Sea of Tranquility

Must be binary…

Before the cruel events on October 7th and the insane devastation that followed, I didn’t realize how deeply messed up the western idea of foreign policy in the Middle East really is. Before October 7th, I knew about colonialism, I knew about the war on terror and its devastating consequences for countries in that region. I knew about things like the insane death toll in the Mediterranean Sea, where innocent people in need are just getting systematically crushed by the EU’s border apparatus and the right-wing idea of “securing borders” and “not letting the bad ones in”. I knew about it and understood it as inhumane right-wing or neoliberal ideas that align with the interests of those who can really profit from it. The oil industry, weapons manufacturers, etc… and the politicians who are in their pockets or benefit from spreading fear and hate.

For me, these topics were always something that the progressive left and even many liberal or apolitical people can understand as senseless cruelty. Seeing the news coverage after October 7th and diving deeper into the details of that conflict, I was absolutely dumbfounded, that even some of the progressive news-outlets I follow are avoiding talking about Israels war crimes while repeating the propaganda of Zionist organizations or the Israeli state. My country has defended Israels actions in the international court, and there are quite a few people agreeing with that decision. Quite a few people that I would otherwise consider reasonable and knowledgeable. I have read newspapers that hold themselves to “high journalistic standards” who call peaceful student groups antisemitic and Nazi-aligned. Groups that were advocating for humanity, a ceasefire and a one-state-solution, and have now shut down any kind of public protest because of the hate that came their way.

Not far from where I live, there was a concentration camp and less than a hundred years ago my country had a fascist tyrant as its leader and plenty of accomplices who helped him with his ethnic cleansing campaign. We are not that far removed from this fascism, from treating people with other ethnic backgrounds like something you can just exploit to drown out in the Mediterranean Sea. From supporting the idea of a pure religious ethnostate having the right to slaughter “uncivilized” people that are in the way. From being ignorant enough to whitewash those who fought against apartheid while jailing those who are opposing it now.

Another thing you might want to consider is the repairability. If you want to swap the battery years down the line, this can become a really important metric as well. iFixit is your friend here: you can just look up a device and check what the repairability score is.

Thanks for the info, I changed it.

is the GCam app noticeably better than a stock camera app? What sorts of things would it do better?

As I mentioned in my first comment: “Sometimes, the picture quality is decent, but often times it’s lacking” when it comes to the ROM camera app. How well a camera does, depends on the app (which is supplied by the ROM) and the driver (usually supplied by the manufacturer). The quality can, therefore, vary from device to device. A few years ago I would’ve definitely said that GCam is a step above ROM camera apps, but in more and more cases, those have become almost comparable in quality. One aspect where GCam still actually makes a difference is long exposure modes (low light and night photography) as well as offering special modes like panorama or photo-sphere.

The last I checked, the Pixels had excellent sensors but had some camera software issues that I believe were eventually resolved. I’m hoping that isn’t an issue if I’m just using a basic OS.

From my experience, older oneplus devices (e.g. oneplus 7/oneplus 7 pro) and pixel devices (pixel 5 and upwards) have excellent community support, so you should be golden.

For me, the key aspects for selecting the right hardware are the camera and the comunity support. All the other capabillities you listed are available on any phone that has a relatively recent ROM available.

Let’s start with the camera quality: If you want to use your phone without GSF or microG, you could use the camera app that comes with the ROM you flashed. Sometimes, the picture quallity is decent, but often times its lacking. Instead, I would recommend using a modded GCam App together with fake GSF. This way, you can use googles powerful camera app without sacrificing your privacy. So when I’m looking for hardware, I always check, if there is a modded GCam version available.

Aside from that, I would check if there are recent stable versions of the ROM I want, available for the hardware. The last thing I would check is, how active and how big the modding community for that device is. If you can’t find a lot of support on XDA, it’s probably not the best hardware choice to begin with.

When it comes to software, there are a lot of privacy-friendly replacements to choose from, but here is my setup:

• Syncing Contacts and Todos: selfhosted baikal + DavX5 + Simple Contacts + Tasks
• Syncing Photos: selfhosted NextCloud AIO + nextcloud app
• Syncing Notes: selfhosted webdav + Joplin
• Find My Phone functionality: FindMyDevice
• Maps: OrganicMaps
• Speach to text: FUTO Voice
• Synced Music: Selfhosted JellyFin + FinAmp
• browser bookmark sync: selfhosted webdav + floccus

EDIT: GCam and FUTO are not Open Source, but they are free and don’t collect or require any user data

As a lemmy client, I would add Eternity (APGL-3.0).

For latex documents I would highly recommend Overleaf (APGL-3.0). You can selfhost it on an old PC or raspberry pi and have crossplatform access on all your devices

A better alternative to F-Droid would be Neo Store (GPL-3.0) which has a more modern design and is less broken in general.

For apps that are only available as github releases (e.g. hypeBard) I would recommend obtainium (GPL-3.0) which automates the update process.

My personal preference for calculator apps is NCalcLibre (GPL-3.0) which has a slightly different set of features than your suggestion but has a more structured UI imo.

Text Tools Pro (Apache-2.0) is another awesome tool that can improve your typing experience dramatically.

If you have a degoogled device you might want to install FMD (GPL-3.0) in case you lose it.

For rooted devices, I would also add BCR (GPL-3.0) + BCR-GUI (GPL-3.0) to keep a record of important calls.

Another app that is especially useful on rooted devices is AdAway (GPL-3.0) which is a system-wide ad blocker that doesn’t require any resources.

Germany’s government has been slowly shifting towards neoliberal and reactionary politics for the last few decades. The SPD (the self-proclaimed “social democrats”), who currently have the most seats in the parliament, are not actually pushing for progressive policies but make concessions to neoliberal agendas whenever possible. Similarly to the US Democrats, they often act as a controlled opposition, focusing on liberal issues while dismissing progressive/left-wing policies. The Green Party, which holds the second-most seats in the cabinet, has some progressive voices but also has a history of supporting western hegemony when it comes to foreign policy (especially in the Middle East). Together with the aspects mentioned in the article, this is the reason why German politicians are so ignorant of the Palestinian cause and unwilling to push for any kind of long-term deescalation.

As someone born and living in Germany, I was expecting our politicians to act this way, unfortunately. What I, personally, didn’t expect is how often progressive media outlets here are behaving like Jacobin describes them in the article. Hearing progressive/left-wing voices that I usually listen to, shaping the public discourse towards a more regressive/antisocial one is what terrifies me the most.