I was excited to dive into my new smartphone only to once again waste precious time uninstalling bloatware before I could enjoy it.
  • Cris@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Because it’s profitable to include.

    Why would companies care as much about the minor brand value decrease in the eyes of more technical users when they can make more money right now by making things shittier?

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      and the most delicious kind of money of all: dark money! ooooh it’s so good because the sources of the dark money offer you a lot of it, and they specifically ask you not to ask questions, which is so good for you because these bloatware programs make your device sell worse and provides no value as a sales platform because it turns out that billboards and radio spots are, surprisingly, the most effective form of advertising.

      but! you have a sense of solidarity. you have faith that by never offering a phone without bloatware, your entire industry will ensure that all phones won’t have bloatware. you rest easy at night knowing your phone won’t sell poorly, at the end of the day, because every phone is like this. your contributions to a surveillance and propaganda machine that should punish you in the market because won’t because all your peers are your allies in this.

      and it gets better! every time someone else’s phone gets more bloatware and more dark money attached, then everyone else appears comparatively better, allowing them to get worse. ooooh you love it so much when you get to take more dark money. and all it costs you are several thousand lives far away from your big mansion. you don’t even have to see the suffering

          • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            16 days ago

            The big one that matters is Verizon Software Manager. Used to be DT Ignite or something. They try to disguise that garbage forced installer as something genuine. I forget what it is on AT&T but I think it still has DT in the package name. The Verizon one is like some crazy package name thats not the name of the software at all. Must be the name of the company that makes it.

      • Ogmios@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        You get to feel like a super cool insider in a shadowy club secretly ruling over all the foolish little people who aren’t clever enough to be deemed worthy of receiving dark money!

  • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    15 days ago

    This is most prevalent on androids, even stock pixel. As much as I like to shit on apple, they have less bloat on your phone. Of course whatever native app you have on there, you wouldn’t able to delete, whereas on android you could delete it if you really wanted to.

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      15 days ago

      I mean, yeah, but there’s also manufacturer bloatware. This model year, Samsung in particular has outdone themselves with the implementation of their AI chatbot nearly zero percent of their customer base wanted.

  • LostXOR@fedia.io
    0·
    16 days ago

    Companies want to spy on you and make money, it’s no secret. Just install stock Android or your favorite fork; it quite literally takes 5 minutes with a WebUSB installer.

      • LostXOR@fedia.io
        0·
        16 days ago

        Yep, Graphene only runs on Pixels but (IIRC) Lineage runs on most mainstream devices. Otherwise stock Android should work fine.

    • lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Unlocking bootloader took me few hours.
      I must register new account, install Windows application (Linux not supported, but Windows Server evaluation is free and works as a VM),
      have valid SIM card with Internet access.

      But worth it, much better experience.

      Unfortunately, average person won’t do all this things.

      • Markaos@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        That sounds like Xiaomi. The best price to performance ratio of any OEM, but at the cost of terrible software and this… experience… when you want to get rid of it.

        Worth noting that not all OEMs are like this.

    • Virkkunen@fedia.io
      0·
      16 days ago

      it quite literally takes 5 minutes with a WebUSB installer.

      With a supported phone, on a Chromium browser on Windows. It takes much more than that usually, depending on device, to unlock the bootloader and install a custom ROM

      • LostXOR@fedia.io
        0·
        16 days ago

        I guess I only have one data point from installing Graphene on my phone. I can see why it would be harder on other devices. Though I was using Linux, and Windows is absolutely not required for WebUSB.

    • noughtnaut@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      …and then you’re locked out of using your phone to pay for things, can’t install banking apps and marginal ID apps, et cetera. 😢

      • Infomatics90@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago
        1. do you really need to pay with your phone?
        2. do you need to use a banking app and not call the automated system to check?
        3. What ID apps would you used on a phone? Having digital ID’s is in it’s own a huge breach of privacy and i would never consent to such a system
      • whoknewr@lemmy.todayEnglish
        0·
        15 days ago

        They are a prefect example of I’m a prviliged person who has not suffered so I refuse to believe that the current system causes suffering