Jan 28, 2026 13:10:16 Lucas Fryzek via linux <[email protected]>:
Hello All,
I'm curious if anyone in the OCLUG has tried using de-googled android
or linux based phone OS like PMOS? How has your experience been?
I'm interested in switching especially with the current political
climate to try and use tech that doesn't depend on US companies.
I've been doing a test to try and use f-droid for most of my apps on my
pixel (haven't fully migrated to a fully de-googled ROM), but my
experience trying to use FOSS apps that don't depend on google servers:
* E-mail
- K9 mail works great for anything I need
* Web
- I've been using firefox on android forever and fennec in fdroid
works great, you can use unified push for notifications as well
so
you don't even depend on google's notification serers
* Files, notes, and pictures
- I've setup nextcloud on my personal server and it works okay for
file storage.
- Image sync is not as great. All my images get auto uploaded but
viewing them on the server can be quite laggy. I've heard better
things about immich for images but I really like the nextcloud
ecosystem besides these problems
- Quilpad is a really great notes app, and can use nextcloud/webdav
for sync. Supports things like markdown formatting as well
* Contacts & Calendar
- With nextcloud I have caldav and carddav for calendar in contacts
and I can use them on Android using DAVx5. I'm still using the
default calendar and contacts app on my pixel phone but the data
is
coming from my server
* Passwords
- I have a Keepass password DB I keep synced between devices using
nextcloud and then I use KeepassDX on android to access it. Works
great for me
* Authenticator
- I use Aegis for TOTP, and it works great
* Notifications
- I have unified push setup with Nextpush which can use a nextcloud
server as a Webpush endpoint. This works great for any apps that
support unified push, and allows you to have push notifications
without depending on google's Firebase cloud messaging platform.
- There are other unified push distributors that I tried like
ntfy.sh
& sunup that also work, but like I mentioned before I'm a bit
sucked
into the nextcloud ecosystem.
* Maps
- This is the biggest pain point. OSMAnd I've found really annoying
to
use. Co-maps/Organic maps are nice to use but don't support
public
transit. I recently found out about the e-foundation Cardinal map
app which works alright. Navigation for driving isn't as good as
co-
maps/organic maps but it does support public transit through
transitous which has OC transpo data.
- There is also Bimba, a dedicated public transit app that can use
transitous for public transit routing. It works okay, but I find
the
UI a bit off putting.
I'm curious about other people's experience, have you been able to use
a de-googled phone? I'm especially interested if anyone is running post
market os or some other linux phone. What device do you use, how's the
experience for receiving calls, get notifications, battery life, etc.
I'm interested in buying a device that has decent linux support to try
out a dedicated linux phone device. So if others have experience I'm
keen to here it.
Thanks & Regards,
Lucas
I use obtainium (Github).
Better than fdroid.
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