Why are we still fighting smartphone bloatware in 2025?
I was excited to dive into my new smartphone only to once again waste precious time uninstalling bloatware before I could enjoy it.
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Companies want to spy on you and make money, it's no secret. Just install stock Android or your favorite fork; it quite literally takes 5 minutes with a WebUSB installer.
it quite literally takes 5 minutes with a WebUSB installer.
With a supported phone, on a Chromium browser on Windows. It takes much more than that usually, depending on device, to unlock the bootloader and install a custom ROM
I guess I only have one data point from installing Graphene on my phone. I can see why it would be harder on other devices. Though I was using Linux, and Windows is absolutely not required for WebUSB.
Doesn't' the fork like Lineage OS or Graphene also need to support those phone models first?
Yep, Graphene only runs on Pixels but (IIRC) Lineage runs on most mainstream devices. Otherwise stock Android should work fine.
...and then you're locked out of using your phone to pay for things, can't install banking apps and marginal ID apps, et cetera. 😢
- do you really need to pay with your phone?
Yes and not for me. Having my dad's card on my phone without having the physical card is not that bad
fair enough, a unique situation.
Switched a week ago to grapheneos, I love it and fuck google
It's a tradeoff for sure but it's worth it for a lot of people.
Unlocking bootloader took me few hours.
I must register new account, install Windows application (Linux not supported, but Windows Server evaluation is free and works as a VM),
have valid SIM card with Internet access.
But worth it, much better experience.
Unfortunately, average person won't do all this things.
That sounds like Xiaomi. The best price to performance ratio of any OEM, but at the cost of terrible software and this... experience... when you want to get rid of it.
Worth noting that not all OEMs are like this.
Yeah, bingo.
I hope there are no backdoors in a firmware or modem.
