I think pretty much any of the mainstream distros can be trusted as long as you make sure to check for any “opt-in” voluntary things that many people choose to allow. It’s good to help the developers do a better job ongoing to keep the distros as good as they can be. So if you have a reason to not want any of it, just check the options to make sure you know they’re shut off.

There are probably some distros which explicitly make a point to have absolutely no data sent, but you need to take into consideration what the best distro is for your needs irrespective of this one factor, since none are going to do this behind your back to the magnitude of Windoze or ChromeOS.

I have an Lposed module that you can indicate which apps you want to block updates for so they don’t get updated, regardless what any given shop tries. Easier than toggling it off for all those specific apps within each of Fdroid, Droidify, and Aurora.

There’s also Obtanium that lets you do updates a different way as well.

As for removing apps you can do so on any brew as long as you have root privileges. Sometimes you can even without, via ADB unless they’ve prevented it.

So I mean basically Linux phone doesn’t really need to be used as a way of making this an easier thing to accomplish. Root is right away the ultimate solution, and a custom ROM even better.

I don’t think I know what rocm is 🤪

Brave New World got it even better because in that book, everyone welcomed oppression with open arms and celebrated it.

Psssst. They’re “in on it.”

And the typical consumer has no critical thinking skills and also, is ignorant, and very often a moron, and a sucker. People aren’t smart. The appliances are lol. And the people at the top of giant companies have a greed that is insatiable.

Lesson: never buy an appliance that has internet connectivity.

They won’t get less than a dollar; they’ll get a coupon toward additional purchase from the sued company.

Class action is only about punishing the company and not minding that lawyers will pocket all the proceeds.

Or what they want you to think they want you to think they think. Good luck sleeping tonight. Lol. ;-)

I have /e on a Galaxy Note 4. It’s just like another Lineage or Cyanogen brew.

I briefly tried FUTO a long time ago but it nowhere approached what I needed.

Well, I don’t use swipe, regardless which keyboard I’m using or even which device I’m using. I use about twenty different devices depending what I’m doing. Don’t ask lol. The frank reality is nothing whatsoever beats the iPhone when it comes to knowing what you meant to type. Even though the iPhone has recently had some really weird problems with autocorrect, I have sometimes been so shaky (Tourette’s) and I’ve typed some of the most incoherent drivel, and yet my iPhone got everything 100% corrected to what I intended to type. It’s just frankly astonishing.

But on Android my goal was to avoid Google products when possible. That’s why I went with Heliboard. FOSS, very customizable, backup and restore all settings (MAJOR help when adding to a new device). There are truly an impressive and elegantly functional features, anticipating a wide variety of needs.
BUT I have to erase and retype well more than half of my input. And that’s not including any shaking just for the record.

Meanwhile, gboard does about 85% as good a job as iPhone. I mean, I’ve got shit to get done, ya know? So, for now I am using gboard most of the time and I’ll change back to Heli once in awhile to see if it’s any better after there’s been an update.

Cool.

I really like Heliboard but Jesus does it suck at autocorrect and detecting what key I meant to hit. Gboard is a thousand times more accurate in these respects and so I default to Heliboard but I’ll occasionally switch to gboard if I have a lot to type and Heli is just wasting my time.

Is that actually your name? As in, גדליה? Juuuuust curious.

I buy slightly older phone in Lots. I clean them, test them and then I change them over to a ROM that runs nicely. Then I sell them at a modest markup. I’ve sold about like twenty so far in the past year and I have about forty waiting to be finished. Due to chronic illnesses I have, I often have weeks during which I can’t make any progress.

I know there are plenty of enthusiasts who would like to run a smoother OS that doesn’t spy on them or waste sys resources on bloatware, but oftentimes those people are afraid to do their own hack for concern they’ll mess up. That’s basically my customer base and I’ve been very happy to help get these devices to folks who want this experience.

I like crDroid, ResurrectionRemix, BlissOS, Lineage, Havoc, /e/, Iodé, and like a dozen others such as generic AOSP based etc. There are like a hundred. I just discovered SuperiorOS I put onto a Moto X4. Superior is quite an apropos name, it’s really sweet!

Samsung and Motorola are a smooth process (provided not restricted due to carrier or because it’s a prepay). Some LG are very good as well, but too many are not accommodating and also lots of them crap out. I do like my G4. I have about thirty devices I use somewhat regularly for this or that.

There are plenty brands, though, that I’ve not yet tried out.

That’s not the single solution. You can put dozens of ROMs on dozens of other devices. I buy older devices at cheap prices and put custom ROMs on them and then sell them. It’s fairly lucrative; more so as time goes on. Plenty of people want this kind of privacy but don’t have the skills or confidence to modify their devices. Motorola and Samsung the most by far, but also LG and various others occasionally.

I’m gonna stick to pre-owned devices with alternate ROMs like Lineage, Cyanogen, RR, Havoc, Bliss, cr, Viper, AOSP, KP, ISP, etc. or any of the other hundred brews. I don’t anticipate getting a phone that runs android and is not able to be modified EVER. Eventually if the time comes that the tech changed so vastly that they’re not usable anymore (like 3G now) by then hopefully there will be full Linux phones or some other varieties. Maybe many.

But the thing is the mainstream masses just don’t give a shit. Their rights and liberties have been getting chewed away at for decades and they just can’t seem to care. As long as they are entertained enough and the culture like ours - ie geek subculture / hacking community continues to be mocked and vilified, they’re certainly not gonna listen to us.

But what’s new about that? Nada.

We are forever going to remain a fringe community and I just accept that. When a family member has Alexa devices and I show them all the analytics and tests and records from all the various sources that provide empirical evidence of constant surveillance and spying and uploading of eavesdropped audio and the folks just go eh oh well eh yeah but ah useful eh I have nothing to hide ehhh urrrgh … I start to see them with sunken eye sockets and protruding brow ridges. They are the fools and the suckers and the sheep. They’re the ones who will line up to be implanted with a chip, they’re the ones who will pay to have their brains mapped and catalogued. You can’t cure fucking stupid. Meanwhile people like us will remain the fringe “undesirables” as long as our hearts beat.

Aside from one desktop that still has Win 7 Pro on it for various reasons, and is almost entirely an internal server, every single system I use is Linux. Has been this way for at least a decade. My current laptop came with Winblows 11 but I booted first time straight into a Kubuntu flash drive to install it. Never even had to see that ugly ass Winblows.

I’ve got something running Pop, one running Debian, one has Elementary, I’ve got one with Bodhi, another with KDE Neon, one with Q4, and a variety of others.

Fuck Winblows the OS that is one giant virus.

Edit: oooh forgot my little guy running Kali. And also the dozen distros running in VMs on the Windows desktop.

Seriously, I don’t know if this is precisely accurate but definitely don’t spin down. Data errors, software problems if it has to wait for spin up and then something experiences a timeout.

I’ve had some drives spinning for like twenty years without any problems.