Open-source alt-droid wants to know if it's still leaking data to Google

/e/, a Google-free fork of Android, reached a milestone this month with its initial ROM release. It's available for download, so you can kick the tires, with nightly builds delivered via OTA (over the air) updates. El Reg interviewed the project's leader, Gael Duval, in the summer. Duval launched and led the Linux Mandrake …

[Anonymous Coward]

Apropos

Apropos of late given Google's increasing heavy handedness. Chrome 69 uploads browser history when one logs into Gmail through the browser. Sign Out has been removed from YouTube app. I guess they feel the time is right to cash in on their position.

[Orv]

Re: Apropos

Supposedly it logs you into the browser but doesn't actually sync history unless you turn that on manually. I haven't independently verified this.

Google's excuse is there was confusion between browser sign-in and GMail sign-in on shared computers. Signing into your GMail account on a browser signed in to someone else's account has privacy consequences. This doesn't seem like the best way to fix it, though, if that was their real concern.

[KarateMonkey]

"So it wants more variety and competition within the Android world."

Alas, that will require huge numbers of apps to be prized, kicking and screaming, off of Google Services.

This is partly why Blackberry 10's clever but far too late attempt at comeback failed - its fully functional Android compatibility could only run apps off the Amazon app store, and not the Google Play store - because RIM had been forced to bake in a stub of play services due to license agreement issues.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Lineagoes + FDroid?

Anyone want to comment what's different from using LineageOS (highly recommended by the way, I get weekly updates for my old Moto G) and sticking to FDroid instead of GApps / Play store

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Lineagoes + FDroid?

The LOS installer uses the Google one to bootstrap and migrate accounts. But this can be avoided without a fork, as you're obviously doing. Running an AOSP fork is difficult as both CyanogenMod and Lineage have shown. Might make more sense to provide alternative build instructions for those that are interested so that whatever is different can actually run on a phone.

Big fan of LineageOS myself though I went back to 14.1 on one of my S5's last week due to problems with Bluetooth. At least the relevant bug has been assigned.

[Martin an gof]

Re: Lineagoes + FDroid?

my old Moto G

Also a user of LineageOS on an original MotoG, 14.1 as it happens (suspect there won't be a version 15 for the G). Installed it without Google apps and am using FDroid - how much data does Google still slurp?

Quite keen to encourage #1 son to swap once his G5 is a bit older. He's using the stock OS at the moment, albeit without signing up to Play Services. He uses FDroid but also Yalp Store and is very good about keeping data turned off unless he actually needs it.

M.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Lineagoes + FDroid?

suspect there won't be a version 15 for the G

Why do you think that? It's only a bit older than my S5s so the hardware shouldn't be a deal breaker. But getting Treble to run is quite a bit of work I believe.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Lineagoes + FDroid?

My Moto G is still on 7.1.2 / 14.1 builds

[Dan 55]

"weaning the device off Google's DNS service"

When my Android device is connected to WiFi it resolves addresses using the DNS supplied in DHCP. What's been hard coded to use Google's DNS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "weaning the device off Google's DNS service"

run: "getprop net.dns1" on a terminal emulator.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: "weaning the device off Google's DNS service"

u0_a210@vidz:/usr/users/jamie $

u0_a210@vidz:/usr/users/jamie $ getprop net.dns1

127.0.0.1

u0_a210@vidz:/usr/users/jamie $

and on my non-rooted tablet, it returns 172.20.0.10 - my internal dns...

[DropBear]

Re: "weaning the device off Google's DNS service"

Same here; I get our own DNS server's IP for that query...

[Dan 55]

Re: "weaning the device off Google's DNS service"

I get my DNS resolver's IP.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: "weaning the device off Google's DNS service"

Yep. getprop net.dns1 and net.dns2 are simply set from the active network (typically wifi or mobile) configured in settings.

As most use DHCP, those values will be set to the local router (typically) - if set to static, the google dns of 8.8.8.8 is used as a default *ONLY IF YOU DON'T SET A DNS IN THE STATIC CONFIG!*

Hardly a google-dns takeover!

[Teiwaz]

Hmm,

I still think I'd rather wait for a more pure 'Linux phone...

...mutters bitterly about Canonical getting everyones hopes up, taking too much on and realising they'd bitten off more than they could chew too damn late and dropping every plate on the floor in a tantrum and stomping out...

In the meantime, dumb phones are underrated.

[onefang]

Open source contacts, phone, and SMS apps?

Signal can handle all SMS duties? Or is it just being used as an SMS like service, but not actually compatible with the rest of the non Signal using SMS world?

I've long desired to switch to open source contacts, phone, and SMS apps on Android, preferably available from F-Droid. I just haven't sat down to evaluate them all yet. What are the options, and what do people think of them?

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Open source contacts, phone, and SMS apps?

Signal handles SMS just fine but does rely on some play services stuff for some things.

[Door Handle]

Why?

Why fork LineageOS? Why fork K9? Maintaining a full ecosystem of a mobile OS and related apps is a huge task. I don't see why he is not spending his time on improving the existing projects/packages instead, I mean the goals seem to be the same. As others have asked, what's wrong with using LineageOS and F-Droid, with no google apps?

Signal has been criticized on privacy grounds, so does not seem like an obvious choice to me. And as for the name of the project: try searching for /e/ on the internet...

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: Why?

Read the conversation in comments here:

https://hackernoon.com/leaving-apple-google-e-first-beta-is-here-89e39f492c6f

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Why?

Read the conversation in comments here

Not that convincing and very close to chicken and egg: you won't get "mum and dad" users without extensive hardware support and you won't get that by having a hard fork.

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: extensive hardware

I think the idea is to demonstrate viability to hardware manufacturers by building out the cloud services first and attract users who are comfortable with building and/or installing custom ROMs. If take up is sufficient to convince device makers to do some small-ish production runs then the hope might be that desire for a Google & Apple free smartphone is widespread enough that those runs are repeated in greater numbers. It's going to be an uphill struggle for sure. But I think it's worth supporting as, although I'm a long time CM/LOS user, I've never been able to convince otherwise interested Android users to void their manufacturers warranties.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: extensive hardware

If take up is sufficient to convince device makers to do some small-ish production runs then the hope might be that desire for a Google & Apple free

Difficult to see that appealing to manufacturers and we've already seen the Cyanogen model fail even with some companies happy to use it.

I can see the EU doing some kind of "provider selection" for phones, though it would be a mockery if this was only for Android.

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: Difficult to see that appealing to manufacturers

It depends on the size of the market which can be demonstrated. That's the point of the cloud services. If it looks big enough, some will bite.

[Microchip]

Duplicated effort?

Pretty sure this is what the Replicant (replicant.us) project was trying to do as well. I'm guessing they've made much quicker leaps by going off Lineage and stripping stuff out than rebuilding from scratch though.