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

First Post?

[14erCleaner]

No, there are no good alternatives.

Re:First Post?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

iOS and Android dominate the market today, but there are a few alternatives with potential to escape from the app/spyware hell. Silent Circle make the Blackphone, which is Android-based but with a heavy emphasis on security and privacy compared to most of the major off-the-shelf brands. Perhaps more interesting, Purism are working on the Librem 5 and recently beat their funding target by a comfortable margin, which potentially means a privacy and security focussed phone that runs a different platform entirely could be available in the not too distant future.

Re: First Post?

[dmesg0]

I don't think rooting is a good idea nowadays. It prevents updates and you can achieve most things rooting allowed in the past without it.

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."

Windows phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows phone... ho you asked for a good alternative !

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?

Sailfish on Sony Xperia

[chill]

Sailfish by Jolla, on either the Sony Xperia or any of a number of other phones as aftermarket.

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.

Cheap Windows phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Any cheapo windows phone will do all that just fine. The built-in map app is great for navigation, even without internet.

Re:Not anymore, anyway

[BronsCon]

So much better that Microsoft has dropped the platform altogether. Bravo.

It had potential, don't get me wrong; and if Microsoft hadn't screwed every single pooch they encountered on their journey with Windows Phone, I'm sure it would be a real winner, but...

Its dead, Jim.

The E71 still does ALL that...

[williamyf]

Provided you load up The Garmin APP, and get the maps from OpenStreetMaps, and OperaMini

More seriously though, the market has spoken, and there are only three platforms:
iOS 18% Installed base.
Google's Android with PlayStore/Services 55%
AOSP (Android Open Source Ports) 27%

the rest of the platforms (WindowsPhone10, BlackBerry's BB10, WebOS, Bada) are pretty much roundng errors.

WP10 will be supported (including security patches) until 2020. BB10 will be "zombie supported" (no mention of security patches) until 2020 as well. The other two, I do not know.

So, pick your poison wisely; for there is pretty much no escape.

But, if you are hellbent on not being on neither iOS, nor any flavour of Android, then, for your specific use case, I'd bet either on Bada (Samsung has big pockets to keep the platform going for a while), or a "Smarther than a featurephone, but dumber thn a smartphone" asha-type phone from HMD (the owners of the Nokia brand).

PS: My last four phones were a Nokia E71 like you (which I still keep around as my Garmin), then a Nokia N9, then a Blackberry Q10, then a Blackberry keyONE (android, current one), but I had a mobile phone in some capacity since 1996 (Motorola AMPS, then ericsson AMPS, then Sony AMPS, then nokia 6119, then nokia 7110, then Ericsson-Symbian-but-I-forget-cause-I-was-mugged, then Nokia 7250i, then some no-name huawei). So I kinda speak from experience.

Here's a comparison:

[John.Banister]

Comparison of mobile operating systems

Come on...

[countach]

From what you're telling us, you have very modest requirements, albeit not quite modest enough to use a plain old candy bar phone.

Now as a non-tech geek, which is what this profile is screaming, why would you not want to go mainstream? iOS and Android is mainstream. They are readily available. There are tons of resources on how to use them. They have apps available should the need arise. Going out of mainstream is for early adopters, for tech geeks, for people with non-mainstream needs. There's a reason why Android and iOS dominate. THEY WORK FOR MOST PEOPLE.

Buy the tech not into the brand

[AHuxley]

1. Phone calls (loads of conference calls, for which I use a wired headset with a microphone)
2. SMS Messaging (unlimited on my plan)
Something like a better Nokia 3310 that can support calls, tethering.
3. Navigation (very important, and is probably the most-used app on my phone)
A portable GPS unit with free new map support.
4. Occasional internet browsing
A quality laptop using any OS you like.
No android or apple OS needed.

Buy real devices that support what is needed as part of their design.

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:Not anymore, anyway

[DogDude]

What in the fuck are you talking about? "Hopes and dreams?" I'm talking about a phone.

Re:Not anymore, anyway

[BronsCon]

If all you use is the features that come with the phone and maybe a handful of free apps, more power to you, have at it. If you really want to keep using a device that's a year or more out of support (there are only 2 years left, remember), especially running a Microsoft OS with no security patches, go right ahead. Sure, it'll "work", it'll power on and at least the default functionality will probably be there; if you ever need to restore after they kill support, your apps will be lost, of course. I wouldn't really consider simply turning on and booting to be "working", when the device is intended to do so much more than that and those functions will necessarily break when Microsoft quits supporting them.

If you use any apps, you clearly haven't considered that you might need some time to find suitable replacements, or you really don't actually use them enough to care about potential substantial workflow changes. Having migrated from Blackberry to iOS to Android, I've been around the block a couple times; if you have some app that does some function a certain way, it takes time to sift through all the available apps on your new platform that perform that function, in order to find one that has the options you need and works the way you need it to.

Again, though, if all you care about is the most basic of functionality, sure, stick with Windows Phone. That's all you'll have when MS pulls the plug and, really, you don't even need a smartphone for those functions; most feature phones will perform those tasks, including GPS now, with multiple days of battery life.

For someone who actually uses a smartphone as a smartphone, adopting a dead platform is simply beyond idiotic and suggesting it as an option is either ignorant, malicious, or both.