>Yes there is. Absolutely no closed software ever. That's the rule you use. Even the modem on the phone I'm typing this on is running FOSS firmware. Don't compromise your freedom for convenience, you always end up with neither when you do.

I don't think I understand fully the point you're trying to make. How does free and open source software prevent a software developer from inserting the code necessary for behavior such as we're discussing? Granted, they may be chastised, but the ability remains. We've seen this happen already with software developers inserting ads into the shell during install (or some other operation). A lot more work and effort on our part is necessary to prevent this type of behavior becoming normalized.

You saw the recent Audacity situation, right? That's the point; developers may still make hostile decisions. Those decisions may still be merged to the "main" branch. But the community is still left with recourse, whether that takes the form of a fork, or more simply, one user heading into the code and removing the hostile additions just for themselves.

And on the other side, how does not being open-source stop people from patching the bits anyway (maybe not legally, but no one can stop you writing to a storage device you own)? If anything, I think OSS is just a distraction from the real issue, which is companies trying to lock out users from the hardware they own in the name of "security".

Use a Intel NUC or similar device instead of a Nvidia Shield and it will offer more functionality without ads.

TV streaming, Games streaming from local network at least, music...

A closed environment doesn't allow for competition, so they will monetize it to the greatest degree. That would include ads.

Android TV is really bad spyware for that matter... surprised it can even exist with Google TV having flopped that hard.

It will offer much poorer compatibility with streaming services, because most streaming services do not trust the DRM on a NUC for high quality content.

(Correctly, tbh).

It works with Edge mostly, but that speaks only against Netflix and Amazon DRM. I don't want to get compatible to that. Subjective, but the content isn't worth it in the first place.

(Correctly, tbh) - It is still a service problem.

I think at least Amazon fixed it in the meantime, I can play 4k without problems.

Take a look at what just happened with Audacity. Open Source is no protection, unless you were aware of the situation and downloaded a fork.

My copy of Audacity hasn't auto-updated to include any of that crap and it looks like future updates will come from a fork where it's stripped (if muse group even bothers to continue) so I'd say that's an example of it working.

Unless you were unaware of what was happening with Audacity. If you didn't hear about the news, you'll update and have no idea.

I installed it from guix, the package maintainers are aware of the issue and will not distribute updates containing telemetry.

On Debian, updating won't add unwanted internet connectivity.

It's delusional to think you have an absolute choice in this matter. Of course at any one point in time you can always chose to pick options that make a slightly different trade-off between convenience and freedom than the mainstream. But a few years into a strong persistent trend in society at large, even a tin-foil hat, self-flagellating setup will be offering you far less freedom than experienced some years back by someone who always chose convenience over freedom.

Which phone is that?