Sure but that’s about 8 years too late https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub#Acquisition_by_Microsoft

the pocket machine spies on you too, but that’s fine

I bet that most people who are interested in this kind of projects are the same who asked questions like https://lemmy.ml/post/43696523 and thus are relatively invested into making sure what’s in their own pocket doesn’t spy that much on them.

I have no doubt. In fact I bet that as soon as you have done it once, it’s entirely obviously. I’m mostly taking the perspective here of somebody who needs a phone and doesn’t even properly understand what an OS even is.

Also self-hosting is not trivial but it got way easier over the years IMHO thanks to Docker/Podman. Also I’d recommend investing time in it because… it will still be worth it in a decade!

If you are up for it I could write few “challenges” for you and see where it leads.

Check my post history if you want as I did post quite a few times about my journey there but basically :

• used Android a long time ago
• switched to iOS due to discussions with security experts at Mozilla
• bought and used sporadically Linux proper phones (PinePhone and PinePhone Pro) with different distributions
• tired of iOS restrictions as a developer, switched to /e/OS last year

The main appeal of /e/OS for me wasn’t security or privacy but rather being able to purchase a phone with the OS installed. I wanted to buy a phone, put the SIM in and be pretty much done with it. I also wanted banking apps to keep on working. I bought the cheapest /e/OS phone namely https://murena.com/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-cmf-phone-1/ then and basically I’ve been using daily since.

Few clarifications that I believe are misunderstandings :

• on security, yes /e/OS lags behind GrapheneOS for Android updates. If you are worried of 0-days because you are a political dissident you should probably NOT use /e/OS but get your setup reviewed by experts. You should definitely not trust randoms strangers on the Internet on that topic. It’s important to put an emphasis on the fact that even with the latest Android updates, a phone is still not entirely secure, does not matter if it’s with Googled Android, GrapheneOS, iOS or whatever other OS. It’s only the least worst known state, in theory. It’s better to follow best practices but without being either naive or paranoid.
• on privacy, /e/OS has some defaults you might not like but they are JUST that, namely default settings. If you do not want to use a Murena account, simply do not create one. That’s it. You won’t have any call to any API, even proxied one like OpenAI. AFAICT this is also only for paid accounts so it can’t happen by mistake. Feel free to check my post/comment history on that. Again if your threat model is any information leak, might be better to use GrapheneOS but if you are fine with just avoiding the downside of surveillance capitalism, IMHO /e/OS is good enough, namely you don’t share usage data to Google, even with default settings.

Another alternative https://framaforms.org/

Marketing BS. Just bother to pull the strings for a short while and you’ll find an artist, genuine or con artist, with their own needs, fame, wealth, humor, etc to potentially fulfill via the process who invested time to start the process, sometimes going through the hoops of buying the domain from NameCheap.

company that we can actually choose, unlike our ISP

Depends on locations but typically in urban areas (which is where most people live now, since the rural flight of the 20th) there are multiple ISPs to chose from. It’s typically a long tail curve with 1 ISP that is a current or historical monopoly everybody knows who laid down the physical lines then multiple large ones and finally dozens of tiny ones that might include some local non-profit. Same goes for SIM operators. Most customers are just too lazy to bother picking anything but the most popular choices.

TL;DR: most people can actually chose their ISPs.

so long as it’s optional, local, and private.

… yes but also

• open source,
• open model,
• all annotations done with proper respect to
  • labor law (ideally verified by 3rd party)
  • IP
• clear on ecological cost
  • CO2 eq in model card (ideally verified by 3rd party)
  • analogy non technical user can understand

… which makes for a rather limited list.

My own constraints https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/CollaborationRelyingOnAI recommendations welcomed, both on such rules but also on models that do fit, if any.