I think you're genuinely asking, but just FYI it might seem to some people like you're perpetuating the common trope of "Stallman radicalism" or nothing. By far more people on Linux are willing to run some amount of "non-free" software depending on the situation. For example the Nvidia proprietary drivers are one of the most popular packages for many distros.

The only real problem right now is just lack of apps. Devs build against Android/iOS-only SDKs and use native features that aren't cross platform, so running those apps is mostly out of the question (although I have seen some people running Android apps on their Pinephones!! Need to look into that more).

So GP is saying for apps like that they'd keep an android around but do everything else in a browser.

I didn't say that. And I don't' think people think that when questions like that are asked.

People don't care about this stuff if it's going to waste a ton of their time.

Theres a reason people buy closed source oems and don't care. It's because it works and doesn't waste their time.

Imagine buying an open source car where you can to periodically rebuilt parts of the engine because it was "free". That's absurd, people aren't buying a philosophical journey. they're buying a car.

I'm sure if pinephone or OLPC used entirely free drivers and didn't waste your time to do the same asks people would find it much more agreeable.

Branding others as being part of a radical out-group helps you feel secure in your decisions.

I had a conversation with two people recently who got defensive at the idea that controlling the software in your phone should be the norm. As if criticizing Apple's approach to free/libre software is an attack on them as an identity.

> Is it seriously worth it for people to do stuff like this?

For the vast majority, it probably isn't. Also, I'm not full RMS since I would consider using an iPhone which definitely has closed-source components :)

I don't think it would be that much of a hassle to me, since I already don't use a lot of the "nice" apps etc. The way most people use their phone is quite alien to me. E.g. I much prefer old.reddit.com over a reddit app and/or constantly getting harassed with banners to use the app.

I'm pretty sure it would remove extra steps for me, instead of add them, by letting me compute how I like to (GNU/Linux) instead of trying to compute like GNU/Linux on Android.

there are plenty of free reddit apps that don't have banners or "buy me" ads.

> there are plenty of free reddit apps that don't have banners or "buy me" ads.

no. i don't want an app. thanks. i want your desktop website, yes on mobile with a touch screen. yes i'm weird, i know.

If you want to have control over the UI and functional aspects of your phone, it can be - the thing is, there are enough leeways currently - Rootless XPosed, Samsung NiceLock, custom DNS for system-wide adblock, etc - that it's often not needed. Custom ROM scene pretty much dried up because of this. But with vendors more than ever locking up, and Google cutting back features and API access agressively, this could change.