Exploiting my DAP [which is running Android 12] i almost immediately run into a recent novelty of modern Android versions [ >11 ] of taking away permission from not in ROM applications to write to the root of sd-cards. In order to make changes to the SD card, third-party software should request permission to access the SD card’s root folder. However, Android now restricts this by offering to choose a folder other than the root folder [“for the sake of your security”].

As a long-term user of Android OS i stacked up the most irksome peculiarities. They have been with us for ages, since version 1.0 to be exact. messed up separation between internal and external storage, which is not clear to a generic windows user, files are hard to find, applications save data randomly either on internal or external storage, logic pattern is definitely broken here incoherent and unclear notification system, with poor organization of priorities absence of transparent file handling, i am talking about file extension-application matching, there is no convenient tools to manage this task And it looks like google will never fix above mentioned facts.

UPDATED ON: 2024-08-10 Considering Ghacks [recent news] it is not clear what Mozilla are trying to depict. Firefox 115 ESR will be supported until October 1, 2024. Let me remind you that in their previous statement regarding v115.15 EOL was September 3, 2024. Are they going to extend support for just a month or should we expect something more solid? Stumbled across this hype blip-news [here] . To tell the truth, i don’t really care of what they are thinking and what will happen, because current 115 ESR version will be supported until september 2024.

UPDATED ON: 2024-12-28 !!!!Post will be updated in the future, so be on the edge!!!! Here is a comprehensive list of the most trusted ban-overriding solutions to date to circumvent network censorship. For those of you who are suffering from obsolete freedom violators. All mentioned software are compatible with Windows 7 and Android 8. Linux users will surely find what they are looking for without my help. Take a note that there are a zillion network configurations out there, so just because something works for me doesn’t mean it will work for everyone else.

Without further ado, straight to the facts: last version with sane amount of system services, which can’t be turned off absence of [neural networks API] , which is used for telemetry, collection/profiling user data with subsequent uploading collected information to third-parties [for the first time technology was introduced in Android 8.1] full support of any modern browser [even Android 6.0 can handle this] ability to load legacy Android 2.x applications without any issues [Android 14 is already blocking such apps] I care about older stuff simply because of code quality.

Stop using mainstream operating systems like Windows 11/10/8.1, modern Linux, like Ubuntu or modern MacOS versions. On mobile Android 14/13/12/11/10/9/8.1 are prohibited because they use neural networks to profile your device and dial back to “home” to dump your personal data and preferences. iOS from very beginning was very phony platform. My personal choices are Windows 7 for desktop and Android 8.0 for mobile. These two cover my digital needs fully, no restrictions whatsoever.

UPDATED ON: 2025-05-08

List will be updated in the future.
Most of the applications can be found on [F-Droid market] and work on Android 8.0.
Permissions checker: [Exodus] .