I’m not buying a Pixel because I’m not giving Google any money. I’m in the US so the other OSs will not work for me. I just need this crap off my phone. I can’t uninstall Youtube, and it came with Facebook. It’s just infuriating. Can I just root it and connect it to my Linux laptop and just force uninstalls or something without bricking the device?
Any help appreciated!
You need to return that phone ASAP and get something that will let you install a custom ROM on it, like a Pixel or a OnePlus.
Edit: shitsung just recently sent out an update that finally kills off bootloader unlocking for all shitsung devices. Us Americans haven’t been able to do it for quite a long time, but Europe and Asia could, and now they no longer can. So shitsung is absolutely not a brand to be using at all.
Indeed. Samsung’s software can only be stripped down so far, which still means many megabytes sent back home on any given day. From first-hand experience, there is no good way of installing a custom ROM on newer US Samsung phones, let alone get working service on it.
If anyone has qualms about contributing to Google, get a factory-unlocked Pixel second-hand or from a discount reseller.
Source on the edit? I believe you, just curious about the details.
It was in the news a couple of weeks ago. Here is an article: https://9to5google.com/2025/07/26/samsung-galaxy-one-ui-8-bootloader-unlock/
Hey, thanks for finding that.