welcome back to another video my name is jose and here we talk about digital minimalism
and today we're going to be exploring a different operating system we're going to be talking about
selfish os so let's get started as i said in the beginning of the video today we're taking a look
at selfish os and i'm really excited because it's one of my favorite operating systems by far ubuntu
touch and selfish take the crown for alternative operating systems in my opinion and i'm excited
to showcase this with you today now this is not a fully open source operating system but it's pretty
good in disclosing and having privacy especially because it's based on linux the extra features
is that you're able to run android applications as i will showcase in just a minute but before
three things that you need to know selfish is developed by a finnish company called yola it
is the spiritual successor to nokia when they used to develop migo the operating system on the n9 for
a technical deep dive i'm going to put a video in the description below number two it still works in
the united states there's a lot of reports that volte doesn't work but it does work still in the
united states because volt is still not required by certain carriers or subsidiaries of at t
and t-mobile i was able to use this device on the t-mobile network without any issues
so it still works here in the united states and number three is that yola has moved into more
business development when it comes to the selfish platform they still have the end user in mind the
regular customer if you will but their focus is on the business integrations so you're going to
feel a little bit of a slower pace when it comes to new features but they're releasing and making
selfish better and better so with those three things let's take a look at the device itself
now the first thing that i like about selfish os is that it is based on gestures it's completely
different from android or from ios in the past and it was on the vanguard with blackberry 10
to introduce gestures it also has very easy application management whenever you open an
app and you close it then you get certain windows that you are able to access quickly it does have
extra features especially for certain applications like music related applications and you're able to
control the music from the screen also you're able to control it from headphones and bluetooth and
things of that nature but whenever you're looking directly at the screen it allows you to have that
then you have the ability to add widgets into the secondary screen so you have your main screen
you have your app screen and then when you swipe again it's very gesture based you have the ability
to have a lot of widgets integrated like email calendar so at a glance very useful information
now what i do like about selfish is that it allows you to have android apps as i said
the xperia xa2 and the xperia 10 allow you to have android 9 whereas the xperia x which is an
older model only allows you to have android 4.4 between the xperia xa2 and the xperia 10 i prefer
the xa2 just because of size and also because of battery life xperia 10 and 10 plus have a
little bit of a doubtful battery life so i will go with an xa2 or an xa2 plus this is just my
personal recommendation when it comes to the other applications it behaves like a regular
smartphone you have mms you have ability to send group text messages crew where the keyboard
in a touchscreen manner and again i do like this operating system because it is more private you
have a full terminal application that you're able to modify many things and then you have an amazing
community that develops applications for this operating system you do not only have access to
the regular yola store where you have the main abilities to have the applications but you also
have extra repositories with an application called storeman if you install storeman you're
going to be able to get faster development from the developers without them having to
go to the yolo store make sure to read everything because not everything is safe in the internet but
there are reputable very reputable developers in this platform that i use there are a lot of good
native applications for signal for podcasting for telegram etc etc so again there is good support
from the community and make sure to donate because there is a lot of things that happen
for these developers to actually support these apps it's a dollar or two that actually helps
them continue developing with support for these native applications the xperia xa2 is also not
too expensive it is about 130 right now on amazon for this pink version you may not like the color
but it's brand new and it works in the united states now you may be able to get other ones on
a discount from ebay but i recommend that you get a brand new one if you can if it doesn't
bother you to have a pink phone to some people they don't like the pink it's too vibrant but to
others it doesn't matter to me it doesn't matter and i'm able to rock it and have the operating
system with me so a couple of extra things that i like from selfish is that you're able to use this
free of charge up to a certain compatibility so if you do not buy the license for android
applications you're still able to use it for free you will not have access to those extra android
applications but you will be able to test out the operating system so you can buy an xperia device
download the free packages in the united states you will need a vpn in order to
do that and after you download you're able to try it out and see if it's an operating system
that is available or that it works for your specific needs you will be able to install all
of the native applications but you will not have access to third-party android applications if you
want to have that it costs about 50 to 60 dollars depending on the conversion rate but i think it's
a worthy investment because it gives you a couple of extra tools not only gives you the ability to
install android applications but it also gives you the ability to have predictive text and microsoft
exchange for calendar syncing so these are extra things that you may need in the future as you
continue with selfish os i really like the concept of selfish os and there are more devices that are
able to support it in the future especially as the pine phone becomes a little bit more stable
but as of right now i only recommend the xperia devices because they will give you the full
compatibility installing android applications is very easy you just go to a browser download the
apk and if you have the android compatibility you will be able to install it on your device it opens
seamlessly without any issues and i really really enjoy the experience you're able to use whatsapp
f droid signal discord whatever it is that you want to use you're able to use but i would
say there are better experiences with certain native applications and if you want to support
the community you can also support the developers by testing those applications which makes it just
better for everyone that is using natively now an extra thing that i do like about selfish os
is that it's very private it is not sharing a lot of information with all of the other partners you
have granular control through the terminal and you're able to block and even download a couple
of extra repositories that helps you block sending extra information to other companies
so selfish is a very good alternative for those of you who do not want to deal with apple or google
anymore it comes from a niche company from finland and i think it's a very good alternative for those
who want to step away from the big tech giant as a final word i would like to say that i have used
selfish for quite a while i remember getting the yola one in about 2014 or 2015 i imported it from
amazon france and it was a joy to use but that device only worked in 2g back in the day and still
works in 2g today because it has not been shut down completely but now that it's going to be shut
down i'm not going to be able to use it anymore but the experience on the xperia xa2 is fantastic
i have had no issues testing it call quality messages data everything works seamlessly as of
right now in 2021 but again there is a possibility that in the future it will be sun setting because
of the carriers in the united states so if you want to try selfish this is probably your last
year or your best opportunity to try it in its full glory and hopefully in the future
even for eve extra t-mobile and att subsidiaries like red pocket or metro pcs or any of the other
mbnos like mint mobile so try it out see if it's for you and let me know in the comments
if you decide to stick with it and again if you have any extra questions about dumb phones and
about anything else make sure to put it in the comments below i always interact with you guys
and i'm really excited to help you in your journey towards digital minimalism so thanks
for watching this video i'll see you in the next one but sail fish my pronunciation monotony
depending on your region but this year is probably one of the last years that you're going to be
its own operating system but it also allows you to have other features
you