This is not quite similar because there are VR headsets from several manufacturers that don't come with a mandatory social network login attached. (in fact FB is the only one that does)
Even with Android vs iOS, they aren't quite the same because Android clearly gives you more control and freedom as a consumer. If you care about any of this at least don't buy the worse offender.
> GrapheneOS is compatible with several Google Pixel smartphones.
That doesn't bode well for things working all that well. As someone who ran linux on chromebook for two years, then on a macbook for three, i'm a bit burnt out on this sort of thing.
It's like a rite of passage or something to hack and then install your own thing fighting harder than a salmon swimming up stream. There's a lot to be learned in the doing to be sure. It's the full of piss&vinegar stage of life. Eventually, you get tired of the time required to fight it, and just need something to work. Does that mean the man won? Maybe. However, I look at it like I won on finally becoming mature enough to realize that there are things much more important in life than banging my head on that particular brick wall. Just my $0.02 of grandpa ranting. Get off my lawn!
If that's the fight you are fighting, then by all means keep up the fight. Being able to do basic computer activities privately is a definite need. Hacking what's essentially a gaming device from FB is just not that critical to me.
Every other VR device doesn't require logging on to the greatest destroyer of social cohesion the world has ever seen so I'm not sure what "the chore" here is. Just buy literally any other VR headset that isn't prefixed with the word Oculus.
It is always nice when the idealistic choice lines up with the exciting, or pragmatic choice. Sadly, in the world of hardware at least, this is seldom the case.
Couldn’t agree more. Recently hit the stage of needing things to ‘just work’ to free up time in other directions, whereas I used to constantly load new roms from xda onto a rooted pixel, or tinker with getting coreboot to run on an old thinkpad with arch..
Now it’s iOS / macOS / iCloud and a headless Ubuntu box. Never been more productive and never had more free time. Choose your battles.
...which is doomed to death whenever Google stops with the security updates for the very specific hardware it runs on. In fairness, IIRC, this is actually the fault of Qualcomm providing, and eventually ceasing to provide, Google with hardware security updates of some sort.
The point is that these fun projects to circumvent baked-in awfulness are practically destined to stop working properly due to the nature of the hardware itself. It's always better, if possible, to support the non-awful varietal. In this case, I guess that's "almost any other VR headset, lacking a login requirement". Does Steam count?
Are graphene releases/support completed tied to google releases/support? I had assumed they were able to update their version of android for a phone beyond what google does.
> It cannot do that once device support code like firmware, kernel and vendor code is no longer actively maintained. Even if the community was prepared to take over maintenance of the open source code and to replace the rest, firmware would present a major issue, and the community has never been active or interested enough in device support to consider attempting this
Check out postmarketOS, Mobian, and NixOS Mobile. They support some OnePlus phones and a few others in addition to the PinePhone and Librem 5. pmOS has the most devices supported (although amount of stuff working varies per device).
Sailfish uses a proprietary UI, so I hesitate to recommend it. There's an alternative that replaces their UI, can't recall the name right now.
Indeed, eventually a fully open mature mobile distro will replace Sailfish OS, but at the moment its the only reasonably open mobile OS fit for daily use.
all the things you mentioned are hardly production ready though. PostmarketOS compatibility has issues on tons of devices, and Mobian can't run much applications anyway.
Someone with deep pockets to counter the PR machine that is Apple. That's the only way. Of course, this means having an actual working product for that PR to promote. It also means having a way of installing it without some scary voiding warranty notice.
I like this solution because you still get to use the hardware and use the apps, but it denies the overlords of the thing they want the most.