5 Jun
2017
5 Jun
'17
2:32 p.m.
an open source clone of Google Play Services. not 100% compatible, but
good enough for many apps. Certainly good enough if, like me, you intend
to use mostly apps from f-droid and other alternative app stores (I want
the hardware, and the open-source side of the software. don't want the
proprietary or spyware crap).
https://shadow53.com/no-gapps/
craig
ps: i've pretty much decided on a Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Plus....going to
look at one today ($439 from JB - i'm sure it'll be cheaper if i wait a
bit longer, but that can go on forever...or at least until it disappears
from the market entirely and i have to research a new generation of
devices).
specs are good, there are no clear warning signs saying "avoid, do not
buy", and what i've googled about it looks good. it's well supported by
at least Lineage OS, and there's a Lineage image with micro-g. If the
hardware build quality seems solid (i.e. it doesnt seem like cheap crap
that will break in 6 months) i'll get one.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/thinkpad-tablet/development/unofficial-lin…
--
craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>
5 Jun
5 Jun
2:40 p.m.
forgot to include this link
https://microg.org/
craig
--
craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>
7 Jun
7 Jun
5:08 p.m.
On Mon, Jun 05, 2017 at 02:32:19PM +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
ps: i've pretty much decided on a Lenovo Yoga Tab
3 Plus....
I got one of these on Monday, played with the stock Lenovo version
of Android for a few hours, then rooted it and installed the micro-g
no-google-apps variant of the unofficial Lineage OS port for it.
It's been working very nicely so far. The only app I've found that
didn't work was Weatherzone (no big deal, I installed the BOM's own
android app instead. it's better). FBReader works on it, as does muPDF
and Xobo. The 10" 2560x1600 screen makes reading even more enjoyable
than on the 7" 1280x800 Nexus 7...and a night's reading with FBReader
(6+ hours) seems to take the battery from around 100% to around 95%, so
that's good too.
It's nice to not have Hangouts or Youtube or whatever running in the
background whether I want them to or not. It's even nicer to know
that the core APIs of the system, even though incomplete, are written
to serve the users rather than to support google's surveillance-based
business model. This is the first android device I've owned that HASN'T
been logged in to google's services, and I like that. I like it a lot.
All this works well for me. YMMV if you use or try out lots of apps
from the google play store. I hardly use any, and most of the apps I do
have installed are FOSS from F-Droid anyway.
As well as F-Droid, even without a google login i still have access to
the google app store via the YALP app - kind of a proxy to the Google
Play Store which lets me download and install free apps....and it's easy
to filter out ad-supported apps too. If I wanted to, I could use my
gmail login with it and gain access to any paid apps I may have bought
(none because there's no way I'm ever putting credit card or other
banking details anywhere near an insecure mobile device like a phone or
tablet).
About the only thing i don't have that I actually care about on the
new tablet yet is a calendar that syncs with my desktop calendar
(iceowl)...but that's mainly because I want to stop using google's
calendar service and use my own. In fact, I want to run my own services
for all the usual mobile sync/cloud/backup/storage stuff. Apart from
the calendar, I currently don't use any of these features on any of
my devices because I don't trust google or anyone else to safely and
privately store my data.
I'll be looking into running nextcloud or owncloud or something, or
maybe just a simple CALDAV server - I don't need much. In the meantime,
i've still got google calendar sync on my phone and my nexus tablet.
and it'll be nice to be able to input full details (names, locations
etc) and stop using cryptic little abbreviations in my calendar entries
(I may have nothing to hide but that doesn't mean I WANT google to
have full details of, e.g., my appointments at the renal clinic in the
hospital).
Sometime in the next few weeks, when I've got all that set up and
working, i'll root my Nexus 7 and install Lineage on it too.
------------
The biggest problem is the fact that the whole android scene is woefully
documented and relies far too much on random but crucial snippets of
information that are buried 30 pages deep in forum threads that are
mostly garbage, and, even though it's all based on linux and open-source
software, it feels a lot more like the freeware/shareware scene of the
80s and 90s. Crippleware (i.e. free & "premium" versions of tools) is
common when it just shouldn't be - that's missing the point of free
software.
Don't get me wrong, there's a solid core of free software and open
source people (both devs and users), it's just that they're surrounded
by hordes of people who don't give a shit about any of that, and a whole
bunch of parasitic hangers-on seeing it as a market to make a fortune
in (yeah, right - a crappy app will make you rich)
overall, i find it quite distasteful. it's like the amway-ification
of linux but even worse because it also involves the normalisation of
advertising as a way of life.
craig
--
craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>
7:13 p.m.
On Wednesday, 7 June 2017 5:08:03 PM AEST Craig Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
About the only thing i don't have that I actually
care about on the
new tablet yet is a calendar that syncs with my desktop calendar
(iceowl)...but that's mainly because I want to stop using google's
calendar service and use my own. In fact, I want to run my own services
for all the usual mobile sync/cloud/backup/storage stuff. Apart from
the calendar, I currently don't use any of these features on any of
my devices because I don't trust google or anyone else to safely and
privately store my data.
Please provide progress reports on that. Last time I tried Owncloud it was
painful to setup and didn't work very well. Having an Owncloud based calendar
instead of Google Calendar would be great. But I also need to integrate with
the iCal files from LUV, LCA, and other organisations.
One thing I'd really like from a cloud file service is adaptive caching of
content. My phone has 64G of storage so it can cache all the mp4 and mp3
files in my music collection. My tablet has 32G of storage and is used for
other data intensive tasks so it could have the few GB of music videos I watch
most.
--
My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
7:47 p.m.
On 07/06/17 19:13, Russell Coker via luv-talk wrote:
On Wednesday, 7 June 2017 5:08:03 PM AEST Craig
Sanders via luv-talk wrote:
I have been using Owncloud and then Nextcloud for several years to sync
contacts and calendar between phones and Thunderbird on tablet and PC.
Not hard to set up. Davdroid works well for calendar and contacts sync.
The Nextcloud app allows file storage. There is the SOGO plugin for
Thunderbird https://sogo.nu/download.html#/frontends
hih
Nic
About the only thing i don't have that I
actually care about on the
new tablet yet is a calendar that syncs with my desktop calendar
(iceowl)...but that's mainly because I want to stop using google's
calendar service and use my own. In fact, I want to run my own services
for all the usual mobile sync/cloud/backup/storage stuff. Apart from
the calendar, I currently don't use any of these features on any of
my devices because I don't trust google or anyone else to safely and
privately store my data.
Please provide progress reports on that. Last time I
tried Owncloud it was
painful to setup and didn't work very well. Having an Owncloud based calendar
instead of Google Calendar would be great. But I also need to integrate with
the iCal files from LUV, LCA, and other organisations.
One thing I'd really like from a cloud file service is adaptive caching of
content. My phone has 64G of storage so it can cache all the mp4 and mp3
files in my music collection. My tablet has 32G of storage and is used for
other data intensive tasks so it could have the few GB of music videos I watch
most.
2121
days inactive
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days old
4 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Craig Sanders -
Nic Baxter -
Russell Coker