Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Alternatives To Android Or iOS?

An anonymous Slashdot reader is asking whether or not there are any alternatives to Android or iOS smartphones: Like most of us, I've owned a few smartphones over time, ranging from a Nokia E71 to a Samsung Android phone and now, an Apple iPhone. It is close to phone upgrade time, and I've been reviewing the features that I use on my phone. When I think honestly about it, the only features I really need are:

1. Phone calls (loads of conference calls, for which I use a wired headset with a microphone)
2. SMS Messaging (unlimited on my plan)
3. Navigation (very important, and is probably the most-used app on my phone)
4. Occasional internet browsing

All of this could be done by the Nokia E71, when Nokia Maps was a thing. If I want to move away from Apple, Google and the like, do I have any options now? Are there any trustable (and by trustable, I mean avoiding unknown Chinese manufacturers) phones in the market today that could do all four and (ideally) have better battery life than one day?

Comments

Not anymore, anyway

[Anonymous Coward]

Happy owner of a WinPhone here. Dated, sure. Fewer apps, sure. But compared to the iOS and Android phones I'm helping other people with on a daily basis, I find it easier to use. But I may be biased... by my better phone.

Re:Not anymore, anyway

[DogDude]

Windows Phone 10 is supported until sometime in 2020. There's no reason not to continue to use Windows Phones for another years, at least.

Blackberry!

[Anonymous Coward]

Blackberries still work. And during the SONY hack, Blackberries were the fallback!

Custom Android ROM

[RickRussellTX]

Ubuntu Touch/Mobile failed, Microsoft is closing shop on Windows 10 Mobile.

Honestly your best bet would be a phone that you can root, and put a stripped-down custom Android ROM on it. You don't need to connect to any Google Play services to get all the basics. At least that way you get to pick your configuration and keep it minimal.

99% good enough

[supernova87a]

First, ask yourself why you really need to go to a phone that will be less supported, less well-debugged, less secure. Do you really need that special use case that rarely if ever comes up? Do you have the energy / time to maintain a phone like that to the same standards (and if not, are you just implicitly deciding not to)?

Sometimes, don't you just want a phone that may not do absolutely everything, but otherwise generally just works? Aren't you old enough to not need to put up with half-assed shit any more?

There are some, one is kinda viable (sort of)

[pngwen]

Probably the most viable phone OS is Legacy OS, which is just an open source version of Android. You can install it, and provided you don't instal gapps, it is pretty secure. It also gives you complete control over your phone. Legacy OS + Fdroid gives you a FOSS solution that protects your privacy about as well as any OS for a tracking device can.

There is also the openmoko stack from a few years ago. If you can get your hands on a Neo FreeRunner, they are an acceptable phone. You'll be on your own for software though, as that project is effectively dead.

No matter what you do, you can't really trust a phone completely. The nature of the cell network means that any cellphone is a defacto tracking device. Your whereabouts are logged, and because you have shared them with a third party you have no expectation of privacy. They don't even require a warrant for law enforcement. Also, private citizens can simply purchase the location data from most providers. So keep that in mind. I carry a phone, but I am ready to stick it in a microwave and run from it at a moment's notice.

Re:Sailfish on Sony Xperia

[rolandw]

I've had a number of Jolla devices. My wife has a Jolla phone. If I were on the market today for a new phone, I'd be running Sailfish. The guys at Jolla are building genuine independence and, by being relatively obscure, I think manage to keep things secure yet flexible. Much of my work is in Linux admin and to be able to do that work, natively, straight off my phone is a joy.

Word of warning: it's like Linux on the desktop - it works really well but you need to engage your brain. There is no easy way of syncing your music on your phone to some music library on some cloud service but hey, if you want to, you can find a way. Don't use a Jolla if you want a brain-dead experience or if you suffer regularly from hang-overs.

Word of warning 2: When you meet someone else running Sailfish in the wild the amount of excitement generated probably needs a health warning - for you and those around you. If you have a heart problem, don't go looking for other Jolla fans outside a Jolla event.

Re: First Post?

[Shoten]

Root your phone, then you'll be able to remove all the crapware.

Actually, no.

The problem with this is that the worst of the crapware (like Adups' garbage) is tied into the OS itself. So while, theoretically you could remove it...you're talking about altering the OS itself at a very low level. And that brings a host of other problems based around maintenance. New Android version from the manufacturer to address vulnerabilities? Get ready to hack the OS all over again and perform surgery to remove the bad parts...assuming that they are where they were last time. Have a problem with something not working right? Could be from the changes you made...but it's hard to tell and good luck getting any technical support at all. And all of this first requires that a person be a guru on the inner workings of Android, which is a pretty tall order; I would think that someone asking about phone variants out there isn't one of these people, because everyone who is a bona fide Android developer (developer of Android itself...not apps for the Android OS) is pretty plugged-in to the cellphone industry.

There is a difference between "technically possible" and "actually feasible."