I can’t speak for the privacy scene but in my country it’s pretty popular merely because of anonimity (which boils down to not having to use a phone number) and Discord-like server/groups. For porn and other NSFW content, it is pretty popular.
I personally think this might be a “vote with your vallet” situation. Signaling to Google (and to other manufacturers) that people appreciate openness in their smartphones. Knowing Google though, it’s unlikely they will get it.
This year we made good progress. You know, Linux gaming becoming better, Reddit fucking up, Metaverse failing etc. But on the other hand Big Tech has or are planning to make some moves. Such as, Google's Web Enviroment Integrity API (EDIT: they backed off), UK's encryption bill, etc.
So what do you think of the future? I'm currently optimistic. I think the best recent event was Reddit fucking up. Obviously one of the biggest information sources going down that path isn't something to celebrate. But it was bound to happen. I believe decentralized social networks becoming more popular is what Aaron Swartz would have wanted if he saw how Reddit was being managed.
The lesser of two evils is Android as it’s like they put closed-source software on top of open source software (see AOSP) whereas on iPhone it’s all closed.
I think they do look alike.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.independent.co.uk%2Fs3fs-public%2Fthumbnails%2Fimage%2F2016%2F01%2F13%2F23%2Fweb-steve-jobs-getty_0.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=a3038725c31c7bf1ad281762587ef4cf83ecd5032e565dca75de6d51f70fdb57&ipo=images