"Want Google out of your life? It's pretty easy to find alternative search, email, and photo storage providers, but it's much harder to come up with a mobile operating system that's free of Google. The obvious answer is an iPhone, but if you want Google out of your life, you probably don't want to immediately replace it with Apple. While a little better from a privacy standpoint, Apple is still not great."
"Technically speaking, most alternative mobile operating systems are based on Android, not alternatives to it, but these various projects all remove Google and Google-related services (to varying degrees) from the system. Typically that means all the Google services are stripped out and replaced with some alternative code (usually the micro g project), which is then sandboxed in some way to isolate it and restrict what it has access to."
"If you want a true alternative to Android, there are a few. I am sorry to say, free software fans, the best and most functional alternative to Android is still iOS. Most people looking for Android alternatives are not, however, looking to switch to an Apple device. There are a couple of Linux-based phone systems out there, most notably SailfishOS, which can run Android apps (I will be testing this next), but in my testing, none of the Linux-based operating systems are ready to be your everyday device."
Replacing Google at the app-service level is straightforward, but replacing the mobile operating system is far harder. Most alternative mobile OS builds remain based on Android while removing Google and Google-related services, commonly using microG and sandboxing to limit access. Those approaches reduce Google dependence, improve privacy, and can increase security, yet retain Android's core. iOS remains the most functional non-Android option, though many users avoid switching to Apple. A few Linux-based phone systems exist, such as SailfishOS, but they are generally not mature enough for everyday use. LineageOS allows users to keep Google services for tinkering.
Read at WIRED
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