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!
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:
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
