this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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Well, I'm already running a custom ROM.
Non-Android Linux has a mobile software ecosystem problem as of last I checked.
Custom ROMs won't be an option forever. They are going step by step, just "the tip" first to not hurt too much.
Unless people fully fork android and maintain it, but then google will make sure to break compatibility. Plus less and less phones make it possible to install custom ROMs.
The only way forward is getting rid of them. Like Linux and microsoft. "Ecosystem" will always be a problem as it is with Linux (adobe and other garbage refusing to allow compatibility), but as long as it works well as a phone, like Linux works well as a computer, then it will be fine for a lot of people and software will be made to meet their needs (and a lot of software will work as it is now, like Syncthing does on Sailfish).
It worked with desktops. It took a long time, but it did. It can work with phones if there is enough people backing it.
It will be a bumpy road again but if I can get 100% free of google as I did with microsoft, it will be worthy.
Maybe, maybe not. Periods of hardware and software lockdown have ended before.
A hard fork off of Android seems like the easier path to me if it doesn't. Sure, they can break compatibility, but it will take a while for that to catch up with us, and in the meanwhile we can use apps and infrastructure that already exists. And Fairphone, at the very least, seems likely to continue being receptive to whatever ROM you want.
I agree, but those options are also unlikely in the long term. I'm just being positive and hoping for a life without Google.
I was thinking, Linux only really worked because companies profit from it and therefore support it. If it were just for desktop users it would have never been more than a programmer hobby. I don't see phones benefiting more than the end user, and without a lot of profit on that I don't see that working. So I think the future is dark.
But I'll still invest on it and pretend I live in an ideal world and pretend it's possible. It's not zero percent chance I hope...
I'm using AOSP, which is kind of Google-derivative, but I've gotten off of everything else. Geopolitics seems like it will get in the way of overbearing US monopolies pretty soon here, too.