November 2025

No more Lineage OS on Samsung cellphones (publ. Nov 2025, edit. May 2026)

It looks like the end for Lineage OS on Samsung handsets, at least in the UK. Here's why.

Categories: degoogling

De-bloating and de-Googling an Android device using Canta (Nov 2025)

If you can't run an alternative, privacy-sparing firmware on your Android device, you can still assert a measure of control by disabling certain packages. You don't need to root the device to do this, and Canta is an app that sets out to make it easier.

Categories: degoogling

The privacy nightmare of browser fingerprinting (Nov 2025)

If you were worried about tracking cookies, you really don't want to know about browser fingerprinting.

Categories: degoogling

Comparing Android alternatives: Lineage OS, ∕e∕OS, and Graphene OS (Nov 2025)

How are these alternative smartphone firmwares similar and different?

Categories: degoogling

Custom ROM versus extensive package removal, for de-Googling a Samsung cellphone (Nov 2025)

Which is the easier way to get to a phone you can feel safe using, without your personal data being sent to goodness-knows-where?

Categories: degoogling

Is it worth rooting an Android phone in 2025? (Nov 2025)

The costs and benefits of this somewhat controversial procedure.

Categories: degoogling

Running the Google Pixel Camera app on a robustly de-Googled cellphone (Nov 2025)

Is it possible? Would you want to do it?

Categories: degoogling

Two years without Google, et al. -- has it been worth it? (Nov 2025)

What's changed in the last two years? Would I do it again, knowing what I know now? TL;DR - yes.

Categories: degoogling

How to get a dark background on the K-9/Thunderbird e-mail widget for Android (Nov 2025)

Getting a proper dark theme for the e-mail home screen widget is worth spending hours building the app from source. No, really it is.

Categories: degoogling

The 2nd-generation Nokia 105: a smarter dumb phone (Nov 2025)

The terminal stage of de-Googling is to go back to using a 90s-style dumb phone. Devices like the Nokia 105 aren't as old-fashioned as you might think, but can they substitute for a smartphone in day-to-day use?

Categories: degoogling