fulano

Lost it on "Windows with literally 0 issues" lol

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?

With all the respect, to deny the progress we had in the last decade seems a bit stubbornish and counterproductive.

In the 2000s, uo to early 2010s, not even a basic non techy user could properly use linux without assistance, and nowadays, they can use it normally. Most of them just need a working browser and a good UI.

I don't say that out of nowhere. I've been doing some work in initiatives for digital inclusion in my country, and we're having great results with linux nowadays, while it was impossible some years ago.

There's still a lot that needs improvement, but we're nowhere near the state we were just one decade ago.

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...

Bring back the smaller phones!

But a lot of things changed in these years. Installing software, for example, became so easy using the gnome store, that it lowered a lot the entry barrier.

The few times I find myself using windows, I realize it's not easy to use, as many claim. I believe it's mostly a matter of a computer culture that created around it, and changing cultural traits is really hard