I assume virtually everyone in this place is using some third party ROM. Many of you probably rocking Banana ROM off your Alcatel z657 bought at Boost Mobile in 2012.
But is there any simpleton here like myself who is on stock android? You know, the middle age dude who has “Privacy” as a hobby because he can’t afford or have time for a real one. 😶🌫️
Basically no one runs stock android. It doesn’t exist
But if you’re asking if I run OEM android, yes I am
I had a Wiley Fox phone back in the day that was supposedly as stock Android as you could get.
Isn’t pixel basically running it? What are they adding?
Pixel is running something close… But as for what their adding? All kinds of stuff, from camera features to launchers to subtle tweaks
But the reason no one is running stock android is the reason the Linux phone project is so difficult… The drivers
Your phone is basically running two sets of firmware. One controls the radio, coordinates with cell towers, handles data both as an Internet connection and a set of old cell protocols we still use sometimes (like phone calls and public alerts), plus hardware backdoors.
And then there’s Android, which has some degree of control over that mess, but it has to be custom fit to each black box or you get bugs, because they’re all different
The only way to run stock android is through an emulator, and even then most developers just use the pixel builds
Which oem and why?
Because it’s not a pixel, so I can’t run graphene out of the box, and having my phone working is a key component of my job