It's always surprising how many people who like to tinker with their devices also deliberately want to tie themselves more into the Google ecosystem. I would've guessed that the Venn diagram of these two types of people wouldn't have much overlap, but the ROM's popularity kind of speaks for itself.

▲ jeroenhd 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

If you ignore the massive privacy problems and embrace the Google ecosystem, it's actually quite nice.

Google's ecosystem is a pain in the ass to work around if you don't like it, but I find it two steps above what Samsung is offering, for instance.

AOSP and Lineage are cool projects but their usability still falls behind devices like the Pixel by far. Copying some of the Pixel applications in (possibly after neutering them a little to cover for the privacy implications) can quickly turn a "works, I suppose" custom ROM into a usable experience.

	▲	forgotpwd16 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		AOSP of course does. Google has abandoned AOSP's to focus on the proprietary Play's ecosystem. Hell, Google has explicitly deprecated AOSP Dialer & Messaging (as has* Music, Calendar, Email), arguably the most essential apps for a smartphone. That said, Fossify (fork of pre-acquisition SMT) provides a very nice active FOSS app ecosystem (only missing a Maps alternative). Trivia: AOSP Music & Calendar actually had features removed*.

▲ eadmund 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> It's always surprising how many people who like to tinker with their devices also deliberately want to tie themselves more into the Google ecosystem.

I don’t believe that there’s a realistic alternative. The Apple ecosystem is even more restrictive, while even in 2026 the non-Android Linux phone market appears to still be pretty uncompelling.

	▲	xx_ns 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I meant more like installing LineageOS (which exists for most of the devices that PixelOS is ported for) and managing Google apps yourself - whether just installing a regular minimal GApps, or using MicroG. PixelOS is like a "give me Google everything" nuclear option.

▲ mschuster91 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Simple: Pure AOSP without Google Play Services is garbage as quite a lot of apps openly rely on it and the built-in core apps (phone, messages, ...) haven't been maintained in a while. Most manufacturers (cough Samsung) insist on loading their Android with bloatware. Google's Pixel has barely any bloatware, but polished core apps.

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jeroenhd 3 days ago | parent [-]

FWIW my Pixel came with all kinds of manufacturer bloat (why would I need an app for Pixel Buds? I don't own any Pixel Buds!) but at least on Google you can get rid of that crap.

On Samsung I've had the disappointing experience of not being able to nuke some of their pre-installed applications. I was under the impression that you could disable any app (even if you can't uninstall it fully) but apparently Samsung did something to prevent that.

For what it's worth, AOSP is not really a ROM anyone uses from what I can tell. LineageOS and its many forks and siblings have better standard apps for launchers, browsers, music players, the works.

	▲	stemc43 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Google is an ad company. They probably have so much tracking you can't get rid of.

▲ preisschild 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Tbf I (degoogled Graphene/ex-LOS user for more than a decade) can definitely see why you would rather have the mostly-AOSP-native Pixel experience on your smartphones than completely enshittified UIs that Samsung or Huawei provide...

	▲	hurfdurf 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		`mostly-AOSP-native Pixel experience` Pixel is as far away from AOSP as any other Android OEM.
	▲	dsashwin 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		you forgot Xiaomi and Realme

▲ Zetobal 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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