It’s really funny to see how different reactions we got from Lobsters and HN for the same news, especially in this case:
lobsters: wow it’s interesting I think I might give it a try, looks nice and still usable at all
hn: lol you weirdo did you ordered your tinfoil hat already? haha I use iphoeane since 2007 but samsung galaxy is fine with all that google and microsoft apps out of the box welp it just works lol I get back to my macbook
I’ve been using CopperheadOS for a year+ now using only apps from F-Droid. I’m not a heavy smartphone user, but I’ve been comfortable with it. I’ve settled on very similar app choices (OsmAnd+, Orgzly, Syncthing) and I’m glad to hear of Radicale. I’ve been using baikal for a personal and shared calendar with my spouse but it’s been unreliable for us. Every few months one or both phones will stop syncing up and/or down until I update baikal, add and remove the calendar, delete old items, or otherwise tinker haphazardly.
I tried doing this a bit by moving to fastmail…. but really basic stuff like calendar syncing was way more flaky (needed to install an app just for calDAV sync + reopen it to activate the service on each phone reboot). Stuff like directions through Google Maps are so much better too.
Firefox on Android is what I use too (mainly for the “open page without switching to app” feature), but it’s most definitely slower than Chrome too.
So many Google services, despite their issues, are really good compared to the competition. I would really love for there to be a “real company” out there that offers their breadth of services, but as something paid/maintained/polished.
basic stuff like calendar syncing was way more flaky
What sync app did you use? I’ve been on Fastmail for about 18 months, but only moved my calendars from Google this week. So far with DavDroid syncing has been seamless, including after an Android LineageOS update. touches wood
I mean, this is really about using free software on ones phone —certainly a laudable enough goal, but I achieved de-Googling by not buying a Google phone in the first place?
However, setting up such a “Google free” phone requires a significant amount of time, dedication, and skill (not to mention a personal server), definitively far beyond to what I’d trust my mother to comprehend.
To me, this is the biggest bottleneck at the moment. We need to move the architecture from self-hosted to distributed, instead of expecting users to be sysadmins.
I use an iPhone 6s, the only google service is maps, and it only has permission to run when I open it (or services like Lyft, which use google services under the hood – however, I mostly stick to Firefox Focus, Whatsapp, Signal, and Mail). Caldav and carddav work pretty seamlessly – I set them up once targeting Zoho PIM (~$23 a year – I am not the product!) and haven’t thought about it again.
I’ve bounced around a few different browsers and settled on Fennec which is supposedly a different Firefox implementation. I found it a bit slow, but once I installed the uBlock Origin add-on it sped right up.
Firefox 57 and above work pretty damn well for me on any kind of Android phone I tested, but yeah, older Fx releases for Android were so slow that you could just VNC to your desktop and use firefox on it as well.
It’s really funny to see how different reactions we got from Lobsters and HN for the same news, especially in this case:
lobsters: wow it’s interesting I think I might give it a try, looks nice and still usable at all
hn: lol you weirdo did you ordered your tinfoil hat already? haha I use iphoeane since 2007 but samsung galaxy is fine with all that google and microsoft apps out of the box welp it just works lol I get back to my macbook
I’ve been using CopperheadOS for a year+ now using only apps from F-Droid. I’m not a heavy smartphone user, but I’ve been comfortable with it. I’ve settled on very similar app choices (OsmAnd+, Orgzly, Syncthing) and I’m glad to hear of Radicale. I’ve been using baikal for a personal and shared calendar with my spouse but it’s been unreliable for us. Every few months one or both phones will stop syncing up and/or down until I update baikal, add and remove the calendar, delete old items, or otherwise tinker haphazardly.
I tried doing this a bit by moving to fastmail…. but really basic stuff like calendar syncing was way more flaky (needed to install an app just for calDAV sync + reopen it to activate the service on each phone reboot). Stuff like directions through Google Maps are so much better too.
Firefox on Android is what I use too (mainly for the “open page without switching to app” feature), but it’s most definitely slower than Chrome too.
So many Google services, despite their issues, are really good compared to the competition. I would really love for there to be a “real company” out there that offers their breadth of services, but as something paid/maintained/polished.
What sync app did you use? I’ve been on Fastmail for about 18 months, but only moved my calendars from Google this week. So far with DavDroid syncing has been seamless, including after an Android LineageOS update. touches wood
I was using caldav-sync and was having some sync issues. DavDroid might work out better.
I mean, this is really about using free software on ones phone —certainly a laudable enough goal, but I achieved de-Googling by not buying a Google phone in the first place?
@pushcx - have you found a good alternative to baikal?
Does radicale work for you?
NextCloud is heavy PHP stuff, but I hear it works well.
NextCloud uses the same CalDAV implementation as Baikal (sabre/dav)
I use NextCloud with Android via DavDroid. It was mildly awkward setting up, but now it’s up it’s flawless.
My favorite F-Droid app is Vanilla Music. Its my daily driver mp3 player. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/ch.blinkenlights.android.vanilla/
Vanilla Music’s [mostly inactive] co-maintainer here. Thanks for the shout out!
Be sure to check out the various Vanilla plugins too. https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=vanilla
I had no idea Vanilla Music had a plugin system, thank you!
To me, this is the biggest bottleneck at the moment. We need to move the architecture from self-hosted to distributed, instead of expecting users to be sysadmins.
I use an iPhone 6s, the only google service is maps, and it only has permission to run when I open it (or services like Lyft, which use google services under the hood – however, I mostly stick to Firefox Focus, Whatsapp, Signal, and Mail). Caldav and carddav work pretty seamlessly – I set them up once targeting Zoho PIM (~$23 a year – I am not the product!) and haven’t thought about it again.
My phone is almost fully degoogled. The only thing I am left with is chrome because firefox is unusably slow on android.
there’s also uhhh, android
I’ve bounced around a few different browsers and settled on Fennec which is supposedly a different Firefox implementation. I found it a bit slow, but once I installed the uBlock Origin add-on it sped right up.
No, it’s Firefox with branding turned off. Unofficial builds, such as F-Droid’s (which I think they don’t want to do anymore) are usually unbranded.
Ahhh thanks for the heads up!
Firefox 57 and above work pretty damn well for me on any kind of Android phone I tested, but yeah, older Fx releases for Android were so slow that you could just VNC to your desktop and use firefox on it as well.