Sure. Looks like on Ubuntu Touch the only thing not working is the fingerprint reader

https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/fp3/

The OS in general isn’t ready for daily use though. It’s maybe doable if all you need is text, calls, camera, and a browser. And the calls only work in some countries. But it’s fun to play with.

Do you live in the US or Europe? There are some possibilities out there, but it’s kinda region dependent.

It seems like Linux-compatible android handsets stopped around 2021. Except a few bespoke models that are hard to get your hands on outside of Europe.

I have a OnePlus Nord N10 flashed with Ubuntu Touch as a tinker device, unfortunately in the US it’s not daily-able because we shut down 3g and 2g networks and they still haven’t managed to get VoLTE working on Ubuntu Touch yet (though it may be coming in the next year!) so phone calls don’t work.

There’s also the Pixel 3a/3a XL which are plentiful and cheap but I like the N10 a bit more because of the additional RAM. Makes it feel a little less old compared to the Pixel.

If you can get your hands on a Fairphone, Pinephone or Volla those are great but hard to get outside the EU.

I’m one step ahead by being too out of shape to be drafted

Checkmate

In here absolutely everyone knows this stuff and it’s all just common knowledge.

Absolutely not. Not even close.

(cw: transphobia, chuddery)

My mom was like this and was even a LCR local party functionary at one point. (She’s MtF trans)

Basically she says that gender dysphoria is a mental disorder (which she has). Also mega-conservative in pretty much every way.

I value it more on cinematic, designed and directed experiences like my movies on 4K Blu-ray than in anything I do on my PC so I guess I never really missed it on Linux. In my limited experience with Windows HDR it can be wonky too

Okay find me one with Dolby Vision

Forget trying to get a dumb TV at least if you care about quality. Just don’t connect it to the Internet - if you really are paranoid crack it open and disconnect the WiFi antenna.

Google gets to control the source code, what additions are added, and what features don’t get into it.

Yes technically some organization could fork it and then maintain a fork themselves. But it’s a huge undertaking that almost nobody has the money to fund. Browsers are free so there’s really not a lot of monetization schemes for browsers.

So nobody as far as I know has really been able to maintain a hard fork of chromium for very long. Remember, every change you make then has to be maintained by you and then you have to keep it up to date with the chromium master tree while also keeping all of your changes compatible. It is a big undertaking almost as big as modern operating systems. Browsers are just too complicated so Google in this position does still have a monopoly that’s very hard to fight.

Almost all browsers other than Safari and Firefox are based on Chromium, which gives Google a ton of control.

Modern Android TV box with a custom launcher. Apparently Projectivity launcher is decent.

But if you already have a Shield that’s cool keep it until it stops working. I’m just not gonna tell anyone to go buy one.

Because it’s end of lifespan and you should spend your money on something that will at least get a few years of support and updates

Yeah but I wouldn’t recommend anyone go and buy one at this point.

Use a separate, not ad-riddled device plugged in via HDMI. If you have a game console it can do this.

I don’t know what’s good for Android TV boxes it used to be the NVIDIA Shield was a well regarded streaming device but it’s really old now. Google makes one (Google TV Streamer) and you can install a custom launcher if you’re a bit technical and the “suggested content” of the stock launcher bothers you. Same for other Android TV boxes.

Apple, like them or not, makes a really decent TV box with no system level ads and an interface that mostly stays out of the way.

It’s not open source so it’s up to trusting Google for that to be true.

In theory yes. But remember that Chrome is based on Chromium which is open source. But nobody has stepped up to do a viable hard fork to take power away from Google.

Maintaining a modern browser is a huge undertaking which is why almost nobody except Google, Mozilla, and Apple are really even trying. Even Microsoft threw in the towel.

The more bad stuff is added to Firefox the harder it will be for any forks to keep up removing it while also keeping it up to date. Will anyone step up?

Every one of them can, AFAIK. I have a second cheap used phone I picked up to play with Ubuntu Touch and it has a system called Waydroid for this. Not quite seamless and you’ll want to use native when possible but it does work.

SailfishOS, PostmarketOS, Mobian, etc all also can use Waydroid or a similar thing

Good for them honestly

They’re developed separately. It’s a hard fork so I consider them different.

In the past 10 years it’s pretty much just been Firefox, Safari, Explorer/Edge, and Chrome. 99% of browsers are just skinned Chrome. Even Edge now. Opera’s engine died in 2013.