It depends also what you consider AOSP. There isn't really an AOSP anymore, the default AOSP apps have been left to die from Google since forever, in favour of its own apps. All ROMs are just different flavours with different default apps for the needed phone functions
I have been using lineage with No play services since like 2019 and while it does take a little bit of getting used to, once you are comfortable with it, it's just as easy. The big things you won't get are notifications for most apps since most rely on Google Play Services for notifications. Some apps will refuse to run because of not having the Google Play Services for integrity checks. That mainly applies to banks and stuff, so you might have to either switch banks or use the mobile website instead of the bank app. The ride-sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft do not work, but you can get an Uber through their website, at least for now. Although if that ever goes away, that could cause problems. If you use open streetmaps OSMAnd, instead of another mapping application, you won't be able to do many addresses. So you'll need something such as gps-coordinates.net to convert addresses to lat/long for use in OSMAnd.
Other than what I've mentioned above, there's not really a huge difference.
Also, if you do use OSMAnd, please, please, please contribute addresses. When you go to a place, just add a point of interest to the map and add its address and stuff. And that would be super damn helpful. A lot of businesses are shown, but what's not shown is a lot of the residential addresses. So, like, going and mapping your neighborhood with its addresses would be really helpful. Or nearby neighborhoods, etc.
LineageOS... the restrictions don't sound great. I will need the Google Apps, esp. for banking and other work related stuff. No way past it. Some software seems a bit basic, like the camera app. Sony offers a nice one there. Just as an example. There's other concerns. Small, but hey...
As to your request for contributing to OSM. That's what we have StreetComplete for.
You can just flash NikGapps after flashing the ROM (EDIT: I am not sure if the SONY's flashing tool will allow you to do such things) to get Google services working. But if you want to pass the Play integrity and SafetyNet checks you will also have to root. It is a bit of a paradox that you have to root to pass these checks (maybe there's a non-root solution I am not aware of, but I doubt that). For me the Play Integrity Fix Magisk module from chiteroman works well (Lineage OS v21). It just has to be updated once in a while.
On top of those severe restrictions of Lineage I don’t even like that you can’t move apps to the SD. I’ve tried formatting SD as internal storage. I’ve tried a dozen different SD chips on a dozen different phones with a dozen versions of Android. And EVERY one of them failed after a brief moment with some errors and corrupted the chip. Every attempt.
So I use them as external and on other Android devices I have no problem moving apps over to them. I don’t move all types of apps, but ones that are mostly referential like icon packs or reference apps, there’s no justification to not allowing it.
You really shouldn't be using a personal device for work purposes or a work device for personal purposes. So I would try to get your job to provide you a device to do work related stuff on rather than doing it yourself. Also, I ended up switching banks, not because my bank app didn't run, but primarily because my bank would not allow me to do everything from the website that I could do in the app. And I do not want any Google Play apps at all on my device. And so I ended up switching banks for that purpose to one where I could use the online website for everything.
Never saw the need to separate work and personal devices. I have a work and a personal profile on my phone. That's enough.
I won't switch bank over this.
But I agree, banks often have terrible websites.
I have a work phone and a personal phone. Latter LineageOS now GrapheneOS. Still some proprietary apps but not many.
I have used Lineage OS for the last 2-3 years and it is pretty solid. I originally had MicroG installed but I eventually removed my dependence completely
If you're into alternative operating systems, try SailfishOS! Though beware that it's different from Android.
I've outgrown the tinkering. Would like to stick with Android. Have too many apps depending on that. Banking, work related stuff.
Thanks for the suggestion, though.
Work phone is for work, banking is browser and TAN generator. More secure anyway.
It has an Android compatibility layer, though many banks refuse to work if you don't pass SafetyNet checks, I was lucky that my bank worked. But I totally understand.
Does Sony provide the ROMs or do you have to find someone else's ROM?
I've largely given up on custom ROMs because I'm not interested in dealing with the bugs. On a well supported device with a very popular ROM there's usually not any major bugs after that version has been out for a while. But sometimes it can take a year + for a ROM to truly be bug free and I'm just no longer interested in that. That's actually the reason I moved to iOS for my main phone.
That said Sony's software sucks ass so maybe some random dude XDA dev will do better.
Sony provides them, by what I gather.
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