**Wanted to update this post with a website I found that has info about this topic for regular people, in case anybody finds this later. ** Privacy Focused OS For Everyone It has info about the different os options as well as apps for phones using regular android.

Pretend I am five and please be nice.

Say I want to free my phone and tablet from samsung/google/skynet but I neeeeeed to be able to use my printer and external cd drives and their silly proprietary apps, as well as flash drives, cds, and normal apps without alternatives like bandcamp and libby and and all that. I also need to be able to use government websites and use my wifi and pay bills and just generally do everything that I do now on samsung’s/motorola’s software.

(Most of these things were issues for me when I tried to use linux years ago which is why I’m listing them. I do not possess the technical ability to solve these problems on my own when they come up. I also do not possess any other devices to use if my main ones can’t do these things anymore.)

Is this realistic in 2024 for Graphene or any other free open source os? And if it is, how do I install it safely and properly?

Are there any known issues with it like slowness or not being able to use the camera, etc? Most of the places with information about this stuff are not written in a langauge I speak.

Edit: does anyone want to work on creating or collecting some simplified tutorials with me? I’m thinking of installing one of these on my phone and it it goes well I will probably write the details down. It might be good to have a place for other people who have done so, or want to, to do the same for their respective devices.

  • sentientity@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I think a lot of people deep in linux and computer science communities might not realize that tons of people outside that subculture feel exactly the same way they do and want the same things, we just didn’t go to school for it. No one is trying to water down the niche spaces that are important to people or deny the hard work that was done by people in decades past. We just want to understand and do what’s been recommended to us, and information should be for everyone because the goal is increased adoption and digital freedom in society, right? Anyway this kinda means a lot coming from a person with your background so thank you.

    • Snot FlickermanEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      You’re welcome, I have been lucky enough to be around a lot of people with an attitude like mine, which is how I got my knowledge to begin with, as well. If it hadn’t been for open minded people being willing to help, I would have never achieved the level of knowledge I have today. I stand on the shoulders of giants who were kind and giving enough to bend down and share knowledge.

      No one is trying to water down the niche spaces that are important to people or deny the hard work that was done by people in decades past.

      Exactly, the gatekeeping isn’t helping anybody. The fact that things don’t work perfectly on their own and just aren’t as polished in the open source world gatekeeps people on its own, without the actual knowledgeable people also gatekeeping.

      Isn’t it enough that the knowledge is esoteric enough to do the gatekeeping for us already? Why do we need to gatekeep when there’s technical walls to scale to begin with!