“For instance, I often had to rely on the web browser to access services like Reddit, Telegram, and Discord since native apps weren’t available. Web apps work for primary use but can’t always replace dedicated apps, especially for banking or fitness tracking.”
That’s the core of the problem these days. Nowadays, there’s so much that requires an app to work.
Avoiding mobile apps was entirely realistic in the 2010s, but it’s too late for that now. The world has changed, that ship has sailed etc.
If you can isolate yourself from certain realities of the outside worlds, using a fully FOSS system can be done. The technology is there. It’s just that most people can’t isolate themselves to that degree.
What if you have appliances such as a scale, lights, watch or something? Pretty much guaranteed that those won’t work unless you use their app. If you want to go FOSS, you may need to sell all of your smart stuff and replace them with similar devices that work in a privacy respecting strictly FOSS environment.
I don’t understand the banking comment, and I’ve seen it several times. Don’t other people’s banks have web portals? Other than maybe depositing a check remotely, are there features you actually need a native banking app for?
“For instance, I often had to rely on the web browser to access services like Reddit, Telegram, and Discord since native apps weren’t available. Web apps work for primary use but can’t always replace dedicated apps, especially for banking or fitness tracking.”
That’s the core of the problem these days. Nowadays, there’s so much that requires an app to work.
Avoiding mobile apps was entirely realistic in the 2010s, but it’s too late for that now. The world has changed, that ship has sailed etc.
If you can isolate yourself from certain realities of the outside worlds, using a fully FOSS system can be done. The technology is there. It’s just that most people can’t isolate themselves to that degree.
It’s really just banking, I can still use the browser for most other things.
What if you have appliances such as a scale, lights, watch or something? Pretty much guaranteed that those won’t work unless you use their app. If you want to go FOSS, you may need to sell all of your smart stuff and replace them with similar devices that work in a privacy respecting strictly FOSS environment.
You can try: https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://github.com/oliexdev/openScale
(although they are android apps)
I don’t understand the banking comment, and I’ve seen it several times. Don’t other people’s banks have web portals? Other than maybe depositing a check remotely, are there features you actually need a native banking app for?