Hi everyone,

Having successfully left windows for Linux (Fedora) a few years ago, I thought I’d the same for my phone.

I have a professional iPhone 13 provided by my employer, but I have an old Samsung GT-I8730 lying around.

Sadly, there is apparently nothing (except stock Android) that I could easily install on it.

So I’m kind of looking for a cheap second hand phone that I could get for my birthday in order to try to have a degoogled and deappleified private phone (I’m now using my work iPhone for everything).

What phone should I buy for max 150.- (around 180$) second hand?

Also what OS should I try to install on it?

To be honest, I’m really a rookie in the phone world and I’m not even sure if I’m looking for a degoogled Android phone (/e/os, lineage, graphene) or a linux phone (Ubuntu touch, KDE mobile).

It would be important for me to be able to daily drive the phone. Listening to music and using my banking apps on it would be important features.

So I’m looking for advice regarding all of this and I’m thankful in advance for your help.

    • aasatru
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      724 days ago

      A 2nd hand Fairphone 4 should also have good support for Ubuntu Touch, so might be worth considering.

  • poVoqM
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    824 days ago

    You need to first investigate what kind of protections your banking app has, as that will be most likely the largest issue with anything non-stock Android.

    • @[email protected]
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      623 days ago

      GrapheneOS has a sandboxed Google Play that works fine with any banking apps I’ve used. You can also move them to a work profile to segregate them further and still used them.

    • aasatru
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      424 days ago

      Waydroid might help with that, but no guarantees.

        • Dariusmiles2123OP
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          523 days ago

          From what I’m seeing on the /e/os website and their list of compatible devices (https://doc.e.foundation/devices), a lot if phones would get « safetynet »(even if I don’t really know what it means).

          • @[email protected]
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            23 days ago

            Safetynet is a technology that google created that can make apps refuse to run on modified phones. I tried some methods to circumvent it a few years ago, but none worked for me. I wonder if there are better methods today.

            • Dariusmiles2123OP
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              323 days ago

              Thanks for the answer👍

              I’m trying to learn a maximum of information before buying any phone, but it’s difficult to find answers sometimes.

    • Dariusmiles2123OP
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      216 days ago

      When you do such a thing and install a Linux mobile distro on it, does the End Of Life aspect of the phone still is a problem?

      • @[email protected]
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        116 days ago

        Not as long as the parts keep working. When you install Linux distros it extends the years of support given to a device.

        • Dariusmiles2123OP
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          216 days ago

          Okay thanks as I wouldn’t want to put cash in a device (even a cheap one) I’d only be able to use for a few years.

    • lemmyreader
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      324 days ago

      Pixel5 appears EOL with GrapheneOS though the 5a may be fine ?

      • Dariusmiles2123OP
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        424 days ago

        Oh is it? It’s one of the cheapest second hand phones I’ve been investigating.

        That’s something I don’t understand and would need someone to explain. How can it become end of life on an alternative OS? It’s as if someone was telling me my computer was too old (not not powerful enough) to run Linux.

        • lemmyreader
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          424 days ago

          20240521002024052100

          Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 are end-of-life and shouldn’t be used anymore due to lack of security patches for firmware and drivers. We provide extended support for harm reduction.

          https://grapheneos.org/releases

          • Dariusmiles2123OP
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            323 days ago

            But why is it riskier to have an end of life phone? As far as I know, my girlfriend MacBook Pro from 2012 was end of life for macOS (not receiving updates) and I installed Linux on it and it doesn’t seem more at risk than my newer Surface Go with Linux too. Is it different for phones?

            • @[email protected]
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              323 days ago

              Yes it is (sadly) very different for phones.

              When an the OS for an Android phone is created, the Linux kernel is forked, and the firmware/drivers for it’s hardware components are laid on top (instead of being upstreamed to the kernel). When the manufacturer decides they no longer care about that phone, they stop updating firmware and that will no longer receive updates. You might use a rom that still updates everything else, but these critical parts won’t get updated anymore.

              The newer Pixel generations get 5-7 years of security updates (IIRC). I believe IOS devices get 5 years.

              Android and arm has (/had? I might be partly out of date) a lot of out of tree (not included in the upstream Linux kernel) code which makes booting it on Linux a shit show.
              This is also why so few devices are supported by the Linux-phone-OSs.

              • Dariusmiles2123OP
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                323 days ago

                Thanks for the explanation. It’s a shame as it’s the perfect way to create mountains of e-waste.

  • @[email protected]
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    424 days ago

    OnePlus 6 or 6T would be the best phones that you have a chance at actually finding if you want to run postmarketOS.

  • lemmyreader
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    424 days ago

    What phone should I buy for max 150.- (around 180$) second hand?

    e.foundation by means of Murena sells phones with /e/os installed. Cheapest currently at discount about $200 but is out of stock last time I looked. e.foundation did sell refurbished phones (and does ?) but the price were always over $200 I think.

  • @[email protected]
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    217 days ago

    Heads down, oneplus6T. Been sold is and stable for roms. Does have a notch at the top that could bother people

  • Eugenia
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    117 days ago

    A supported, older Pixel will have the best support for to install alternative Android distros. But to alternative OSes in general (not just android), it gets a bit more complicated and you need to check if the pixels are supported by all or not.