A little rant about the Android operating system @android
Everyone felt weird when I said I was using custom ROMs. Most of them haven't heard about anything beyond stock android. I wrote a blog trying to normalise it. https://text.tchncs.de/czars-blogs/custom-roms-and-my-phone
Out of all the people you could blame, you literally chose to blame the single least affected party here. Google has actually taken great strides to make custom ROMs as easy as humanly possible without stepping on the toes of vendors.
Google does a lot of stuff people should hate, but this is not one of them.
because Android is google? it’s supposed to be this Grand unified ecosystem, Google apps on a Google operating system on a Google phone, but anytime you have an issue with one of them, they all blame every other department so nobody helps you. Google has been hiding accessibility features behind paywalls since Android 11 as well.
can you give a few examples of the a11y issues that don’t have at least somewhat well known alternatives that work more or less the same way?
Personally I run android completely without gapps or even aurora store, the only proprietary apps I do actually use is discord my retarded router’s only method of accsessing the settings, eero app
I’m afraid I don’t understand the question. are you asking if you can work around the broken multitasking feature? the only way you can do that is by cracking apps so that they’ll play in the background
what’s broken about multitasking? It’s working fine for me on Android 14. I use split view and desktop mode fairly often without issues, any specific applications that are broken?
you used to be able to navigate around the lower screen as if it were your phone screen with the top screen just minimized. now, the two apps that you haven’t split screen are tied together when you hit the recents button or the home button.
Depends on the circle of people you're talking to... I'm not buying any phone without custom ROM support. And haven't done so in ages. I know several other people who've used LineageOS, GrapheneOS or Calyx at some point. I wouldn't say it's normal, but definitely not a unicorn encounter either. Just embrace it. You're a hacker now. Maybe this is a good thing. (Most certainly.)
I feel I should also say, times changed. Back in the day it was either impossible to run a Custom ROM because of some locked bootloader. Or it'd run perfectly smooth. Sometimes you'd be running a ROM of some 15 yo because that's the last person supporting that device. Today some things have changed. Security works differently. Lots of people use things like NFC payment that doesn't work that well without stock. More and more stuff has moved into the proprietary Google services. Cameras have become super complicated and AI enhanced. Running a Custom ROM feels very different from what it was 8 years ago. If you own one of the well-supported devices anyways. Because that was always an issue.
I wish this stuff was a little more mainstream. Part of it is simply self-interest: there would be more unlockable devices and fewer app developers trying to block their apps from running on third-party ROMs if more people ran them.
Part of it is I think that would be a better world. Big tech would have a bit less power. Devices would last longer.
Do we really need to be so constantly cringy about it? Yes, custom ROMs are great. I run one. Lots of other people run one. They’re great. Don’t get me wrong. But you have to realize most people simply don’t care for one, Most vendors also don’t really support their phones well under GSI, so things like camera and stuff like that hardly ever work properly.
In a lot of cases, it is quite a bit of work to get a custom rom flashed and have it working well. The technological skill gap between most people who will run an Android phone and even enthusiasts who will so much as think about installing a custom ROM is so massive that you may as well be a hacker to them.