Free Your Android!

Hardware Hub Phones, Tablets, & Wearables
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For those that value their own civil and human rights, check this out:

 

https://fsfe.org/campaigns/android/android.html

 

It's a campaign supported by the European Parliament, organized by the FSFE.

The goal is to help people clean their smartphones of Google and Carrier apps, and to show them that they can have a much better, safer, cheaper and faster smartphone experience by using open source software repos instead of the Google Playstore, and that they can take control over their life and their data by taking control over their smartphone.

Politicians can only do so much to protect everybody's rights. If you want to protect your rights, you have to start protecting your rights yourself.

With regards to evil corporations like Google, the company that is responsible for the single largest human rights violation campaign in the history of mankind in terms of number of victims and incidence of violations, it's actually very simple to protect your rights, and it offers you a better smartphone experience in return, so it's a win-win situation.

In Europe, a carrier cannot prohibit you from flashing your phone, even if it's a subsidized device. You cannot make a valid civil contract that forces one party to give up civil and human rights to the other party. Those contracts are always, even without any initiative or complaint from a party, void and null.

Flashing a device, even a subsidized one, cannot void the warranty on the device. In Europe, there is a mandatory two year full warranty and a legal product warranty on all devices, and any clause that limits the liability or responsibility of the vendor or manufacturer, is deemed null and void. So even if your contract or sales terms and conditions state that the warranty is void by flashing the device, this is not true, in fact, that clause is deemed to not exist.

Know your rights, stand up against the Anglo-American corporate bigots! Protect yourself and your environment against the digital usurpers! Don't let the rest of Continental Europe become another Gitmo-state like the US, the UK or the Netherlands! It's not too late to protect civilization, honour and human values, and it all starts by freeing your Android!

2

Um.... u ever herd of rooting your phone? and removing stuff?

3

Thanks Zoltan. This is very useful.

4

Well, I freed my pc of chrome today because the new one was hijacking to many settings. Does that count. Yes, its considered a must to root your phone and tablet if you wanna use it correctly. My warranty only lasted the amount of time it took to root it. Less than 5 minutes. Cool about EU, maybe some of that will spill over here in the states.

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Even if you root, some devices cannot be devoid of Google.

 

6

Yup, true. you dont have to buy them tho.

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Flashing a device, even a subsidized one, cannot void the warranty on the device.

Yes it can. Most phones have a counter to determine how many times you have flashed your device.

Not everyone lives in Europe.

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You can reset the counter and lock the boot loader and as a result your warranty is no longer void. 

9

only in a select few phones, just like only portion (although the majority portion) can have the write protection removed to begin with.

I'm not saying it cant be done, I'm saying that it will void your warranty if your device says it has been flashed, unlike what Zoltan said.

10

In those cases your firewall your device. Completely control all traffic and keep a close eye on what it does.

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It's a European initiative, I was very clear about that. The FSF has done something similar in the US, but of course, then the Library of Congress list was published to kill the effort... odd thing is, android smartphones are added to the exemption list again, but the FSF remains silent... so the FSFE had to do this...

It's mainly to help people go through with implementing what they already know.

The good thing is that there is a lot of support from the industry also. The smartphone manufacturing industry doesn't like it when they first invest big in EU civil rights and worldwide human rights compliance, and in EU consumer law compliance and technical compliance, only to see their liability triggered anyway because of Google spyware and ISP CarrierIQ. It's the smartphone manufacturer that gets presented with the bill of the evilness of the malware, just as much as the users. Smartphones are designed to work without the likes of Google Now and CarrierIQ. Do you know how much it costs for example Samsung to stay ahead of Google just for the sake of compliance? Samsung or Huawei are not just some Asian consumer goods manufacturers, a lot of development is done by Europeans and even some Americans, and a lot of stuff that Samsung develops benefits the linux community, and whereas many people will say that linux doesn't do anything for them in x86, it does in RISC territory, because they wouldn't even be able to drive a car, go to a hospital, take a plane or train, etc... without the work done by Samsung and alike, because outside of x86, there is just no alternative for linux, and that's exactly why Google is so focused on getting a grip on linux, both on RISC devices and on x86. The manufacturers of RISC devices don't like that at all, and think Google is going too far, but noone calls Google out, because Google controls the media.

It's important to let people know that they shouldn't doubt what they know is right, and that they're not alone, even though they only hear the little evil voice singing siren songs. If enough people clean their smartphone from Google, it will become possible to market devices with non-Google software on them, and let the users chose their software like they can on x86 devices with linux.

Defending people against Microsoft or Adobe or other dumb bullies with money is easy in comparison to what it's like to defend people against smart bullies with money, like Google or ISP's. This campaign is nothing but a small pep talk, to strengthen people in their resolve to defend their rights against bullies with money. The ISP's are being herded into a safe coral by the EU sheepdogs, and that has been going on for years and with pretty good success (tariff caps, roaming caps, maximum roaming bill, no SIM-lock, etc...), and the EU definitely wants to go after Google, and it's happening, but there is a lot of resistance. The European Parliament, which is the real democratic organ of power, takes every opportunity it can to support that. The executive EU organs, like the Commission, are comprised of "professional politicians" in a comfortable position, they are obviously often corrupt and/or afraid to "rock the boat", so they often don't do what's necessary. That's why the European Parliament often has a different opinion than the Commission, that's why for instance Microsoft was interrogated about their NSA backdoors and spyware by the EU Parliament, but were never attacked by the Commission, quite on the contrary, repeat anti-trust offender Microsoft was given huge rebates on the legal fines by the Commission, like 90% or more rebate, to reduce the fines to an amount that was insignificant for Microsoft, and the same was done for Intel. The EU Parliament doesn't mess around that much, which is why they depend on a lot of external counsel to avoid the EU red tape and commission control. With a limited budget, what better way to get the message across than by asking the FSFE to make a "Free your Android" campaign?

12

I think phones in general will be harder to have as an open source thing like this. 

The main point being downtime.

If I install linux on my PC, and mess something up, then I can fix it, take my time to find out the problem. With something like this, it would be very easy to mess up your phones OS, since it is so open, and downtime on a cellular can be a dangerous thing.

These applications and OS's would take a lot of time to update, as well. Since, unlike desktop Linux, each version needs to be tailored to a specific device. 

I love the idea, though. But the team behind it would need to be huge. 

They get true-tested packages in a "play-like" store, nice GUIs and an easy, no-fuss installation, and it would take off.

 

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I don't agree. With the bootloaders that are already available right now, rapid consecutive flashing, backing up and restoring, etc... has never been a problem.

It's why Google doesn't want Nexus devices with memory card slots lolz... because flashing is too easy.

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And by the way, are you saying you have more downtime on linux machines than on Windows software console boxes? Wow, that's extraordinary!

A full linux install takes 4-5 minutes tops, a full Windows install with updates takes pretty much an entire day. Windows installs break by themselves regularly, Linux installs don't break unless the user breaks them, and can be restored in literally seconds.

Phones have limited footprint linux distros on them, that fit on a micro-SD card. A full phone restore takes less than 2 minutes, that's less time than it take GApps to check for updates...

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Installing Arch takes more than 5 minutes. Especially with configuration, installation of WM, and such. 

Installation of windows doesnt take that long, honestly. And my windows installations rarly ever break. If they do, its because I did something, and I know why. I dont know about you, but Im competent enough to use windows without breaking things. ;).

And I didnt mention anything about windows, did I? I just said that having downtime on a phone is worse than downtime on a PC. Dont make this a windows Vs Linux thing. You know I use both. 

And a phone restore may take less than two minutes. If you have the image on the SD card, all the time. Or if you are at a PC when it happens. If something vurrupts your boot loader then you're screwed, until you can get to a PC. (This can happen with all rooting/using custom roms, but would be more prevalent with more open software)

If you couldn't tell, or if you just like to argue (Which I believe you do, because you tried to make this into something it's not) I'm only saying that this wouldnt be good for the general consumer. A businessman needs something that just works. It sucks, yes, but they dont have time, nor do they want to, spend tons of time to set something up, back it up, keep the ISO on their phone, and have to restore it like that. 

It would be best for people that know how to mess with things, have some knowledge of linux (Which everyone should, but sadly dont), and have the willingness to deal with something that will break. [just like a rolling release distro (Yes I know this isnt rolling release, but with so many devices, and so many components for each one, things WILL break)]

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  " [..] it would be very easy to mess up your phones OS, since it is so open [..]"

Are you suggesting that "open OS" is a synonym for "easy to mess up"? This is what I am getting from you post.

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Not using them as synonyms, no. 

But an Open OS, for someone with limited experience, would be much, much easier to break than a locked OS. (Yes, obviously know that "open" means Open sourced, free software, not "open as in "not locked down", but it is still not locked down, therefore Easier to mess up for someone that has little experiance, which is the point of my posts, as I said.

It's not going to be a simple solution with smooth sailing. it isnt as simple as "Everyone install this software and it will be better!" if it were like that, then it would be done by now, and everyone would have it.

18

Most agreed.  

These "problems" don't seem like problems to me.  If I offer you a deal where I give you a handshake and you give me $100, just don't take the deal.  Likewise, if you feel like owning a phone with Android as the OS is a bad deal, then don't take the deal.

19

"

Politicians can only do so much to protect everybody's rights. If you want to protect your rights, you have to start protecting your rights yourself.

With regards to evil corporations like Google, the company that is responsible for the single largest human rights violation campaign in the history of mankind in terms of number of victims and incidence of violations,"

 

 

 

Is this for real? Politicians do not protect rights. They exist to violate rights. Politicians write and pass laws to violently impose their will on others. This is not protecting rights. And Google is the biggest violator of human rights in the world? Are you shitting me?

 

How many people does Google have locked in cages for smoking a joint? How many people has Google tortured in Guantanamo bay? How many people has Google killed in war? How many journalists has Google killed because they were exposing their corruption? How many jewish people has Google gassed to death? You're telling me Google is a bigger violator of human rights than countries like Iran, Russia, North Korea, Nazi Germany, and the United States?

 

 

GMAFB. Put down the Andriod and free your head.

20

to be honest, it's difficult to know how intrusive smart phones are if you've never used one before. a lot of people end up buying one and then struggle to keep their data secure.