"We don't control our lives" - smartphones - tinkerphones - debian on smartphones

[Steven Schear]

What about GrapheneOS on Pixels?

On Wed, Jul 29, 2020, 5:14 PM Zenaan Harkness <zen at freedbms.net> wrote:

> With respect to "smart" phones, it can be reasonably claimed that we don't
> control our lives.
>
> At the hardware level, the baseband (radio) computer in almost all cases
> has access to RAM, thus access to your passwords and keys for any open
> wallet or encrypted filesystem, etc.
>
> Notwithstanding, we owe it to ourselves to run an operating system which
> at least does not deny to us, our right to install and run any software of
> our choosing.
>
> The average Android and iOS Apple phone, is a strict walled garden into
> which only authorised software may be installed.
>
> Software "Apps" which are not authorised (or have been banned) by either
> Google or Apple respectively, are not available in the respective "Play
> Store".
>
> This is abhorrent, a centralisation of power, a blatant censorship vector,
> financially burdensome to those of meagre means, and fundamentally
> unethical in principle wrt the suppression of the basic rights of the end
> user (refer to Richard Stallman's GNU General Public License for details of
> fundamental human rights in relation to software/ apps/ computing).
>
>
> Totally random scenario/ example:
>
> Some rando punk decides Tor needs improvement, and works diligently for
> zero pay and little gratitude to bring say (random examples) chaff and UDP
> transport layer features to Tor.
>
> After horrific bugs and even worse security problems in the code are
> identified / repaired by tragically paranoid other punks, NeoTor takes off,
> thwarting the deep state's end to end onion route monitoring network, and
> so an urgent order is made upon Google to cease and decist from
> distributing such nefarious software.
>
> Google of course complies immediately, and almost all users go back to
> using old Tor.
>
>
> The stranglehold Google and Apple have on not only limiting the average
> user to approved software only, but to enforce total transparency upon all
> developers to idetify themselves with 100 points of ID just to TEST their
> software, and to pay some fiats for the priviledge whilst they're at it, is
> ... a little less than satisfactory.
>
> Having experienced the pain of an Android phone, even after unlocking
> still being locked into the garden and offered only "Google" or "XiaoMi"
> when saving every contact (and never "local storage only"), and the pain of
> finding and installing a rooted OS (_how_ many dozen options? I _still_
> have to choose Google or XiaoMi if I want to backup my contact list?
> there's really _no_ easy option to just dump it to my laptop with an ad hoc
> wireless?)
>
> ... it is evident I would be MORE than happy to pay $50 to make this pain
> go away by having someone at my local computer club back up my address book
> and install Debian on my phone.
>
> What we need is Debian on the phone.
>
> And we need this to be super easy for the average geek to install, and
> thousands of average geeks need to start getting these donations to install
> Debian on Android phones.  Given how painful it is for someone supposedly
> "technically literate", this ought be a fantastic business opportunity.
>
>
> So Debian on mobile phones? It's possible.
>
> What is needed is a geek-able process whereby the "CyanogenMod" mobile
> phone operating systems are split into an absolute minimal "bootloader +
> kernel + drivers etc" for a specific device, and the operating system is a
> separate install on top of that, and for those who care, Debian as the OS.
>
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile
>
> http://www.tinkerphones.org/
>
> https://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-mobile/
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-embedded/
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/
>
>
> https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/android-tools-devel
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnHandhelds
>
>
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