its true tho

Android is FOSS tho

Tell that to Google...
- Google having their own proprietary crap embedded in their version doesnt make AOSP not FOSS.
  
  Thats the entirety of the basis for things like GrapheneOS, despite Google gobbling it up.
yeah just like Chromium technically speaking
Android is FOSS, but is your phone FOSS?
- i use a foss rom, so its software is.

Ubuntu touch stans:

Get a haircut, hippie.
Ubuntu Touch represent!
Also the team got volte and 5g running on the os!
- Oh shit that's dope I haven't been keeping up too much with the project

Do android stans exist? Had always thought android was the lesser of two evils for most people

its most definitely the lesser, but there are still many people who would suck off Samsung and Google if they had the opportunity to.

trust me I've met them
- Just as some Linux enthusiasts would from Mr. Torvalds.
  
  It's like with every other fandom: There are haters, normal folks, lovers and the pesky hyper-fan.
  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh yeah Android has swarms of fanboys.
- I used to be one of those fanboys when I was younger, but that was driven more by the fact that they weren't iPhones than anything particularly good about Android
  
  Used to be a fan of OnePlus but they've become like every other phone company now from what I hear

GrapheneOS FTW

If I need to choose, I'll go with Android but to be quite frank, I would really prefer to have a "real" computer operating system on those devices. For 10+ years I've been waiting for a device that I can put in my pocket, use it on the go, with a data connection, and have the possibility to dock it and continue using it as a full fledged computer, with Linux if possible.

I know some high end Android devices can be "docked" and connected to a monitor, but they are far too expensive and/or too rare. Also, you still have to use apps instead of proper computer software. I don't like the "everything is an app" model, where they all have to have ads and/or paid versions. Android and "mobile" operating systems are a pain to use. I want to have control over my device.

And I also know there are some devices that can to this, but with the level of technology that we have, a device like this should be easy to find. Yet, it's all niche stuff that isn't really polished nor working really well. It's all damn phones and tablets with "mobile" operating systems that locks users. I wonder if phone/tablet manufacturers keep it that way because there's no demand for this, or if they simply want to continue the milking of the mobile users.

Absolutely this. I, too, go for android (pixel even, sigh) but would prefer a real os. android was aweful when it came out, grew much better, then declined again. And with each update they kill so many apps due to "security"-changes.

And what's worst of all, is the constant struggle to actually own your own device (=root). Noone would ever have bought a pc with no admin-pwd where you can only "refresh" your current windows-version and nothing more. You can't buy anything else than pixels (and even with those you need at least minimum tech-knowledge and are dependent on the continuing development of ONE app). Having any other brand makes it near impossible without luck, time and frustration-tolerance.

The coming generations will just pay 1000 for a phone they are allowed to use, not own, and think that is how it is and ever has been.
I still am grumpy about Microsoft killing their windows phone line. Not the regular ones, but rather the ones that allowed you to dock it to a display and use a slightly stripped down Windows OS on a full screen. It could've actually changed how we use phones/ computers, but instead we have to have a separate device for everything we do.

Phones are already powerful enough to run desktop apps, but I guess it's down to profits why we still don't have a "swiss army knife" of a device for everything.
- Indeed. They were on the way to a unified os. Still kinda are. And people totally hate them for it. At least you could use the (nearly) same win on your Touch-pad and desktop. And i actually liked their phones. Just could never really keep it without telegram. And that (the lack of apps) was their downfall.

Graphene OS changed my life, seriously. Completely changed my relationship to my phone and made it possible to focus again. Go open source

What specific features did you notice the most? (I'm assuming switching from Android?) 90% of my phone usage is through a browser, so I could probably install Graphene pretty easily.
- #1 through #69: no push notifications, no feeds on my home screen, nothing I don't explicitly turn on and configure. No bloat whatsoever, the phone comes practically empty. I got this at the beginning of 2022, before then I kept finding myself reading articles about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Like I could not give less of a fuck about them, that story, whatever. I don't know who she is, and I don't particularly like JD movies except maybe Dead Man from the 90s, he probably beat the shit out of her idk. But for some reason I kept finding myself reading these articles on my phone absentmindedly. That kind of shit ended immediately.
  
  Downsides? Not everything works, because there's no google play, and I couldn't get it even if I wanted it. I can use most google services on the browser, but for maps I have to use Osmand, which works but doesn't give me the fastest way to a place, and its kind of a trick to find a specific house or business without looking it up on a computer first and locating the nearest cross street. Schools, hospitals it has saved no problem, but not the optimal routes ore even anything relatively close. Great for my city where I can get myself 98% the way there already knowing the fastest ways around. Out of town we usually use my wife's navigation.
  
  Those drawbacks are a little annoying but I will never go back to android, and I would never use apple in the first place. I love my phone, it feels like its mine in a way no phone ever has.
  
  Hope this helps, ask if you have other questions
- Yeah, I can't imagine what about Graphene would make that big of a difference. Smart phones and slabs of glass with apps on them. There's very little that truly impacts the experience after you get past specs.

android's at least open source

The base of it is, but you're not buying a phone with a fully open source Android OS on it
- Sadly true, but still better than nothing
Didn't they change license at some point, so it's no longer open source?
- AOSP is licensed under Apache 2.0
  
  (if you want to contribute back you must sign a CLA though)

Android is an operating system, Apple is a manufacturer

Android I meant as including the likes of Google and Samsung etc etc
- Android includes the likes of Fairphone, Teracube and SHIFT, are those equivalent multi billion corporations like Google and Samsung?

"Google is insidious. They're really an advertising data-collection company, but people think they're a tech service company. Their whole strategy is to provide stuff like Chrome for free so that lots of people use it and it becomes a de facto standard, and then they flip a switch and quietly mine all of that data."

15 minutes later...

"Anyway, I prefer Android cuz it's FOSS."

People who prefer android because it's open source usually use open source android because that's what they want.

That being said, proprietary blobs and black boxes are a pox on basically every usable device these days. I hate it.
Apple and Google are both part of the NSA's Prism data collection program.

They pit us against each other in this arbitrary culture-war...the proprietary versus the open standards. And it's so wildly anti-consumer but we fall for it, year after year. Maybe one day Apple users will realize how anti-consumer it is, but I doubt it, they love the exclusivity of being half of the people with a smartpbone.

Lol yes. Isn't it sad? They're even proud of being "rich" (lol) and brag about their stupid apple-gadgets. Apple really managed to get from "get more, pay less" to "get less, pay even more and get fucked" and having people kiss their butts for it.
- Apple as an OS and platform itself, isn't bad. macOS, I'd contend, is probably the most user-friendly experience out there. iOS and iPadOS aren't far behind.
  
  Apple also tends to be late with new features, but makes sure they are polished and complete when they launch.
  
  But that's it. I wouldn't say that makes them the best by any means. They all have their merits in their own regard. Consumers have their own reasons for selecting one platform over another, and those that don't choose Apple.
  
  Sent from my OnePlus 12 (and I use Arch, btw) (and my last phone was an iPhone 12 pro max...the only reason I got it was because I was sick of exchanging potatograms with my wife, who wouldn't use a separate app just to message me. Before that it was a OnePlus 6T, then Galaxy S9, Note 4, Nexus 4, and HTC Hero. Might've missed one) (oh yeah had an iPhone 5 from work. Couldn't wait to exchange that (for the Note 4).

I had a lot of hope for Android in the early days before Google dropped the n't from their "Don't be evil" corporate slogan.

Use what you like. Just like Windows, macOS and Linux for the vast majority of people, all these OSes are, are platforms to display apps and webpages. They all have sanded off most of the rough edges meaning that unless you have specific niche needs/wants, you'll just use what is familar and be happy.

Life is too short to have deep feelings about an OS.

Hush

Lineage OS fan here. I'm in the clear

Trillion.

This is the reason you shouldn’t choose a chat platform that requires the using the mobile OS duopoly—get your friends off of LINE, WhatsApp, & Signal.

while I agree, signal is also on Linux and is a more polished alternative
- But it does require a cell phone number to get started, meaning your signal account is tied to your identity via your phone carrier

Lol I can't understand how you get so many upvotes but when I make a meme everybody's like "what's a stan???" Linux users are some of the most antisocial people on the planet.

what is a stan tho?
- Go listen to Eminem. He explains it quite well.
- It's what you take when you're not afraid
bruh

as a linux user I am embarrassed they didn't know

For me, iOS has always had a general touch responsiveness to the UI that Android has never been able to replicate. It's hard to describe, but I feel like I make a lot less errors when navigating the UI in iOS. It isn't faster, but it's always felt smoother to me. I'm not sure whether it's iOS or the iPhone hardware.

Having said that, Android is the much better platform overall for the things it allows you to do that iOS doesn't. It's highly unlikely that I go back to maining an iPhone unless iOS gets radical changes. Third party app stores, launchers, emulators, etc.