Last year, the teams responsible for Pixel and Android were merged into one division, and Google today announced a “voluntary exit program.”
      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        22 days ago

        I also went Graphene, and it’s privacy for me too.

        I really don’t want Google Play Services running, and GrapheneOS gives me that option. I have three profiles:

        1. main - no Google Play Services, most apps are from F-Droid
        2. work - Google Play Services, and only the apps I need for work
        3. “google” - Google Play Services, and only apps I need occasionally (e.g. Google Watch/Wallet, Maps, etc)

        I spend 99% of my time on main, and most of the rest in “work” (need it for MFA). My phone reboots every 4 hours, so Google Play eventually stops running in the background (tried more frequently, and it was annoying).

        There are other Android ROMs, but GrapheneOS has really rapid security updates, perhaps faster than anywhere else. The other projects are good too, it’s just the first I tried and I’ve liked it so far.

    • LedgeDrop@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      23 days ago

      Can I install my bank app on it yet? I remember having problems with attestation in the past.

      What about full application backups? I’ve got a few offline apps, I’d like to transfer the data to/from. However, I thought grapheneOS needed the application developer to “approved” this backup/restore method - or you needed root (which invalidated attestation)… I don’t recall which it was (but I really miss titanium backup).

      • mac@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        Depends on the bank. Graphene has support for seedvault backups, or you could use syncthing-fork to sync the data over. Or any one of those Foss airdrop clones

      • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        Which banking app? I can try to install and launch it, tho I probably won’t ask for your login to test that, haha

          • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
            0·
            22 days ago

            This one also needed me to enable “exploit protection compatibility mode” for the app to get it to stop crashing immediately on launch, but it doesn’t complain about attestation or anything. I get right to the login screen. Seems fine from what I can see without a login!

        • Revan343@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          23 days ago

          You’re gonna get piled on with requests now.

          …on that note, any chance you’d try the Servis Credit Union app?

              • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
                0·
                22 days ago

                I had to enable “exploit protection compatibility mode” for the app. Otherwise it just sits on the logo indefinitely. But after enabling that compatibility mode it launches fine, asked me for location permissions (which I denied), and I can get to where I enter User ID to login.

                Seems fine from what I can see without a login!

          • voluble@lemmy.caEnglish
            0·
            22 days ago

            Be careful about mentioning who you bank with on the internet, using an account that anyone can browse your comment history.

          • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
            0·
            23 days ago

            I had to enable “exploit protection compatibility mode” for the app to get it to stop crashing immediately on launch, but it doesn’t complain about attestation or anything. Seems fine from what I can see without a login!

        • LedgeDrop@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          21 days ago

          Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

          Original, I thought “hey, everything will work”… but then I started to look into the details. For example, Revolut, it works, then it doesn’t work (due to attestation), then works (after people complain).

          I really need to ask myself, if this is the kind of experience I want with my daily driver. On the other hand, I know this is just Google strong arming me into their walled garden. Man, I really hate this dystopian future.

      • ultimate@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        22 days ago

        They have sandboxed Google services if you need it. But kind of defeats the purpose of Grpahene OS.

        I have been on Calyx for a year now. Bank apps in my country totally works with microg.

        • Noctambulist@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          22 days ago

          But kind of defeats the purpose of Grpahene OS.

          No, it doesn’t. The sandboxing ensures that the Google services have none of the broad access to the operating system they have on a normal Android. For example Google won’t get access to your location unless you explicitly give the permission.

  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
    0·
    23 days ago

    Imagine all of this talent going to work for grapheneOS and/or hardware company willing to make a phone with grapheneOS as its OS.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        Same, I’m really tired of the annoying Android logic. I wish we could have a logical OS where we could manage our files properly instead of the filesystem mess we currently have with stuff all over the place.

        It didn’t matter when the phones just had a few megs of storage, but you can carry some serious data on those things nowadays.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        22 days ago

        Same. They just don’t do what I need on my phone. Hopefully that changes, but PinePhone HW kinda sucks (poor battery life and audio quality), and most of the other phones w/ Linux support have some pretty serious caveats.

      • ultimate@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        22 days ago

        Imagine using Ubuntu Touch with Waydroid for Android Compatibility. Would be sick.

              • ultimate@lemm.eeEnglish
                0·
                21 days ago

                Oh nice that it’s still holding up. May I ask if that’s your primary daily driver?

                • FreeBooteR69@lemmy.caEnglish
                  0·
                  21 days ago

                  It does what i need it to do, make/receive calls, surf the web and play videos when i’m out and about. For gaming i prefer Steam deck or PC. Other than that i’m not a lover of smart phones, in general i think they suck. If i could make/receive calls from a steam deck, i would trash my phone in a second.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    Last year, the teams responsible for Pixel hardware and Android software were merged into one division, and Google today announced a “voluntary exit program” for employees working in the Platforms & Devices group.

    At least there’s some plausible reasoning for this, instead of blanket headcount reduction to pad profits. Reasoning doesn’t change much of course.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    I don’t work for Google. I’m but a voluntary product customer. But if they could offer me a way to get away from them, I’d gladly take it.

    Right now I’m moving my personal domain over to cloudflare and email to mxroute. Considering setting up some calendar and similar groupware stuff on kubernetes on Oracles free tier as well.

    That’s the other rub…if I want to cloud host anything, I get to choose between Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and Alibaba. Wonderful selection we have there.

    (I recognize there are smaller players out there like linode and ovh and a trillion VPS providers…only reason I’m considering Oracle is because they give so much free “forever”. And kubernetes is fun for me in like a jigsaw kind of way. Not like the puzzle but the guy from Saw)

    • Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.itEnglish
      0·
      23 days ago

      Sorry for being harsh, but if you use the “free “forever”” offering of any company as alternative to what google offers you learnt nothing from using google.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        I think free cloud compute offerings are a bit different. Different motivations. They aren’t trying to harvest your data, they are trying to advertise their product.

        They want sysadmins to play around and convince their bosses to buy in on Oracle. They want web devs to build demos and get their clients to host there. They want companies to get their feet wet risk free, before spending tens of thousands of dollars migrating existing workloads to them.

        Harvesting data from those customers would be a scandal, and have massive negative repercussions.

        And honestly, even with the announcement of Stargate and Oracle being a partner, I’d probably rather give them a couple dollars a month to run a couple small buckets than to give it to Amazon.

        I can’t self host at home because no incoming IP. Unless I want to switch to my only other option, Xfinity. Which I don’t.

        And…let’s face it…if the government wants to find me, they are going to find me. It doesn’t matter if my Bluesky PDS or my kids Minecraft server is hosted at home or up there. It’s tied to me either way.

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    This is the best way to do headcount reductions imo. In large organisations there’s always someone who’s been there for a long time and gotten tired of the work, and that would gladly take this type of offer if it’s lucrative enough.

    To demonstrate - imagine that you’ve been considering quitting your job for a while. Then someone comes along and says that if you do that, you also get some additional cash for free. You’d probably take it, right?

    And if you necessarily need to reduce headcount, then there’s also the argument that if someone leaves voluntarily, then someone who wants to stay doesn’t have to get pushed out.

    So yeah, I’m not against this

    • idefix@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      23 days ago

      In my experience with this format, only the good ones are leaving and you’re stuck with the rest.

      • Buckshot@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        My last job did this. They offered more for those who had worked there longer. People with over 15 years got about a years pay and they all took it. People who had been there under a year got nothing so they all stayed.

        I was going to take then they withdrew the offer for all devs. I think a lot tried to take it and they realised no one would be left. I would have got 3-4 months pay. Loads of institutional knowledge lost though, i left anyway a few months later.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        22 days ago

        Depends on if the good people have better places to go, I guess. My guess is that you’re probably going to lose people who have some amount of tenure, especially if you’re the kind of company that gives equity that vests on a 4-year schedule. Even if you’re not, people with some amount of tenure will be the ones trending towards being checked out already.

        Losing people with tenure means you lose organisational memory, which can definitely be negative.

        This is all to say that as an organisation, you should think twice about doing any kind of layoff. They are all bad in their own way. This just happens to be the format that is least bad for most workers, which is why I prefer it.

      • Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtfEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        Absolutely. The ones who’ve resigned mentally are fine within their positions. The people with all the business connections and references will be the ones to grab the money and simply start something new. It happened at my company. I was only 3 years in, so it wasn’t enough money for me to quit. But loads of good people left the company.

    • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
      0·
      23 days ago

      Neither pixel nor android teams should need reductions, this is Google being cheap and fucking with employees’ income for no reason other than blind greed.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        I mean, you’re probably right, but between this and regular layoffs? This every day of the week

        • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
          0·
          22 days ago

          Well yeah, being given the option is better than the alternative. I just wish folks wouldn’t accept the premise that Google has any legitimate reason to lay anyone off from Android or Pixel teams. Android, of all things, one of the most widely used operating systems on the planet.

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
            0·
            22 days ago

            It’s not to say I accept it, but I also know that I don’t exactly have a choice in the matter.

            This has been the worst part about working in tech since the big layoff period from about the beginning of 2023 - unthinkable levels of uncertainty in your life.

            Still definitely got a better deal than most in life, but damn if it hasn’t been mentally taxing

            • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
              0·
              22 days ago

              I feel it. My company thankfully hasn’t done any layoffs, but I still don’t feel very secure, and I no longer feel like I’ll be able to easily find another job that pays enough if something does happen.

              And that’s without all the rest of the uncertainty going on right now…

    • Hawk@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      Are you able to buy unlocked directly from Google? I typically avoid the carrier when I can.

      • Maiq@lemy.lolEnglish
        0·
        22 days ago

        Buy an unlocked one from box box stores. Bought mine from best buy. Immediately threw GrapheneOS on it. Coming from a locked down Samsung s9 that I couldn’t root to an degoogled android experience I didn’t even have to root is fucking awesome!

    • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      The Pixel 9 Pro is incredible. Writing this on it right now. I love it. Previously had the 6. I’ll be sad if they go away, for real.

    • Dlayknee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      I can’t imagine so, they’re only just now prepping the first pixel phone on their own in-house CPU (pixel 10) and development is underway for the following generation (pixel 11). To axe the line now would be crazy.

    • hayes_@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      You don’t get severance when you quit.

      Severance is usually worse if you wait to get fired rather than taking a voluntary exit.

      If you aren’t happy at a job, taking an offered exit is often a good decision.

    • designated_fridge@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      It’s probably implied that if not enough people take this offer - people will be fired.

      I’ve been through tech layoffs. Random people are axed and people who thought about leaving anyways stay. This is a much better solution where those who considered leaving anyways can take them up on the offer.