furrowsofar

Well I just replaced my aging LG G6 with a new Google Pixel 8a running GrapheneOS. The G6 was based on Android 9 which was initially released in August 2018, and my last update was January 2019. The big issue, after 6 years since OS initial release, apps are starting to not support Android 9. Add to that, my USB-C plug was getting questionable in terms of retaining charging cables and my fingerprint reader has not worked for years.

So how to replace the G6? Well I choose a new Google Pixel 8a and GrapheneOS. The Google Pixel is one of the better supported hardware devices in the after market ROM landscape and GrapheneOS seems to be one of the most popular ROMs.

It took me about a week to do the transition. Lot of that was just normal when moving everything to a new phone and not using the vendors automatic tools. The actual initial setup and flashing though was pretty straight forward. It was a bit emotionally difficult to take new $400 hardware and then just simply re-flash it risking say bricking. This turned out to be a non-issue.

Benefits I see from doing this:

• Lack of Cruft. The lack of all the vendor loaded cruft was very nice. My old G6 has about 17 apps that I could never really delete because they were flashed into the ROM. Many of them fairly large Google suite apps.
• Profiles. The new phone can fully use user and work profiles, plus with Android 15 it has the Private Space feature. GrapheneOS also supports up to 31 user profiles, not the 4 supported by most distributions. I actually use the Private Space to contain my Google Play Services and Google Play Apps and otherwise just the owner profile. Might have been better to look at some of the other options, not sure.
• Storage Scopes are really useful. One can restrict App access to only certain folders. I have already used that a few times, probably more in the future.
• Backup. GrapheneOS allows one to do App backups to your own media or cloud storage. For stock systems normally only Google Drive is allowed, which I would never use.
• Sandboxed Google Play. I like the idea of sandboxing Google play. Presumably it should be more compatible then MicroG and some Apps require Google play. Interestingly the number that do seems fairly small. I actually further placed all my Play Services related stuff in a Private Space so I know what apps can actually use it.
• Device Integrity Check. Verified boot and some other device integrity checks are properly supported and so many apps that required them should run, though not all. This is not always the case with third party ROMs.
• Wifi Calling and Messaging seems more stable then my old G6. Maybe just the difference between Android 9 and 15.
• Updates should be supported for a full 7 years from initial device release which as of late 2024 is about another 6.5 years. My original G6 had about 1 year of updates.
• Hardening. Graphene has a bunch of hardening features not in typical distributions. Storage Scopes and really good Profile support are a couple I've mentioned, but there are many others.

One question that took me a while to consider is where to get Apps from. There are pros and cons and a lot of discussions about this. In the end, I used the GrapheneOS App Store, F-Droid, Accrescent, Obtanium, and the Aurora Store in that order for my owner profile, then installed sandboxed Google Play Services and the Google Play app in my Private Space.

As of now my limited experience with GrapheneOS has all been positive. The one App that I have had issues with is the UPS app for some reason. For that I'll just use their website for now. Not sure if the UPS app can be made to run or not. My understanding too is that Google Wallet may not fully function though I have not tried it and have never used it before anyway.

If your interested in GraphneneOS and have any specific questions, feel free to ask. All the best.

Vote. Need I say more.

I need to change ISPs and need to find a new email provider. This time I want to move to my own domain which I purchased through Namecheap and I do not want to use another ISP's email system nor do I want to use Google, or Microsoft since I am Linux (and Android too) based. I would like this to be US based or at least have a strong US presence so obvious choices like Proton Mail, Mailfence, and Mailbox.org are out. I would prefer it interoperate well with FOSS software too, I use Thunderbird and K-9 Mail for example. Also so want them to be trustworthy, have good security, and have good OpSec with respect to their their servers and service.

After looking I find three I am considering and they are quite different:

• Fastmail. Long history. No PGP support but they do have their own domains one can use also.
• Namecheap Private Email. Uses Ox App Suite, may support PGP, and quite new. I think you have to have your own domain (not sure).
• Forward Email (forwardemail.net). A forwarder with IMAP support. You supply the webmail if you want webmail, but otherwise it should work fine with IMAP and normal clients.

So questions:

• Any thoughts and experience, pros and cons with the above 3.
• Other better ideas.

So thoughts? Thanks.

Any ideas for alternative US tax forums or discussion boards similar to say Reddit Tax? Ideas?

Wondering if anyone here has used and what their experience has been. They do not appear in the lists of commonly hyped providers most of the time.

Normally I use FreeTaxUSA, but this year after entering most everything I found out it did not handle Estate state pass-through withholding.

So I spent yesterday on OLT entering everything again. They seem to handle more stuff at the cost of more complexity. Anyway got it all in this time. Still waiting for some final source documents but may file with OLT this year.

Anyway, wondering if anyone has done a full prep and filing with them and their experience. Thanks.

Does anyone have thoughts or experience with the fundraising site: https://app.oath.vote .

The article talks about it but I have not tried.

Anyone having issues with Jerboa on Beehaw today? Mine just opens and crashes. Did the clear cashe and storage thing. No effect. Have not tried reinstall.

I have been noticing that Google Play is overrun with adware, trialware, and freemium kinds of apps. Really hard to find FOSS and truly free apps.

Curious about best strategies to sort though Google Pay. I typically start with F-Droid and AlternativeTo to find apps then try to find them on Play.

Ideas?

I've been looking at options for controlling my Ubuntu Media Center computer from Android. Mainly Mouse, but Keyboard is good too. Looked at a lot of stuff but the most interesting ones were:

• KDE Connect. This is the one I decided on because it is common, readily available and Ubuntu has the GSConnect package to work with Gnome. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kde.kdeconnect_tp . F-Droid also has a version that I have not tried.

• XMouse (In F-Droid, Not in Play). This actually was a dream to setup and worked well. The downside is that it is not in Play. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.stripe1.xmouse .

• remote-touchpad. A cool app that is server side only and uses the a browser on the Android side. The biggest issue is it is not that secure. Also only on Ubuntu as a snap and not on Debian.

• Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse (serverless). Fremium and not FOSS. Should have been good but I could never get it to work. The Linux Bluetooth system sees the packets, and the USB, Input, and XInput subsystems see the keyboard and mouse but no data flow. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.appground.blek .

• WiFiMouse. Have not tried this one. It seems like another FOSS app. Just added for reference and if anyone has tried. https://alternativeto.net/software/wifimouse/about/ .

So in short I found KDE Connect was the most obvious but I really liked how XMouse worked in terms of ease of setup and simplicity. Frankly probably would have used it if it was in Play too.

I was thinking that BlueTooth would be better and more universal. The issue I found was FOSS apps seem to be missing and I could never get the one freemium app I found to actually work. This seems to be an area that needs a good FOSS alternative that actually works. Let me know if you have any idea of other options OR why I loose the data stream somewhere between the bluetooth stack and the Linux input subsystem.

Always love when self agrandized authorities act like idiots. Feels like the box wine wins wine competition article.

I have a friend that does photo competitions. They say winning is more about knowing the judges than anything else.

We are looking at new electric stoves. Does anyone understand the options?

Specifically wondering the types of surface units (burners). Are there various options or modes: constant current (constant heat flow), or temperature control (on/off cycling, or variable current). The old stoves were mostly constant current surface units. The new flat top stoves seem to cycle somehow (temperature controlled?). I have no idea how inductive works. We have gas now which is constant heat flow of course.

Why I ask is I'm not very interested in this cycling stuff at all, and temperature control only.

Thoughts, recommendations, or experiences?

Thanks.