The kernel is open-source AFAIK, but anything built on top of it is part of AOSP which is licensed under Apache 2 and allows for proprietary modifications to be redistributed. To be honest I don’t know how this licensing stuff works exactly.
There are no nearly custom ROMs for phones with mediatek processors AFAIK because the drivers are not open-source. Either that or there is a legal issue with modifying and redistributimg the modified drivers.
There are plenty of custom ROMs for phones where the chipset drivers are open (usually Qualcomm) and the phone has unlockable bootloader. If these 2 conditions are met in many cases the community is able to do better job of keeping the phone up to date with newer Android builds than the manufacturer itself. My phone would be stuck with Android 12 if I did rely on the manufacturer, but thanks to the community I run Android 14 with security patch from this February and Android 15 is also available. The problem is of course that most users aren’t going to flash their phone with a new ROM on their own anyway even if it is possible the ARM ecosystem unfortunately relies on the hardware manufacturer to keep the drivers and everything up to date (to work with the latest OS realease) and not on the OS distributor like most x86 ecosystem does, so you are lrobably right ARM is kind of cursed in this way. I know there are also drivers on x86, but the whole nature of things much more open. Correct me if I am wrong.
Do the “right” thing.
If you like VSCode you can try VSCodium which supports almost all features of VSCode but should be fully FOSS without Microsoft proprietary blobs.
AFAIK you have to give the app location access for it to be able to scan sourrounding networks and see the SSIDs (At least that’s how it works on the newer Android versions circa around Android 10 or 9). For bluetooth you have to enable at least the nearby devices permission. If you do these things then it makes sense that the app can track your location.
I think the Kiwi browser has it. EDIT: Or had it when it existed. I don’t see it on Google Play anymore.
There’s also the PersonalDNSFilter which does the equivalent while being a tiny open-source app that serves only for that purpose and also somehow still not getting banned from the Google Play store or AdAway which also has this feature or TrackerControl or…
Interesting to see that vast the majority of the people here use LineageOS.
It’s the more stable and bug-free ROM in my experience.
I am using Google wallet. It works with the Play Integrity Fix Magisk module. You just have to update it from time to time.
Lineage OS 21 (Android 14) on Poco X3 NFC.
Win + V should bring up cliboard history which is basically the same pop-up just on a different tab.
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Will the permissions still be allowable by goinv to the app info page from the settings, clicking the 3 dot menu in the corner and taping to allow restricted settings?
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You can just flash NikGapps after flashing the ROM (EDIT: I am not sure if the SONY’s flashing tool will allow you to do such things) to get Google services working. But if you want to pass the Play integrity and SafetyNet checks you will also have to root. It is a bit of a paradox that you have to root to pass these checks (maybe there’s a non-root solution I am not aware of, but I doubt that). For me the Play Integrity Fix Magisk module from chiteroman works well (Lineage OS v21). It just has to be updated once in a while.
Breezy weather also allows you to select weather data from multiple sources. It even let’s you select which type of data to get from which provider.
It could be nice, but also annoying in some cases. I would at least want to have an option to allow all the time.
I would like to see the same thing for clipboard read access. In the same way app has to prompt you for location permission it would have to prompt you to read the clipboard and you would actually have the option to allow it all the time which is handy for some apps like clipboard manager, or don’t allow it alltogether which is handy for some random apps you don’t trust.
Chrome or Chromium project?