Iād like to re-focus on the main topic at hand, and I agree, any subscription, no, any extra payment of any sort, be it monthly or yearly, be it for updates, or for features. It better be worth it, because as it stands, the Xperia 10 III, which I got for the sake of SFOS over another device, should at least function reliably.
Thereās a slew of bugs, a lot of which I encounter (ie audio breaking, contact duping in CardDAV/Nextcloud) phone freezing if I call too quickly after booting, camera still being mediocre, data connectivity (and thus hotspot) needing manual activation) ā If we can at least have a phone where the audio doesnāt break and we can make calls reliably without the fear of being unable to take or make urgent calls (been there. That was the tipping point for me) ā or just you know, a reliable phone, MAYBE THEN, Iād consider paying for updatesā¦
Sadly most of us are nerds, weāre linux users (most of us) using a linux phone OS, if it could really rival the agonizingly depressing competition, or at least not having to do weird workarounds (like restarting AppSupport because AdvanceCam doesnāt stop using the camera, ever (even when itās minimized), to get camera working on an android app again) or having to get logs because funny unexpected yet barely worked on bug keeps popping up, maybe then Iād actually consider suggesting SFOS to others. Because I have the know-how and patience to work around these bugs.
More devices isnāt the answerā¦ A solid, easily obtainable phone (again, why in the universe, isnāt the Fairphone officially supported?) that doesnāt suck, works ā and this is the key word in this rant ā reliably, is how you get not just new users, but also keep old ones, and maybe get some older ones back in.
While, yes, Newer Devices would be appreciated, no doubt. ā It shouldnāt be at the expense of thinning out work on other, already supported devices.
This isnāt just a sound-bad move, this is a huge risk that, again, anyone who is paying be it a timely or per-update subscription, and see that the OS isnāt matching what theyāre paying for, will eventually leave, and will probably leave either sad or frustrated.
I WANT to Love SFOS, hell Iām still having second thoughts about moving out of it, and have already said to myself that if things get better or whatever else I use, isnāt as good, that I will switch back to SFOS. However, if thereās an additional cost, with nothing to make it count, I might just use UBPorts instead. Maybe even aid their efforts for VoLTE too.
I understand this rant is a bit heated, but I just want to make clear that Iād like 2 things. For SFOS to be reliable, and to be good enough to safely recommend onto others, because holy shit, does SFOS feel good to use and is comfy. But I cannot, in good faith, not recommend nor continue to use as a daily driver when half the calls are missed or the other one of the people canāt hear the other.
PS: For the record, the urgent situation was that I was calling someone to get an appointment as soon as possible (date), but the other personās signal was weak. Sadly, this resulted in me calling back, but sometimes the keyboard would stay open and I was unable to reset it, then Iād restart and call back, after call dropped again, I noticed that not only did the keyboard stay open (in ocassions), now the device was freezing too, so again, restart and first thing I do is call back. It was an anxiety inducing mess, thankfully I did get my appointment, but only after 30 minutes of this reboot->call->freeze->reboot. I am thankful that I havenāt had something like this happen in an actual emergency situation.