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posted by martyb on Monday November 13 2017, @03:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-off-your-hat dept.

It's time to upgrade my phone. I'm paying $80 a year on Page Plus (Verizon) with a Window 6.x phone (before tiles, has a start menu). I'm trying to find a phone which will keep my data safe and that seems far more difficult and expensive than it should, so I'm asking you, my fellow purple people eaters Soylentils, to aid me in my mundane quest. My primary use will be GPS/navigation, listening to podcasts, and making phone calls. A secondary use is managing email from multiple accounts. I do require the Google Voice app as I have a couple phone numbers from two side businesses. I'd like to be able to toggle between a VPN connection and a normal connection, but that's not a requirement. I prefer longer battery life. My Win phone can go over a week without charging if I all I do on it is make phone calls. I'm going to be living on a college campus so WiFi will normally be available. I don't want to be buying a new phone every couple years. I've had the Win phone for perhaps 6 years.

IPhones have been in the news for being difficult for state-actors to hack into, but app permissions and data can't be faked nor do I know of any OSS movement on the iOS platform. I assume Androids can be instantly cracked by state-actors, but they have some end-user programs to help prevent apps from spying on you. I'd like it if my address book, location, and media was secure from data mining apps. Do I really need to make the choice between data privacy and state privacy? Though since companies have no issue selling data to the state, is my only choice data privacy?

My ideal choice would be a pocket sized piece of hardware that runs Debian, makes phone calls, lets me install standard Linux programs, and doesn't cost more than a laptop. Though if I can connect a screen and keyboard to it and do Python/Java/C++ development then perhaps I'll pay high-end laptop prices. I've seen failed attempts at creating such a device but no successful ones.

Help me dear readers, you're not my only hope.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by urza9814 on Tuesday November 14 2017, @06:37PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Tuesday November 14 2017, @06:37PM (#596902) Journal

    As usual, I'm going to throw a mention of LineageOS in here.

    Particularly with the multiple recent cases of phones coming with spyware pre-installed, I'd say it's not a bad idea to dump the stock firmware no matter what you buy. And you've got no alternatives on an iPhone, so those are out of the question unless you have a lot of trust in Apple, which I personally do not. You've also gotta consider updates...you won't get six years of support from any stock Android; and while Apple might *technically* support their old hardware, the new OSes usually just get slower and slower. But LineageOS is open source so it'll support old hardware indefinitely. If anything happens to the project it'll get forked and keep going (already happened once -- it used to be Cyanogenmod) and it's very customizable with no bloatware included which keeps it responsive even on slow or old devices.

    So grab a compatible Android phone (which is pretty much anything that's reasonably popular) and install an open-source rom like LineageOS. If you don't trust Google you can skip ALL the Goog components (although OP probably would want at least the play store since he's already got GVoice.) You can get full Debian in an app already, the only thing Samsung's new app is bringing is "official support." If you search the app store for "Debian" there's several options available, and I've used those successfully in the past. You'd probably want a keyboard and mouse though at least, it's not a *great* experience but it works.

    I've currently done all of that with a Galaxy S5 which I'm quite happy with, although my next one will probably be a Oneplus. Wouldn't trust the stock Samsung rom very much (and certainly not a stock oneplus rom!), but it's great hardware once you put LineageOS on it. Battery life is a bit lacking, particularly now that it's over 3 years old, but the battery is accessible and replaceable at least. That's going to be the biggest issue with the OP's requirements I think...but you can always get a good battery bank; I've got an Anker one for around $30 with a 10 amp capacity that easily fits in my pocket with my phone (it's about the same size as the phone) so if you get used to carrying that you could run for a week even with pretty heavy usage. You could also look into getting a battery case perhaps but I prefer a nice big Otterbox...any time someone asks about the case I pick up my phone and whip it across the room...that thing is excellent :)

    So yeah, OP is going to need to buy components rather than a single device...look into the last generation flagship phones and see if the savings are worthwhile (Galaxys usually drop fast; the Oneplus looks like they might not); put LineageOS on it and get a Debian app; add a nice case (if you want to keep it six years, get something sturdy!) and a battery bank; and probably add a bluetooth keyboard and mouse too. And maybe an HDMI cable if you want to connect the thing to a screen to get the best use from having Debian there. You can probably put that together for $500-$700, more if you get the latest and greatest phone, possibly less if you find a cheap phone...but if you're intending to make it last six years I'd stick with something fairly high end.

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