New #blog post: Some thoughts on Android launchers, or, The Need For Spatial Regularity In Touch Interfaces
1204 words
cc: my wonderful #chorus: @joel @dm @sotolf @thedoctor @pixx @orbitalmartian @adamsdesk @krafter @roguefoam @clayton @giantspacesquid @Twizzay
(I will happily add/remove you from the chorus upon request! :)
Another success this weekend! This is a moto g42 which I absolutely bricked some time back, and now it is working seemingly flawlessly again. I have managed to get the latest CalyxOS installed onto it which comes with Android 15, so for a reasonably dated device it has a nice and relatively new kernel, which it wouldn't have if it was stock (it shipped with 12 when I purchased it, later upgraded by moto to 13).
Sometimes perseverance pays off!
@arstechnica Guess I'll go with #CalyxOS or #GrapheneOS... or maybe a full-fledged Linux mobile distro
I guess my concern today is what happens when custom roms stop supporting the #pixel3a ?
It's an aging phone. People have put in a lot of work into roms for it (#LineageOS, #CalyxOS, #AXPOS), but from what I gather building Android ROMs is a huge mess, and needs lots of computing resources.
I'd like to think it will be possible to keep using it for years to come with #MainlineLinux, #postmarketOS or some similar project
It's a bit of a spectrum, but here's my understanding of it:
100% FOSS: only the Replicant project, which only fully supports 10+ year old phones
FOSS: #LineageOS, #GrapheneOS, and #CalyxOS. Likely contain proprietary drivers and blobs (low-level firmware and the like)
Mostly #FOSS: I believe /e/OS has some proprietary modules or bits of software
Less FOSS: I think Iodé is a fork of /e/OS that has more proprietary bits
Proprietary Android: Stock Android, Samsung's Android builds, etc. Only small portions of the underlaying OS are FOSS
#Poll: Hey #FOSS #Android (#CalyxOS, #GrapheneOS, #eOS, #LineageOS, whatever) folks, now that Android is demonstrably changing for the worse (in FOSS-hostile ways), what are you planning on doing?
Further news from the #CalyxOS team regarding Android 16.
It seems that their security updates will be delayed due to a shifting emphasis on re-tooling for the new changes in how Android is shared (or not) with the FOSS community.
This... this is bad. :(
https://calyxos.org/news/2025/06/26/community-update-android-16/
My mum completely destroyed her Pixel 3, it’s time to get her a new phone. I am thinking about gifting her my #Fairphone5.
What should I get instead?
For sure I will have to deGoogle my new device, either installing, #LineageOS, #CalyxOS, or #GrapheneOS.
My top priorities:
(note: Pixel 10 is supposed to launch in August)
Is anyone running #Murena #eOS (/e/OS)?
One thing I really hate about android in the past five years is the bloat in the quick toggle buttons (only room for four, instead of six), and I really despise the dark patterns that turned the wifi toggle into an internet menu, and the BT toggle into a BT menu.
#CalyxOS restores the wifi toggle, which is great, but not the BT toggle, so I always have to tap twice to turn on bluetooth, which I disable on a timer for privacy (shopping malls and such like to do BT tracking and triangulation).
Does anyone know if e/OS/ fixes the Wifi and Bluetooth quick toggles?
Looking at buying a Murena Fairphone in the not-near future. Might try e/OS/ on my Pixel 7 if there's a good reason to.
@kkarhan @BryanGreyson @fairphone We can expect them to work with #CalyxOS tho (which I'll be installing on my #fairphone 6)
After discussing with @GrapheneOS about sandboxed #PlayServices and #MicroG which one is more privacy friendly, they blocked me. 
Obviously they don't tolerate criticism. Cowards. #GrapheneOS #CalyxOS
From what I've read up to now, Google is very busy to save their arse. Google is Keeping Pixel phone sources now to it self, because there a chances that Google will be hacked up and divided up in smaller companies which will have to compete with each other, just like that process Ma Bell phone Company in the 1960s Of The last century
Do you remember the phrase?
We don't have to
We don't want to
We're the f%cking phone company!
Why would you be so masochistical and go to a totalitarian controlled ecosystem?
Just use your Android as you are used to and hack the vanilla Operating System in a manner that it is usable and enjoyable to you
On apple you will be torturing yourself and you will be paying them premium for crappy Hardware
Dang, it sounds like #Google is really trying to kill #FOSS #Android OSes.
https://tilvids.com/videos/watch/848e13c7-1bcf-49d3-ad75-02055c0b9576
What are my #AOSP peeps planning to do?
If OS updates get a lot slower because of this, I might have to go back to iPhone. 
#CalyxOS #GrapheneOS #LineageOS #Calyx #GOS #Lineage
UPDATE: This update from the #CalyxOS project helps answer some questions: https://calyxos.org/news/2025/06/11/android-16-plans/
It would seem that all Pixel devices will require a lot more work to port Android 16 to. It's not impossible, by any stretch, but Google has absolutely stopped helping the community in any way.
This is very bad news, all around. Not the worst news, by far, but quite bad.
For the first time I flashed a phone with #CalyxOS from another CalyxOS phone using @calyxos 's web installer ( https://install.calyxos.org/ ). No additional laptop was necessary. Quite a step from the first times we flashed phones at the @fsfe in 2012. Thanks @grote for the hint to try that out!
Moto (now Lenovo) and Samsung both make amazing devices, but I won't go near 'em because they love to lock the bootloader and do petty crap like that.
Even when the models are unlockable, they aren't supported by the OSes I like.
Going with a FOSS Android OS, you lose some functionality, but you also lose a TON of the planned obsolescence.
I had my Pixel 4a 5G on stock android for about a year, and it started getting slow. I switched to #CalyxOS, and it was fast as greased lightning again.
If you have a spare phone, you might want to try out a #MicroG-based OS like #CalyxOS. I can't guarantee that it'd work better, but it's a nice middle ground between no google services and "sandboxed" google services, because it's a FOSS re-implementation of the google services.
The other option would maybe be putting sandboxed google play and just the troublesome apps in a work profile, so you can turn that all off and on as you need it and contain the badness?
@thomholwerda I don't know the rest of your requirements, but I've been enjoying #CalyxOS for the last couple years. I installed it without microG.
