Nice article! Are you the author? If so, I’d like to give you a suggestion: the part about the deepin Linux story and technical background is interesting enough to be its own article. That way, it would be more findable on web searchers and probably help a lot of people who look for information on it, which is a bit scarce in english.

Some software developers prefer to host their own repos and have more control over the release process and/or don’t want to fill all the criteria for being included on f-droid, so they create their own repos. Some of these apps can still be found on vanilla fdroid, but often aren’t updated so frequently.

Izzyondroid, on the other hand, is a different project, aimed at hosting different apps that are usually from smaller devs and can’t be included on fdroid yet, for different reasons.

The greatest thing about fdroid is that it allows anyone to create their own repos and you aren’t forced to depend on anyone.

5 years already? Shit, I’m old.

Gnu can be used to describe the gnu project, the gnu license or the gnu coreutils. In this context, they mean that Linux by itself isn’t enough to be the a free desktop, and needs the gnu software to be the system they care about. (There can be controversies on whether gnu is needed or not, since it’s possible to create a distro without the coreutils, but let’s not get you confused right now)

Good idea, worth checking.

I understand your bad experience with GSIs, but I think it’s a step in the right direction. The way custom roms have been made through the years isn’t sustainable for the long run. It’s too much work for the few people involved, that goes obsolete so fast. But with GSis, the projects will one day be able to maintain just a few images, and the porting community will just have to focus on unlocking the devices.

GSIs aren’t working 100% today, but it’s something still new in the perspective of manufacturers, and the tendency is to have better support with time.

Just to put things into perspective, my experience, as someone poor from a third word country, is just the opposite. In the past, only the more expensive phones had custom rom support, and the cheaper ones I got access to, wouldn’t even get results if I searched for the model on xda. Nowadays, even cheap chinese phones or the ones locally manufactured in here allow me to put a GSI and have a customized experience, up to date with security patches.

Ah, I see. But in that case, won’t the server have access to my messages in plain text?

In that case, won’t the server have access to my credentials?

We are trying, but the bootloader seems to be unlockabe, and that’s pushing us back.

But what do you do when services and institutions in general require you to use whatsapp? That’s what is mostly keeping me from deleting that app.

I have been looking at this possibility, but running a bridge means that I will need to self host a service, which adds one more point of failure, while not really removing whatsapp from my life, so I’m not convinced it’s a good alternative.

Sometimes they do, but then they will take much more time to give you a response.

Sometimes, they simply don’t have n alternative, like my city’s local service for reporting broken streetlights.

Whatsapp

And no, I can’t simply stop using or ask friends to move to an alternative. I’m from Brazil and that thing is so popular and mainstream, that even stores or public services use it.

Just this week, I had to report an animal abuse case to the authorities, and the official communication channel I had to use was through whatsapp.

It’s sad to see how dependent of a single proprietary service for something so important we allowed ourselves to become…

But still good reasons, anyway.

Bring back the smaller phones!

That’s amazing.

Here in Brazil, we had the government encouraging free software in the 2000s, but the projects and policies were all abandoned.

And to think we could have a similar adoption to yours today… sigh…

Back then, people didn’t understand how such projects give benefits in a long timeframe, and wanted immediate results, something impossible.

Even more important is to see the windows downtrend. We need competition, keep it going!

One trick is to have anold android phone. I created a couple of accounts last year without giving any personal data by using a device with android kitkat.

I feel the same. I can’t recommend it to anyone anymore.

Congrats!

Enjoy the freedom and don’t be afraid to ask for help. In time, you will see yourself helping others and contributing to the community.