12mo ago

Why is installing a different OS/Custom Rom on phones a huge hassle?

Unlock bootloader (depending on vendor, you have to do an online verification),
flash a recovery.img,
load into recovery mode (which, depending on the phone, might need extra work)
wipe some caches,
select new os/rom image,
pray it doesn't brick your phone.

You'd think someone would've learned a thing or two from the easy graphical installations linux and even windows have been offering since the late 2000s.

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I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard an average user say: ‘I like my phone’s hardware, I just wish it had a different OS.’
Phones by and large are seen as a locked system: you specifically choose to buy Android or iOS and stick with that.
There’s really no incentive for companies to make different OS installs easy. I’d say there’s plenty of reasons not to: do you really want to give the average user that much power to fuck up their phone? I assume there’s also some security implications if they made it too easy to fiddle with.
So yeah, it’s difficult because you’re fiddling with something that wasn’t meant to be an end-user thing in the first place.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love it if they made phones much more open in terms of hardware and software, but the big guys aren’t going to do it.
- That doesn't really make sense. Every paragraph, except the 2nd, also applies to PCs, yet you can install a different OS.
  The reason is quite simple: more money from users.
  
  Well, PCs have been quite non changing compared to phones over the decades (not saying they don't change but way way less).
  Linux didn't become user friendly very quickly.
  
  PCs aren't phones -They have different expectations and histories.
  Would you ever consider buying individual parts, and building your own gaming phone?
  The end result is still the same: Less consumer power,.
  
  Absofuckinglutely yes I would.
  The big phone manufacturers banded together to extinguish that modular phone startup because it would have been too good for consumers. Then they made it harder to swap out phone batteries to punish us for dreaming.
  Edit for sources:
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonebloks
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Ara
  
  I assumed the non swappable batteries was to improve the waterproofing.
  
  It was to reduce the cost of making phones water resistant.
  
  "Yes of course. We're crushing orphans in our machine for their own good, because we care about orphans."
  
  Probably similar to how manufacturers tell you it's for your own safety and "think of children!"
  
  The modular phone was a nice dream but IMO a fairytale dream, even Apple have had problems fitting all the needed stuff together so good luck with a Lego phone except if it's the size of a brick.
  Now it's probably the time for a linux/free/foss phone, as IMO they start to be both standardised and actually quite enough for the moment;
  My old Xiaomi 9 pro that goes used for 80€ used in mint condition has 6GB RAM 128GB storage, SD card, octo core CPU etc. That's close to my penultimate PC. The next next next version (Xiaomi 12Pro) has about the same specs except the camera stuff.
  That's when FOSS people can start to dig into stuff, not when specs changes crazily every year.
  
  Would you ever consider buying individual parts, and building your own gaming phone?
  Yes! Such a phone (that's also sufficiently mainstream and modern) is a dream come true. I want no selfie camera, I have no use for that. I want a decent camera that's totally inside the body (no bump, no need for 5+ cameras). I want a newest Snapdragon. I want a physical fingerprint reader. And literally no major phone manufacturer is gonna make such a phone.
  Especially the Snapdragon one is pretty much incompatible with all the other things - newest Snapdragon equals whatever else is trendy, which means under screen fingerprint reader, 5+ cameras with a huge bump on the back and the tiniest possible selfie camera on the front which makes the display look uglier (I think I'll be okay with under screen selfie cameras once they hit the mainstream).
  If I got the option to buy a modular phone where all this would be as optional modules, it would be so great! I wouldn't have to spend $1000 every time I want the newest Snapdragon and get all the other cool things I have no use for.
  
  We would like to do that - lime we do with PCs - because we're nerds. It would be a veeeery small market, just like people who build PCs
  
  But then everyone's pc was built somewhere by someone. Smartphones could use the same model. It would improve competition between specialised parts manufacture, premade units could be priced according to the sum and performance of their parts, ewaste reduction when people can upgrade only the part they want. There is a lot of consumer upside whether you build or buy premade.
- I like my phone’s hardware, I just wish it had a different OS.
  
  I have been tweaking my phone ever since Nexus 3 age. And only recently settle in the default MIUI/HyperOS and that is only after unlocking and removing a bunch of bloats.
- Really? You don't hear users complaining about bloat, duplicate apps, phones that no longer get updates, or laggy UIs? My Redmi phone has good hardware and became so much better when I installed a different ROM on it.
  
  Yeah, xiaomi mi 9t with pixelos. Then Universal Android Debloater, disable all the telemetry (wish I could just use this thing without google, but thats a topic for another day), got a new case and battery. It literally feels like i just bought a new phone even though this thing will be 5 years old!
  
  Everyone around me uses iPhones and I hear no complaints. And the folks who buy Android tend to prefer Samsung here, which seems to get decent updates.
  I’d never even heard of Redmi, but Googling it, it appears to be the entry level line of Xiaomi. When you buy a budget phone from an already budget brand, I’m not surprised that the user experience out of the box isn’t that great.
  
  I've had Sony, Nexus and Samsung before. The consistent pattern was that they all had bloat on the phone, made software decisions that benefited them, not me, and after a certain age tended to slow down. I know Apple is even worse about that, so I never even consider them seriously.
  I bought this phone because I could put the software I wanted on it (and it has an ear phone jack and SD card slot). I wouldn't consider it if I couldn't. My tendency to drop phones horribly also pushes me to a cheaper tier 😁.
  I know I'm not the average user, but I've helped people with carrier phones that had fine hardware, but filled with shitty apps and services that were there to just harvest their money/information.
  
  Samsung is riddled with bloatware.
  
  It’s that bad these days? I’ve only had one Samsung phone, three phones ago, and it didn’t really have any bloatware on it, except their own Galaxy store app thing.
  
  It's horrible. I really like the hardware quality a lot aside from battery life, but the software they add is horrible. Tons of useless stuff like their AR Zone augmented reality app. They also make it impossible to uninstall or even disable. Really annoying.
  
  That would certainly annoy me if I couldn’t uninstall some bullshit thing like that. I don’t imagine a phone NEEDS that to just work.
  Guess I’m not returning to Samsung any time soon.
- I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard an average user say: ‘I like my phone’s hardware, I just wish it had a different OS.’
  I'd say that happens mostly because they don't even know there are alternatives. Also, like machinin said earlier, bloat is a very common problem in Android phones, even high end stuff from big companies, Samsung being one of the worst offenders in that regard.
  The average user doesn't know the phone doesn't need half of that shit, so he just shrugs and carries on.
- In summary, the corporate bean counters don't want to give up control over your device. That's really all it boils down to. They're not doing anyone any favors, that's for sure. It's pure greed
- This story only makes sense on its own momentum.

78 comments