
Finding an Alternative to iOS - wezm
https://bitcannon.net/post/finding-an-alternative-to-ios/
======
Fnoord
> The only Google service I use regularly is YouTube.

NewPipe is a good FOSS frontend for YouTube.

/e/ might be a good solution, preinstalled on a Fairphone 3. Its a modular
smartphone, and /e/ is based on LineageOS + microG. LineageOS for microG can
use GMS (Play Store), that part of the point of microG.

There's also UBTouch.

postmarketOS is more a reference model.

One could use GrapheneOS on a Pixel. The Pixel 3a was a good bang for buck,
generally Pixel phones are.

SailfishOS is the continuation of Nokia's Maemo/MeeGo. Its an OS with strong
privacy options, a good UI (though very gesture-based therefore learning
curve), it can run on some smartphones like certain Sony Xperia, and it has
Android emulation (requires a license).

Other than that your OS list seems reasonably complete. GNOME, KDE, and
Enlightenment all 3 have a DE pivoted for touchscreen.

> Get a basic phone for calls and texts and do everything else on a real
> computer, possibly an ultra compact like the GPD Pocket 2.

Terrible build quality, don't recommend. They also ship with some evaluation
BIOS, and Windows 10 Starter Edition or something like that. Wouldn't trust,
though you can run Linux on it as well (and on Windows, you can use Netflix
plus offline storage (!!)). Redmi 7 and such have low build quality, and I
wouldn't wanna use MIUI.

> Especially due to some things only being possible with a smartphone like
> ride sharing.

You may get away running that application in a web browser, or running Android
in an emulator for such.

> Instagram

Doesn't make sense to me if you dislike Google, to use Facebook related
applications. That being said, everyone here uses WhatsApp. I prefer Signal
over WhatsApp.

I have no idea what people need all that horsepower for in their pocket. If
you can't self service the device (replacing hardware, battery, etc) the
lifetime of the device is just too limited regardless.

~~~
wezm
> /e/ might be a good solution, preinstalled on a Fairphone 3.

I looked into /e/ but don't have a phone to try it on. Fairphone isn't
available in Australia.

Good to know about the GPD.

> I have no idea what people need all that horsepower for in their pocket.

The "modern" web mostly.

------
nuker
> Apple have recently ramped up their hostility towards the developers that
> make iOS the desirable platform it is.

Consumers and developers have very different interests. Article is written by
a consumer, but the reasons above apply to developers. This aside, its a very
good post.

------
zepto
I completely disagree with this person’s assessment of Apple, _however_ this
is an excellent piece beside that.

If we want a good alternative to Apple, we need to actually vote with our
wallets and possibly our keyboards, and this piece is a great contribution to
doing so.

~~~
wezm
Thanks for reading even though you don’t agree with the premise. Shame it’s so
hard to actually vote with our wallets. It will be interesting to see how the
various App Store investigations/legal cases play out.

~~~
zepto
I don’t think it’s hard to vote with our wallets at all.

We just can’t expect to get what Apple built.

If we want an alternative, _someone has to build it_.

I think Apple’s platform is great. The problem is the lack of an open
alternative.

No amount of intervention can possibly force Apple to produce an open
alternative.

All it will do is pick a few winners from already well funded competitors.

The costs will be borne by both developers, and consumers, and the bar to ever
having an open alternative will be raised impossibly high.

What we need is for the community to actually invest in a platform that as a
baseline solves the problems Apple is solving in terms of creating a trusted
platform, but is actually open.

Frankly, it’s not Apple’s fault we don’t have this. Google is responsible.

Lack of openness was a serious concern right from the beginning of the
iPhone’s lifecycle.

Google claimed Android would be open, and at the time people had faith in them
to actually deliver on this.

I know plenty of people who chose to buy Android phones on the basis that they
were supporting an open system, from within and without the tech community.

Google completely betrayed this promise, as illustrated by your results.

~~~
wezm
That's an interesting perspective. In particular, "I don’t think it’s hard to
vote with our wallets at all. We just can’t expect to get what Apple built",
aligns well with my experience switching to Linux. I included this part in the
post:

> Something I learnt from my move to Linux though, was to embrace the
> platform's conventions as opposed to trying to reproduce the system you're
> moving from as much as possible.

Which is kind of along the same lines. I think my experience so far was that
it felt like giving up too much to go the more/completely open option at the
moment. With projects like postmarketOS though, I feel there is some progress
being made on this. I will continue to keep an eye on it.

~~~
zepto
For what it’s worth, I’m on the same page about this.

I think we _need_ an open, community owned, phone OS.

I don’t see any of the actors who are impugning Apple as having any intention
whatsoever to support the development of that - there is literally zero
evidence of it.

They only want to capture a part of the revenue stream for themselves. It’s
simply all they have talked about.

I believe that there are serious technical challenges to overcome to create a
true open alternative to iOS that provides the same safety benefits that their
controlled ecosystem provides. It took years for Apple to build their walled
garden and it would take years to build an alternative.

It would be pretty easy for these billion dollar corporations who are
attacking Apple to fund such an initiative though a foundation of some kind,
but it’s much cheaper for them to just try to use the courts to capture some
of Apple’s revenue stream instead.

In this case, the enemy of my enemy is just another bully.

