Just Fired Microsoft

[GreyGeek]

...

Now, the beef I had with Microsoft - and still have with Android. which BTW is a whole OS designed for privacy invasion - is not so much personal data, it is that they both don't allow me to do things my way... in any way.
Android is even worse in that respect. Like you have a ton of apps that you can't delete or move to the SD card... to start with.
...

Apple service insisted that I had to buy a new phone because the "touch disease" on my iPhone 6+ "couldn't be fixed". So, last July, I took their advice and purchased a new UNLOCKED Xaiomi Redmi Note 7 for $185. It requires a GSM network, has 8 core, 64GB of RAM and I put a 256GB SD card in it. It is an amazing phone. The MIUI user interface is remarkably fast and extremely smooth. The Xaiomi developers put a LOT of blood, sweat and tears into their interface. It does everything you'd think an interface should do, and it does it intuitively. Everything works on it. In speed and ease of use it literally blows my old iPhone 6+, and the 8, 10 and the 11, I might add, out of the water.

But, as fate would have it, I had to change from AT&T (uses GSM) to Sprint (uses CDMA). My Redmi won't work on Sprint. Sprint offered a Samsung GS10 for $660, 3X the Note 7. Now, both phones are running Android 9.0 Pie. That is about all the similarity there is between the phones. With the Note 7 my hands are not handcuffed. With the GS10 I feel like I am in an Apple or Microsoft prison. For example, the fingerprint on the Note 7 works like lightning, on the GS10 like molasses, if it works at all. The password on the Note 7 unlocks the instant you hit the last digit. On the GS10 you have to hit "OK" as well, then wait a second. On the Note 7 I can have several apps running at the same time and they share screen space. Not so with the GS10. The Note 7 phone and speaker system worked wonderfully and the recordings of my phone calls have both sides crystal clear. I can't get the GS10 to record the other side. Just bits and pieces of garble, if anything at all. There is so much more that makes the GS10 a very unfriendly Android phone.

All is not lost though I kept my Note 7 and installed Google Hangouts (Google Dialer) on it. So, I can make and record VOIP calls with it as long as I have an Internet connection. The only time it doesn't have an Internet connection is when I am out of range of my router and/or not in range of a public router, which isn't very often. As it turns out, GPS tracking doesn't depend on a phone service, so GPS maps while driving work very well. So, I carry both phones in my pocket and use the GS10 ONLY when I want to make or receive a phone call that can't come by VOIP.

[Don B. Cilly]

I got an LG K11 for less than €100, new. It's 5.3", works perfectly, and the battery last about a week, sometimes more.
What I hate is the OS (Android, Nougat). It annoys the skittles out of me.

But my Ubuntu phone lacks a few things I actually need, I would have to carry two phones, I just grit my teeth and use the Nougat the Annoying Android - not to be confused with Marvin, who was the Paranoid one ;·).

[TexasGuy1988]

I got an LG K11 for less than €100, new. It's 5.3", works perfectly, and the battery last about a week, sometimes more.
What I hate is the OS (Android, Nougat). It annoys the skittles out of me.

But my Ubuntu phone lacks a few things I actually need, I would have to carry two phones, I just grit my teeth and use the Nougat the Annoying Android - not to be confused with Marvin, who was the Paranoid one ;·).

What do you need the Android for that the Ubuntu doesn't do?

[Don B. Cilly]

Mainly whatsapp.
Also a few things like banking and some pay stuff - for which phones have become mandatory by European law*, but I could normally leave the Android at home for those - and almost never use it.

Whatsapp... I can't tell everyone to install Telegram. I talk a lot internationally too... people just whatsapp me.
The day Zuckerberg removes the ban on Ubuntu Touch, I'll gladly carry the Ubuntu phone around and leave the Annoying Android at home.

* Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2)

[TexasGuy1988]

Mainly whatsapp.
Also a few things like banking and some pay stuff - for which phones have become mandatory by European law*, but I could normally leave the Android at home for those - and almost never use it.

Whatsapp... I can't tell everyone to install Telegram. I talk a lot internationally too... people just whatsapp me.
The day Zuckerberg removes the ban on Ubuntu Touch, I'll gladly carry the Ubuntu phone around and leave the Annoying Android at home.

Ban on Ubuntu touch? Is this a real thing or are you being facetious? I have already deleted the Facebook app and browse only in my Firefox browser behind the rudimentary protection my ad-ons provide.

[Don B. Cilly]

I am not being facetious. Try installing whatsapp on Ubuntu Touch. :·//
It used to work. Then apparently they had to cease-and-desist.

[kubicle]

I am not being facetious. Try installing whatsapp on Ubuntu Touch. :·//
It used to work. Then apparently they had to cease-and-desist.

IIRC, matrix has an ubuntu touch client, and matrix has a whatsapp bridge (along with bridges to other chat networks). I haven't used ubuntu touch or the client (or the whatsapp bridge) so I can't really tell how mature they are, but if you're looking for some pass time.

[TexasGuy1988]

I am not being facetious. Try installing whatsapp on Ubuntu Touch. :·//
It used to work. Then apparently they had to cease-and-desist.

I have no clue what whatsapp is. I have finished the Ubuntu install and have been playing around with the new phone. It will definitely take some getting used to. I've already given Microsoft the boot, and I'm excited to give Google the boot. Facebook is the one thing I still have from "my old life", but I feel good behind the no tracking browser that comes with Ubuntu touch.

[Don B. Cilly]

I have no clue what whatsapp is.

Whatsapp is the most widely used VOIP/chat app. Everybody and their grandmothers use it. Especially the grandmothers ;·)
So when my friends from all over the planet call me or message me, they use whatsapp.
And I can't tell all of them to use Telegram (which works on Touch).

IIRC, matrix has an ubuntu touch client, and matrix has a whatsapp bridge

From what I read, a Telegram bridge is "in the works" for Touch. Whatsapp is not mentioned... but as I've said, from what I did read when trying to install it, they had it working, and they had to cease-and-desist.
But Telegram already has a working app in Touch...

[jlittle]

... if someone wants to jack my Github account I could not care less...

Well, maybe you should care somewhat; it's a matter of being a good citizen (of the world) IMO. Leaving insecure accounts around the internet makes it easier for the bad guys to do their stuff and be a nuisance (or worse) to others.

[WWDERW]

I have no clue what whatsapp is.

While I have heard of it, that's about all that my knowledge base is on the app.

If it's the most widely used, it's not that widely used in my circle.

[Don B. Cilly]

What do they use for VOIP/messaging in your circle then?
Just curious.

Still, it is the most widely used.
And if I had to use Facebook Messenger... I simply wouldn't, and they would have to install Telegram :·)

[WWDERW]

They just use good ole texting.

I don't run in very "social" crowds.

[Don B. Cilly]

It isn't just texting, though, is it.
Even though I could text my son in Panama or my daughter in Bali for... whatever it is, it's still expensive, I can do it with whatsapp for free.
And I can text with my full computer keyboard via my browser.

Now, texts are expensive... especially if you have whole conversations with them.
Phone calls, to Panama or Bali, are not expensive. They're unacceptable.
And I have friends and family in Italy... and people here use whatsapp just to send me invoices and insurance estimates... it's the de facto standard.

Here, have a laugh. This is my son and I yesterday. Just plain chat with no images... still, good ole texting isn't what we do these days



(My son is a biologist. Gatt-caca... Gatto is cat, caca... you can guess :·)

[WWDERW]

It isn't just texting, though, is it.

Yea, it is just texting. Most of the people (if not all) of the ones that I txt are within the same network or have a high enough plan tier, so texting is free in that regard. As to international, not applicable in my case. I only know of 2 people that go international and I rarely get/send texts to them as it is. But the majority of my communication with them is via txt. Sad state of affairs that is, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I'm sure I'm an outlier, but it is what it is.