To be fair (as a Samsung Android and MacBook user), so do nearly all phones altogether. On a computer, you can just install Linux to have a Microsoft/Google/Apple-free OS. But nearly all smartphones run Android (if not iOS).
I guess then that we need more Linux phone development.
You can (on most Android phones) run an Android fork that doesn’t have Google services running and gets software and updates from elsewhere, e.g. GrapheneOS. Can’t do that with an iPhone. I get that you’re still ultimately dependent on Google to continue Android development and make security updates, but it’s way less of a dependency. And yes, GNU-ish Linux on phones would be awesome.
Yes and no. You need an unlocked or unlockable bootloader, which is becoming more and more difficult to find. So you’ll need speciality manufacturers, or ones with that feature. For example, in the US, Samsung has had locked bootloaders on all its phones since the Galaxy S7.
Obviously your point is correct (e.g. I have an older, but usable OnePlus 6 with an unlocked bootloader). You just need to be more deliberate when choosing a phone and keeping all of this in mind.
To be fair (as a Samsung Android and MacBook user), so do nearly all phones altogether. On a computer, you can just install Linux to have a Microsoft/Google/Apple-free OS. But nearly all smartphones run Android (if not iOS).
I guess then that we need more Linux phone development.
You can (on most Android phones) run an Android fork that doesn’t have Google services running and gets software and updates from elsewhere, e.g. GrapheneOS. Can’t do that with an iPhone. I get that you’re still ultimately dependent on Google to continue Android development and make security updates, but it’s way less of a dependency. And yes, GNU-ish Linux on phones would be awesome.
Yes and no. You need an unlocked or unlockable bootloader, which is becoming more and more difficult to find. So you’ll need speciality manufacturers, or ones with that feature. For example, in the US, Samsung has had locked bootloaders on all its phones since the Galaxy S7.
Obviously your point is correct (e.g. I have an older, but usable OnePlus 6 with an unlocked bootloader). You just need to be more deliberate when choosing a phone and keeping all of this in mind.