I probably can’t get a new phone super soon, but it’s been quite frustrating how little support there is for iOS versions of open source software I’ve been slowing moving towards or investigating. I absolutely get why though!
I have the capability to understand complex topics but it takes me quite a few tries to really get it, so I’d like some help or recommendations of things that aren’t “just use linux”. (I am slowly dipping my toes by using WSL for things, though.) I am always searching for software, but I’ve never been active enough in communities to ask for personal recommendations and be warned of short comings. Obviously if you find recommendations, they want to look the best to you and hide their faults. I do try and research as much as possible, but like I said, I can get confused or not understand the drawbacks or full level of manual work/environments needed to operate at times.
Mostly I’m looking for day to day things that I can operate from my windows computer, but can also connect to my phone, assuming I get an android next. (Librem phones looks cool, but switching carrier providers is not feasible for me at the moment.) The boring things, like calendar, email, notes (I do use obsidian already). But if you’d like to gush about your daily drivers, I’m all ears!
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Hey! I wrote up a list of Open Source iOS apps on the Privacy Guides community.
I’ve been slowly trying to become platform agnostic, so I can switch back and forth between OSs without losing function. I’m not 100% there, but I hope this list helps you too if you are looking to go that route.
Copying the relevant bits here.
For iOS:
Fully FOSS:
- Organic Maps - Offline Maps
- Yattee - YouTube Frontend
- BookPlayer - Audiobook Reader
- NetNewsWire - RSS Reader
- Signal - Encrypted Messaging
- Element - Matrix Client
- OrBot - Tor VPN Alternative
- Swiftfin - Jellyfin Client
- VLC - Media Player
- Metapho - Remove EXIF Data
- Privacy Blur - Blurring Photos
- Raivo - 2FA
- Firefox Focus - Web Browser
- Mastodon - Official Mastodon Client
- PixelFed - Official PixelFed Client
- Sync - Reddit App (RIP?)
- Mlem - Lemmy App (currently testing)
- KDE Connect - Airdrop Alternative
- Berty - Encrypted Messenger with Offline Capabilities
FOSS, but with a paid tier:
- KeePassium: Offline Password Manager
- Slide for Reddit - Reddit App (RIP)
- AdGuard - Content Blocker
- Bitwarden - Password Manager
- Joplin - Note App
- Podverse - Podcast App
- NextDNS - DNS Filtering
- Invoice Ninja - Invoicing Software
- SimpleLogin - Email Aliasing
- ProtonMail - Encrypted Email
- ProtonCalendar - Encrypted Calendar
- Proton Drive - Encrypted Cloud Storage (Testflight is Full)
- ProtonVPN - VPN
- Standard Notes - Encrypted Notes
- Notesnook - Encrypted Notes
- Tutanota - Encrypted Email & Calendar
Paid Only, but Open Source:
Great list. One suggestion for Mastodon client, I’ve found Ice Cubes to be a much superior client than the official one, still FOSS.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll have to check it out.
Seconding Ice Cubes. I had so many clients on my phone during a test phase, evaluating how notifications looked, how smooth they felt, and if it comes with all features for free. Ice cubes can be a little clunky but won the competition.
wahhh, I never got an alert for this!! Thank you so much!!
Incredible list, thanks for linking everything! I look forward to checking out yattee and netnewswire. Probably a lot more. I’d add Omnivore (Pocket alternative) to the fully foss list. And Proton Drive is out of testing now I think.
As a convert from MacOS to Linux, I still haven’t found a GUI RSS reader as great as NetNewsWire.
Joplin - Note App
I don’t think there’s a paid tier for Joplin, just the ability to donate (for no perks or mention).Never mind, I see there’s Joplin Cloud with online storage and multiple user support.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Start with an android phone from a vendor that runs a very stock ROM. Go with Google for fast updates, teracube or fairphone for long term support and sustainability, or Nokia for a good solid privacy respecting company (not perfect, but pretty good). From there prefer open source play store apps. When you’re ready, try F-Droid.
Generally I recommend starting small and escalating
Second this. Start with a Pixel or a Fairphone and go from there. Pixels come with all the bits needed to build your own OS and so are supported by most aftermarket Android-based OSes. Using open source apps where possible is also a fairly significant part of the equation. The latest gen Pixels have 5-year official software support. Even if you stay on the stock OS, they won’t turn into e-waste too soon.
This is the best way. Messing with roms can be a lot of work and even if you want to transition to a more opensource ecosystem unfortunately in life youre going to sometimes need those closed source apps(like if you need to do banking stuff for example).
You can download fdroid and sideload all the open source apps you want and when you need to use a closed source you arent locked out of it.
That’s what I do. And yeah. If you use your phone for work stuff (email / MFA) there’s no chance in hell your IT manager is going to be okay with you having a rooted phone with a custom ROM with third party apps from an unverified source like F-Droid.
Unless you can afford to have two phones, one for work and one for personal, be ready to make some compromises
In my view, since I’m already switching to a different ecosystem from apple, I might as well pick the one I want in the end since I’m not really familiar with stock android in the first place. Tercube looks good, though it doesn’t support my carrier, hurm…
Yeah but to get to a special ROM you’re gonna need to familiarize yourself with a litany of other tools while your phone is still not familiar and usable. If you want to start out going super technical, more power to you, but for me I always need to take on new information slowly to keep from losing all daily productivity
That does make sense what you’re saying though. If I’m not in the best mental focus at the time it might not be best to delve too deeply into it. If I get maybe an older but compatible phone I can test without actually transferring my phone number over.
https://e.foundation/e-os/ can just buy these. Essentially LineageOS with some tweaks
Galaxy S9 is something like $100 on eBay and well supported
I use a Pixel with GrapheneOS, it has been a perfect OS for me, honestly way less janky than iOS, which I didn’t expect. For example, Airpods autoconnect works every single time without fail on Graphene, whereas half the time on iOS it wouldn’t connect and id have to go into the menus. GrapheneOS also has additional security and privacy features other Android OS’s do not.
Also seconding GrapheneOS. My last two phones have been Pixels specifically so I could use it and I have zero regrets.
+1 for graphene
I love it when it still allows me to use some google apps (e.g. Gboard) but I can completely neuter its tracking capabilities by removing network permission
Yes! Even better is the ability to isolate Google Play Services to a separate User Account. The beauty of GrapheneOS is even if you install play services on a user account, the play services are sandboxed just like any other application, so you take a lesser risk even if its your main account.
+1 for pixel with grapheneos. Runs sooooooo smooth without all the garbage on it
And, (unless you decide to install a large number of apps running the background) Graphene strips out a lot of Google bloat and gives more control to the user, which allows me to use a minimal setup that greatly improves battery life.
+1 to this comment here. Currently rocking a Samsung A32 but when it breaks I’ll be replacing it with the grapheneOS + Pixel combo
ooh that’s two different OSes for me to look at! I will have to compare them
linux phones aren’t recommended currently for various reasons, they’re just pretty unstable and have various security flaws among other issues.
i’d recommend looking into a google pixel and installing GrapheneOS. its open source, and pretty much as good as it gets for privacy and security on a phone. it really is an excellent project.
very easy to set up and install, plus amazing app compatibility, no bloat or garbage, etc. its overall a really good experience, i can’t recommend it enough, had 0 issues with it.
either way, despite some of the other replies, i really would not recommend regular OEM android at all. android that comes with most devices out of the box is typically full of proprietary bloatware and spyware and other garbage that you can’t remove, and isn’t a great experience at all in general.
if you can’t get a pixel for GrapheneOS, next best thing is DivestOS, followed by LineageOS.
Oh I think I was misunderstanding linux phones vs alternate android OSes, I should have paid more attention to the terms. Yeah I had heard of some stock androids having ads in their UI and stuff like that which is insane. The pixel phones look quite affordable!
Just use android don’t waste your time with the ubuntu stuff. Graphene/Calyx are also good options if you want a privacy hardened android
I 100% agree to not bother with Ubuntu phone. One day i will have a linux phone, but by that day I wont have to run the signal desktop .deb package on my smartphone to use signal 💀
I highly recommend Android. Just don’t install Google Play Services (use F-droid instead)
For that they’ll need to flash a custom degoogled ROM, so it would be necessary to get a phone that allow bootloader unlocking, and there’s a limited choice of smartphones with good community dev scene.
Xiaomi is usually pretty good when it comes to unlocking bootloader. The process is a bit annoying, but at least it’s “official”.
It is annoying and to unlock the bootloader you MUST have windows…the Linux tools don’t work …luckily I had an old laptop with a windows partition to do the job…and waiting a week to actually unlock it was super annoying… Besides that flashing lineage with microg was super easy …xiaomi has a great hardware for the price though
I didn’t have much difficulty to flash roms on my OnePlus 7T and 9Pro too, idk about newer models.
I have a redmi 4x that I simply can’t unlock by any means. I lost do many hours of life with that, until I gave up and bought a motorola.
Really? Why not?
Apparently, the process requires your mobile carrier to send a couple of international sms messages, but it’s not supported by the available carriers in my country.
After struggling for a long time, and realizing it was made impossible to me by the manufacturer, I became a bit careless, opened it up to use EDL mode, and started looking for unofficial methods. In the end, some indonesian software messed up my phone and I had to erase the frp using a tool called “miko tool” just so that it didn’t become useless.
That sucks. The process I followed had this SMS part but my local carrier sent and received the SMS without problems …I just had to disabled WiFi in order to proceed the unlock …xiaomi was not my first choice when I bought it but pixel phones are way too expensive in my country …they are IMHO the best phones to use custom Roms
I find it hard to consider xiaomis as the best option, after my experience. If you live in a supported country, you’re ok, but if not, they don’t give a fuck about you.
Around here, pixels are too expensive too, but motorolas seem to be a good option and with a good method to unlock the bootloader.
That’s good to know!
This is a tough problem to solve, there isn’t one solution for everyone.
Many years ago I tried various options such as vanilla Android, LineageOS with gapps, Lineage without gapps and even Replicant. Every option came with pros and cons. If all you need is phone calls, SMS and some simple apps, you could go with any of these options as long as it meets your ideological requirements.
At one time time I had just the pure LineageOS without gapps, and that’s when I realized I was about 10 years late with this project. The world had changed to such an extent that being this strict about FOSS was going to require some pretty hefty sacrifices. When my bank announced that they would eventually phase out the security code papers in favor of their mobile app, it meant this option was a dead end for me.
I couldn’t make the bank app work at all if I didn’t have gapps. If I did, it still refused to work properly, because LineageOS wasn’t the OEM system. After trying a bunch of different workarounds, it was clear: this ship had sailed already. Either I would have to embrace the downsides of current technology or live off the grid without access to money. Doing that would also make my life very inconvenient in a number of other ways.
Online banking was the deal breaker for me, but other apps caused similar problems too. Just about all the modern apps the society expects me to use were either slightly broken or completely unavailable. In many cases, it felt just like using a dumb Nokia 3210 again, with the exception that I had a mobile browser, nice calculator etc.
I wasn’t happy with the situation, nor with the options standing before me. Google is an ad company and users are the product, so obviously Google was the worst option available. Actually, Chinese Android phones are the worst option, but other companies aren’t far behind because of Google.
Apple was a little less bad, but still an unpleasant option. Strangely enough, I became a reluctant iPhone user. Fortunately for me, iOS had finally reached a point where a lot of the basic standard features Android had about 5-10 years ago were finally available on iOS. The decision was far from ideal, but at least I found the right kind of balance between functionality and privacy.
I’m not happy with the result and I can’t recommend you follow in my footsteps, but I highly recommend trying out different options and banging your own head against the brick wall. That’s the only way you can find out how idealistic you really want to be.
This is a very far assessment. I didn’t really think about banking apps. I don’t do a ton with it, but it’s very nice to check on the go. I don’t use a ton of specific things on my phone that I think would have issues in that way, but I’d never know until I try. Most of what I’ve seen has convinced me that I should probably get an older refurbished phone and test these things out before actually attempting to move my sim card over. I want to be very idealistic now but who’s to say what that looks like when I have it in my hand every day?
The brick wall will tell you. I wanted to be very idealistic, but I didn’t want to go all Stallman either.
I was willing disconnect from the people around me, live without social media, stop watching silly cat videos and read my news on a web browser. However, living without a bank account is where I had to draw the line.
I’m just going to mirror a common sentiment. Get an Android phone and just use alternative apps that are open source.
I see you’re using Obsidian and I believe that Obsidian is not open source. I’d recommend Logseq as an alternative. I know it does not have as many features as Obsidian and it’s in beta, but it’s got a really nice community behind it.
Also I always recommend SyncThing everywhere I go. Sync your files directly between your devices. I sync files between my Windows PC, my Synology NAS, my phone, & my Linux laptop. It works like a charm.
Most FOSS Camera apps and photo galleries are not linked to an online photo service for example. So just sync them to your other devices directly instead of using the cloud.
Oh huh, I wonder why I thought obsidian was open source. I might have gotten crossed when I saw “offline + (actually) free + 3rd party plugins” and assumed something like that would be open source.
It’s freemium software that allows you to control your files how you want them which is honestly something that isn’t really common these days
Just use a stock Android and de-Google it as much as possible, there are Linux phone ROMs but they are… Well i wouldn’t recommend them for normal usage.
Oh interesting, why wouldn’t you recommend them for normal usage? I don’t use much on my phone, call/text, email, chat client, calendar is my normal usage.
Those Linux phones all run unstable and aren’t really in operativ condition, they are like a alpa version of a OS its usable but not worth the Overhead currently
That’s good to know there’s some opposite recommendations, means I need to research those more closely.
I Personally can’t recommend it, especially for new users.
Consider this option, see if it suits your current & future needs; https://www.fairphone.com/en/
I’ve played around with Ubuntu touch from ubports foundation on an old pixel 3a. It works ok as a basic daily driver. Depending on the phone model there’s support for waydroid which helps with using android apps.
I have an old Galaxy that I rooted recently for shits and giggles and couldn’t find much to do with it. I didn’t think of installing a Linux distro on it. Didn’t even know it was possible.
There’s a few projects out there to get Linux onto phones & make it a reasonable user experience. It will probably always be a very niche segment. Postmarket OS looks promising too but I haven’t been able to try it as my old pixel isn’t supported. Depending on your galaxy model it might be supported.
Fairphone is another one to watch. They make phones & you can pick the OS when ordering
I use pixel with CalyxOS. I’m pritty happy with it. Its easy to setup but you do need a pixel phone for it to work.
Looks like it also support fairphone which I’vr heard about. It supports really old pixels too! 'cause I don’t really play games or use the camera much so something older/refurbished I wouldn’t mind.
Until recently I used CalyxOS with my old Pixel 3 and it’s amazing how the Calyx team prolonged it’s life
not only did they push one Android version more than Google ever did (and probably also will support Android 14 on it), while fixing the security incident with the lock screen and also made the battery life better due to not shipping Google Play services which drain it like crazyThat’s really exciting, I usually keeps phones for a very long time, but the problem that always gets them is having battery problems.
Keep in mind that the project it will work on old phone but at some point update will stop. Don’t remember after how many years google stops supporting a phone I guess its around 3-4 years.
In most cases this is not an issue if you don’t care about the latest features.
I know google ends up not supporting older android versions, but I would assume an open source OS could make it updatable for longer? Or is there a physical hardware lockout at times?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but i believe software updates would continue depending on ROM, but hardware / firmware / security updates would cease after a set amount of years?
Oh right, that makes sense.
Nope. I have a Lenovo P2 that recently got android 13 (last official was 9 or 10), security patches are up to date to march. Hardware and firmware yes but you don’t generally care that much about these.
So lets take a Pixel, with 6 years of updates guaranteed from Google. After 6 years, you can continue to install newer and newer OS versions and these will include security fixes for software. However, no new security updates pertinent to the device hardware will be available past that date? (I am asking)
I’d love to know this too if someone has any good suggestions.
I recently switched over from Outlook (which I found extremely annoying) to eM Client (not open-source unfortunately but free for 2 inboxes) which I like leagues better than Outlook. The only real open-source Outlook alternative (I know of) would be Thunderbird, if you haven’t found it already. Haven’t used it in a long while though. For Android I am using k9-Mail which is open-source but still pretty barebones. It’s from the same guys as Thunderbird, or rather k9 Mail was taken over by the Thunderbird guys. For my needs it’s perfectly fine but it can’t do anything besides mail.
I do actually ise thunderbird but it’s layout and interface is…lacking. Or not so friendly. As well as no iphone support, so still using gmail on the phone. There are plugins to thunderbird but are unstable so I uninstalled them and just only use it for mail now.
I had the same experience the last time I tried it unfortunately.
FairEmail is free software and I like it better than K9.
I’ll have to keep that in mind. The UI looks perfectly serviceable too.
You could try out Geary, the GNOME email client.
I’ll keep that in mind!
