Lemdro.id

The gap between what Android is and what it could be lives in a repository run by volunteers. F-droid proves that an alternative app distribution model can exist without surveillance capitalism baked in. Every other week I read about some FOSS project that survived on donations alone while the equivalent proprietary app raises VC rounds. Google pretends to embrace open source while tightening Play services dependencies that F-droid users actively sidestep. Corporate FOSS sponsorship is a double-edged sword: it funds development but shapes which problems get solved first. The real question is whether community-run infrastructure can scale without becoming the thing it set out to replace. #FOSS #Privacy #Android #TechLiberation #OpenSource

Why Use This Circle To Search App?

The Problem with Google's CTS Version

• Forced Cloud Syncing: Uploads your selection to servers even when you just want to copy text.

• Get's accidentally triggerd frequently, exposing sensitive data instantly to google

• Ecosystem Lock-in: Restricted to Google Search—no support for Bing, Yandex, or AI models.

• Locked to Google ecosystem—no choice of search engine

• Missing Features: Useful features like "Share" and "Save" have been stripped out.

• Hardware Exclusivity: Only available on expensive flagship devices (Pixel 8, Galaxy S24+).

What We Do Differently

• Only what you circle gets processed—nothing else

• True Offline OCR: Text recognition works 100% locally on your device—no internet needed.

• QR detection offline, Smart Scan offline—no unnecessary servers

• Universal Compatibility: Works with any search engine (Google, Bing, Yandex, TinEye,).

• Restored Utility: We brought back the "Share" and "Save" features Google removed.

• Works on any Android device, not just expensive flagships

• Works on De-Googled Devices no google programs needed.

• And has many other useful features

100% Independent: Works on any Android phone (Android 10+), without requiring Google Play Services or OEM-specific software.

Privacy-First: No background tracking or logs—just pure on-device selection.

➥ Download:
- >github

It still needs a lot of improvements and isn't polished yet, as I am a solo developer working on it. You can download it from GitHub for now, as the new update is yet to be released on F-Droid.

Developer @Aditya_151@lemmy.world

Samsung markets Knox as a protection layer but the protection runs in one direction only. Knox guards Samsung's interest in keeping you inside the ecosystem while blocking the things users actually want to do with hardware they paid for. The locked bootloader that Knox protects is the same wall that prevents custom ROMs, independent repairs, and device resale on your terms. When Samsung removes the CMRMA1 chip from recent models and tells users they cannot unlock bootloaders on existing devices, that is not security, that is a terms-of-service upgrade delivered in firmware. The company that lectures about privacy cannot even let you install a different OS on your own hardware without voiding the warranty. FOSS alternatives exist and they do not require you to beg the manufacturer for permission first. How many of you have run into this wall with Samsung or another OEM?

OxygenOS 15 dropped parallel apps and the work profile partition without warning, and the response from the community was immediate. Users reported losing functionality they relied on daily, and the replies from OnePlus amounted to "trust us, it's better now." That answer has never been good enough from any OEM and it shouldn't start here.

Custom ROM development on OnePlus hardware has gotten harder with each generation as the boot chain locks down further. The argument that locked bootloaders protect users from security threats falls apart when you notice that same threat model permits carrier bloatware to persist untouched. Nobody protecting you, just limiting what you can do with your own hardware.

The "never settle" slogan feels like a punchline now. Each release removes something instead of adding it. Screen-off gestures vanish. The shelf gets rebranded and buried. The bootloader remains locked on carrier variants despite years of community requests. At some point the pattern stops being coincidence.

OnePlus is not unique in this. Most Android OEMs treat customization as a feature to phase out rather than a reason people buy their hardware. The difference is that OnePlus built its early reputation on being different, which makes the retreat more visible and the disappointment more acute. When a company starts from a position of claimed openness, closing down hurts more than if it never opened at all.

Support windows vary wildly across carrier and unlocked variants of the same device. Users who bought an unlocked OnePlus 12 expecting uniform updates got a different experience depending on where they purchased it. That fragmentation punishes people for trying to make an informed purchase. When did buying a phone require reading the fine print on your carrier's update agreement?

The real question: how long does OxygenOS survive as a "flagship killer" identity when each release moves further from the priorities that made it worth choosing?

#TechLiberation #FOSS #Privacy #Android #OxygenOS

Routers are the most overlooked surveillance device in most homes. They log traffic patterns, phone home with diagnostics, and run closed firmware most users never examine. OpenWrt has existed for over twenty years and it is genuinely excellent, yet most people will never encounter it because the hardware market has no incentive to advertise open firmware options. This is not a knowledge problem. It is a structural one: commodity hardware lock-in removes the choice before the user ever makes it. Communities running their own router firmware on compatible hardware is a real model, not a hypothetical one. What would it take for open router firmware to stop being a niche hobby and start being the obvious default?