Commodore listened, and the Callback 8020 is now $100 cheaper

Meh. Nokia does some of this. Why cant i flash a secure kaios onto one of those?

I don't get it. You literally have the choice of any dumb-phone out there, why buy a new one?

...because Kaios is essentially dead?

Many places are phasing out 3G and even 2G networks which would make the vast majority of pre-smartphone phones unusable. Also, proprietary (but technically replaceable) batteries which don't hold quite the charge they did 15+ years ago.

Blocking browsers is exactly the opposite of what I want. I want a phone that's only a browser. For me, using a browser on a mobile device is enough friction that it discourages me from using it for the stuff I intentionally uninstalled, like social media.

Give me a phone with a phone app, SMS/RCS app, RSS app, and camera app and nothing else, and I'd be perfectly content.

We’re pretty sure you can just get a normal dumb phone for that maybe, if not then this phone and reinstal the sail fish and only install a browser

There exist new dumbphones, poor reply.

Yet extremely understandable. On the global market, a phone without WhatsApp is basically a phone that cannot text people. For example, in Germany or Spain, 90% of internet users also use WhatsApp.

It would be like trying to sell a streaming box/tv and deciding that because Google is evil it doesn't support YouTube.

I don't know much about KaiOS so... what do you mean by "secure KaiOS"?

Really interesting, the blocking apps is mindful but I'd prefer if I could bypass it explicitly. For instance I extensively use discord for messaging, and I'd need to have it. No rcs is also annoying but I'd make do with signal.

Terminology lapse. But their selling point is that they block some services at the os level, so why cant i get a hosts file on an existing dumbphone instead of shelling out $400 on the commodore?

Ah, thought you were talking about some fork of KaiOS (I think that unlike Firefox OS it is proprietary software? I mean, except for the parts that can't be because of their license... yes, I know very little so forgive me if any of this sounds dumb). Anyway, I get your point now, so thank you!

The person I replied to specifically asked "why buy a new one?".

Point me towards a dumb phone that can run Signal properly and I'll cancel my 8020 order right now.

(yes, it's still a bit of a guess whether the 8020 can actually run it properly, but that's what they're promising right now anyway)

Remember when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone and that's exactly what it was: beyond a handful of essential built-in tools, the only way to develop for it was web apps using the desktop-class browser engine?

Then they were like, haha, fuck you, you can only develop our apps for our phone using our PCs and you'll pay for the privilege at every step? Yeah, fuck Steve Jobs. Fuck Apple.