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from the if-you-don't-like-it-you-can-keep-it dept.
Samsung is facing a battle with end users concerning its agreements with software companies to set some preinstalled software on Samsung mobile phones to be undeletable. Users have found that applications like Facebook can't be uninstalled, which has caused some distress given the recent data breaches and lack of respect Facebook has shown towards its users in the past decade. Some users have sworn off getting another Samsung phone if apps can't be uninstalled. The argument that users can just hack the phone to get root access, and then force remove the apps does not hold with non-technical users and anyone who can't risk bricking their device. Samsung has refused to comment on this, and specifically will not provide details about agreements it has with software vendors to force their applications to always be installed on Samsung phones. By comparison, the iPhone does not ever come with pre-installed third party applications.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stretch611 on Friday January 11 2019, @02:17AM
The last time I had a phone without pre-installed bloatware was back when I had an original Google Nexus (By HTC at the time.) Of course that was nearly 10 years ago.
Since then, I have had a couple of LG phones, HTC, and I am currently on a Motorola Moto G3. (I only replace every few years when it dies or the battery is horrible.)
Every phone has had some type of bloatware and useless apps that could not be uninstalled. At least with recent versions of Android, you can disable them, but that still leaves them taking up memory.
On my MotoG3, at least the crapware are generally only "stubs." A small shortcut app that is not the full app, but a link to download the manufacturer/carrier specific version of the app. This can be disabled but not removed... However, they stop being disabled after every OS update.
I'm not sure if it is the manufacturer or the phone carrier that is responsible though. I know either can add the uninstallable apps. It is kind of like Windows which has all the crapware pre-installed... I remember that HP used to be horrible with all the third party crapware it used to install... but even if they didn't install any, Microsoft would have a few things like "30 day M$ Office Trial" preinstalled.
Of course this used to be a problem on my computers until a few years ago, I stopped even bothering and just wiped the hard drive and installed linux. Unfortunately, with all the different models and hardware/radios, phones are not as easy and you can't just blow away android and install open source ROMs because of reliability issues.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P