I use Sync in Firefox to sync favorites and site passwords, but outside of that, I usually start clean. Sometimes I need to manually copy notes, 2FA keys or such, but mostly I set things up as I need them.

After using iOS for around 3 years and going back to Android, Android has more simple, pragmatic and free apps.

I like droidify as a store for FOSS apps (comes with several repos enabled by default, including F-Droid and Izzy).

For the basics: Breezy Weather for weather, CoMaps for navigation, Markor or Fossify Notes for notes, Aegis for 2FA, Gadgetbridge for smartwatch.

As for launchers, people like Niagara, but it’s subscription for the pro version. Lawnchair is a classic-style customizable launcher. Other mainsteam apps are pretty much the same as iOS.

Matrix clients aren’t great

IMO the main advantage that Matrix-Element has for normal users is the branding: Element is Element on the web, Android and iOS. (Snikket is trying to do the same for XMPP though)

Matrix is too difficult for “normal” people

Agreed. Simple user+password login to a hosted (non-matrixdotorg) server takes 5-6 pages to click through.

Matrix public rooms have a CP problem

I was spammed with racist copypasta on XMPP once too. But being in large Matrix chats guarantees being invited/messaged.

…Matrix also pisses metadata to any server it federates with, including matrix [.] org

Replication+sync is a strange decision for chats. It sort of makes sense for slower fediverse posts, but creates a lot of strange scenarios and privacy issues with chats. Also, matrixdotorg is used for key backups and vectordotim is used for integrations IIRC.

I hosted Matrix for several years. It mostly works fine, apps look consistent, bridges are nice, but is a pain in the ass in some aspects. Onboarding sucks. Data needs constant cleanup (or gigabytes of storage, even for a dozen users). Sometimes notifications are delayed hours. Sometimes images don’t load.

New Element Server Suite is more corporate-oriented, requires Kubernetes (!) to run, includes defacto mandatory services. Element X has no feature parity with Element Classic, especially calls.

I ran Snikket many years ago for a few months. But now they have smooth invites/onboarding, admin panel, and always had reliable notifications. Even bridges through Slidge. I plan to switch back to Snikket soon.

More details

Are you trying to run everything as sudo / admin? I do not recall having to type in the password that much, even a decade ago when Linux experience was less polished.

The thing is also that there was no server available for Ubuntu

Debian 12 (and looks like Ubuntu, too) has molly-brown. I also chose it for being a Debian package instead of additional install.

Heck, my first smartphone ran Android 4.0. Compared to current Android 16 more than a decade later, the only practical change I could think of is granular permissions.

I have to perform a context switch between “v” and “w” sounds, so words and phrases that contain both (e.g: “very well”) sometimes end up with only “w” sounds. (My native language does not have a regular “W” sound)

But even after 20 years speaking it, English pronunciation is complete nonsense. Most of the time, you just need to memorize the words. Because trying to figure out how to say something, you also need to know if the word is borrowed from any other languages that use Latin alphabet, and then pronouce it pretending to speak that language. Simplest example: Mocha (moh-ka) and matcha (maht-cha). But there are countless borrowed words that don’t change spelling in English.

Real ABS turns white/grey too, from both stress and acetone (in liquid form, vapor does not seem to discolor it).

Hey, just stumbled upon this too, Android4Lumia, and 520 is one of the supported devices: https://android4lumia.github.io/downloads.html

Some years ago, mentioning Linux for daily non-gaming use:

Guy: “Installing Linux is complicated though”

Me: “It wasn’t bad 10 years ago, and now it’s as hard as clicking Next a few times, even faster than Windows”

Guy: “Well duh, you have ten years of experience installing it!”

Difficult to argue with this non-logic.

Looks like it is partially supported: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Nokia_Lumia_520_(nokia-fame)

I have a Lumia 635 and got tmpfs to start, but then I am lost at “locate your ramdisk” https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Nokia_Lumia_630_(nokia-moneypenny)

IMO you would need a large capacitor between power (after diode) and ground, to provide enough current when device’s power consumption spikes (otherwise, it will shut down)

Here is my version without touching BMS or original battery: https://yaky.dev/2022-09-06-smartphone-without-battery/

Some projects that kind of do that come to mind:

Beeper, which is a hosted Matrix server (probably Synapse) with bridges to other messengers, and a client (probably derived from Element?). But it’s all called Beeper to be more “normal”.

Snikket is a “rebranded” prosody XMPP server, Conversations client for Android and Siskin IM client for iOS. Also, all are Snikket, no scary abbreviations and different app names.

Average user does not care, as long as it works.

https://xkcd.com/2501/

PinePhone is $200. But the manufacturer offloaded all development onto the community.

Librem actually pays some developers, but their phones are $700+. And you will find many complaints about refunds.

Cheap prices are possible by economies of scale by manufacturers, but same manufacturers guard their proprietary hardware.

Also, how “pleb” are we talking about? Many people DGAF and just want their calls/text/apps to work.

Does NovaCustom just buy phones and installs iodeOS on them? Or are they involved in development of either?

This is the manufacturer, SHIFT: https://www.shift.eco/en/shiftphone-8/ Hardware does look easy to access, and should support custom OSes.

This is iodeOS: https://iode.tech/iodeos/, which looks like LineageOS + additional features and privacy-as-a-service kind of deal.

On Android, there is Quicksy, and yes, it uses phone number sign-up for ease, but it seems more private than corporate apps.

Without phone numbers, there’s Conversations.im. There are some public XMPP servers with open registration, but you would need to find one, e.g. sure.im by Tigase lets you make aan account, but I don’t remember if calls work.

Are you looking to self-host something as well? Snikket is all-in-one chat+calls, but you would need to host a server. (Still based on Conversations and XMPP)

The best explanation I saw several years ago: Large tech companies drive change through competing individual teams and projects. So some manager pitched a half-assed idea, somehow convinced upper management to go with it, got developers to heroically implement it, and might have gotten some bonus for doing so. It doesn’t matter if there was no value as long as some decision maker thinks there is (or does not care, or numbers were fudged anyway).

It is literally change for the sake of change.

Moved from mid-range OnePlus to a-model Pixel with GrapheneOS. It’s much better, don’t miss anything. There was no LineageOS for that OnePlus yet, every OnePlus app would scream at you if you turn off Google Play Services, had some unreproducible bugs with GPS failing, log files filling up disk space, and killed any non-whitelisted background apps. GrapheneOS works as I expect it too, and with the exception of Google+carrier suddenly killing RCS, I did not have any issues.