had me engaged the whole time. Slammin’ track - thanks for posting this.

My old man pet peeve: the plural of “vinyl” is “vinyl.” They are “records” or “LPs” - not “vinyls”. Now get off of my LAN! ;)

It’s not out yet, but there is a kickstarter from German company Volla, coming in the next few days for a 12" tablet running a Mediatek soc that will be capable of running Ubuntu Touch - for which you can use UT native apps, webapps, some Linux desktop apps via their “Libertine” container, and some Android apps via “Waydroid.” And Volla has an excellent track record of delivering on their product promises - in contrast to Purism.

https://volla.tilda.ws

Or you can use browsers that can be set to not “phone home” - e.g.Brave, Librewolf - there are in fact a few privacy respecting options in this.

Edge is better if you are wanting to always have your data mined by Microsoft, for sure.

All I know is I received so many daily texts and emails from her campaign begging for money that it seriously turned me off, and I don’t even live in CA.

24bit 96kHz FLAC (purchased from Bandcamp & HDTracks) -> JRiver Media Center software player -> Merging Anubis Pro DAC -> Coleman Audio M3PHmk2 passive monitor controller -> Pass Labs X250 class A solid state power amp -> B&W Nautilus 802 3-way floor standing speakers

Or if from vinyl KAB modded Technics SL1200mk2 -> Shure V-15MR cartridge -> Simaudio Moon LP5.3 balanced preamp ->

(in 20’ x 14’ x 9’ room with bass traps, absorbers and diffusors by GIK, ATS, and Auralex)

There are “vanilla” versions (which is what I use) that are basically de-googled AOSP which work well with apps from F-droid, Izzy-on-droid, and free apps from Aurora stores, which you can also install MicroG on if you wanted to - and there are “Gapps” versions which have Google Play Services, the Google Play Store and some of the basic Google apps pre-loaded.

Whoops, yes you are correct, you would need to go to Asus for front facing speakers. Maybe the Asus Rog 2, which can run degoogled Bliss ROM

Yeah, which is why I use de-googled “vanilla” Bliss ROM 17.2 (Android 14 with latest security patch) on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro instead of going the Graphene or Calyx + Pixel route. This way I have the hardware features I wanted (headphone jack, micro SD card slot, 5000mAh battery, 108mp camera, stereo speakers, 120mHz refresh rate) all for cheaper than a Pixel, and the Bliss ROM community is pretty friendly and dedicated in my interactions with it.

In USA I’ve found it’s pretty easy to live without banking on your phone, although you can’t say the same for some other countries. Granted I have a job where I am working with my own desktop computers most of the day, so I can pay bills and transfer funds on them during those times - and lots of people might not have the same luxury. But I’ve yet to feel a need for any of them while out and about beyond a few occasions of Venmo’ing funds on the go - and at least Venmo still allows you to use their site via browser.

Sony Xperia 10 iii has all those things, and you can run Sailfish OS on it, including VoLTE and Android app support with it.

Yeah, I think the only thing Ballmer has ever respected is money, he seems to me just a bean counter and obnoxiously hyped up “salesguy” in his personality, with not much depth beyond that.

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Steve Ballmer lacked two things: vision and taste, - and his personal lackings ended up coloring all of MS’s efforts and products during his tenure as CEO.

Yes, Chromium, from which Chrome places proprietary parts on top of, is an open source project, so anyone can fork it and remove telemetry and tracking. Most browsers are in fact forks of Chromium - e.g. Edge (which replaces Google’s trackers with Microsoft’s own), Opera (which puts in trackers going back to a Chinese corporation), Vivaldi (which doesn’t seem to do tracking but has proprietary parts so is not verifiable) - or, on the privacy respecting side Brave (which is all open source and doesn’t track you once you click opting out on its reporting back to Brave and crypto rewards stuff), Ungoogled Chromium (which tends not to be updated all that quickly) and a few others.

The Librewolf project is up to date Firefox core with some hardening and the telemetry going back to Mozilla removed - good stuff.

Other options are Fairphone, Volla, Murena - or flashing “vanilla” custom ROM’s on phones other than Pixels - or using Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, Mobian, Droidian or Sailfish OS.