Hello, making this post to get some honest, and technical opinions about GrapheneOS. Please do not be bother by this question. I've heard that there is some of the google code into the "sandbox" feature. Say your opinion below! 👇👇
Well it's open source android, if the code is bad, it's jettisoned. While I cannot stand Google, not every line of code they write is trash.
The sandbox is good and you do not need to install Play if you do not want to. I use f droid where possible.
I want Linux Mobile but it is not ready yet. In the mean time, this is the best we have.
So you will have to emulate all this apps? Like I'm not talking about these on the play store like games or others, I'm talking about the great apps that you can find on fdroid
Depends on what you are referring to. If Linux Mobile, Android apps can be run on Waydroid and there is a compatibility layer like Wine available. However, for Linux Mobile, you'll open up Gnome and KDE apps. In Plasma, you have kirigami which enables convergent apps (that work on desktop, mobile and tablet). As it matures, more apps will be developed that supports it.
The world and ecosystem now doesn't define the ecosystems of the future.
I have been using GrapheneOS on a Pixel 7 Pro for 3 months now. I am BLOWN AWAY at how good it is. I have 3 user profiles. Main profile has no google services at all, and 95% of my apps are running there. Then I have a second user I can switch to that has sandboxed google services and my banking apps on it. I then have a third user that also has sandboxed google services running where I can install any random app that demands google services. (I have only 1 app on that user) . So 99.9% of the time my phone is running with no google services at all. (Side note: without even the sandboxed google services installed, apps need to be left open in the app switcher in order to receive notifications. If you swipe all your apps away, then you won't receive notifications. This is not a problem for me, as I just keep my messaging apps open in the app switcher. But if it is a problem for you, you would need to run the sandboxed google services).
I see GrapheneOS as a way of removing 99% of all the tracking, spyware and things that I dont like, while still having the convenience of having all the apps and features that are available on a regular smartphone.
There is a learning curve, and many settings to learn and customize. But definitely worth it.
To get a Pixel, instead of paying £900 for a new pixel 8 pro, I paid £300 for a second hand Pixel 7 Pro on eBay that was in perfect condition. So for £300 I now have a privacy phone and an AMAZING camera, which was very important for me the camera.
GrapheneOS has something in store for everyone. The fully de-googled setup by the common definition a lot of people strive for is a fully supported configuration, it comes that way out of the box in fact, making zero connections to Google - unlike many other operating systems. But you can also transform it into a more "regular" phone by installing Google Play and all the bells and whistles and enjoy the benefits while still feeling save, thanks to the app sandbox applying to it. So you can take away its permissions and feel rest assured it can't snoop on you even if it wanted to. Or you take a middleground somewhere inbetween if that's your cup of tea; functionality is an important factor for many, and there's little you need to sacrifice.
if you have a pixel theres absolutely no reason why you shouldnt use it.
if you dont i dont think its worth to buy one just for graphene
if you have a pixel theres absolutely no reason why you shouldnt use it.
Plenty reasons to not use it on a pixel...I had horrible compatibility with all sorts of banking apps, government 2FA and traffic warning systems, to the point where they just couldn't work at all. Their sandboxed play services breaks a shitload of day to day convenience and even necessities to increase privacy.
this is a problem with all ROMs, actually.
banking apps especially do everything in their power to block every phone that isn't stock.
Its always better to try and get firsthand knowledge through the FAQ then rely on, possibly inaccurate, Lemmy users. I would also seek answers on their official forum over Lemmy as well.
It's a middleground between a regular stock spyware ROM and a degoogled one with pretty good security thanks to lockable bootloader.
P. S. I can hear the drama coming unfortunately. This ROM's devs have haters.
There's a lot of false information in your statements, GrapheneOS is not spyware, and it does a better job at degoogling than any other ROM mentioned in this thread, the only one that comes close is DivestOS, and no eOS is NOT like Qubes...
GOS wanted to reduce the attack surface as much as possible so they removed all the unecessary Bloat, it doesn't even ship with wallpapers !!
This list is not exhaustive and covers a tiny bit of the differences between these custom ROMs but it's a good place to start
https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
What I meant by a "middleground" is that GOS has gapps, even though they are sandboxed. There is no way it can be more degoogled than LOS or any other fully vanilla ROM that's actually degoogled.
That's also not accurate, GOS comes fully degoogled, and doesn't include any GAPPS or Google Play services, you have to install them yourself if you want compatibility with Google Apps or some banking apps
even though they are sandboxed. There is no way it can be more degoogled than LOS
That's just false, even LOS isn't fully degoogled and it still connects to Google in the background for necessary connectivity checks ( e.g. DNS ) and Esim activation for example
Oh ok then. If it has a vanilla version then it is degoogled and can be more degoogled than LOS. What I meant was if GOS was microg only, it couldn't be as degoogled as LOS because LOS is vanilla. Still it's a shame that LOS can't find a better supporter than Google.
it couldn't be as degoogled as LOS because LOS is vanilla
This is about to change since LOS are about to include MicroG by default in future releases.. Or so I heard from some Mastodon users who shared screenshots about an LOS update that installed MicroG
GOS is private and secure more than any other ROM, but once you install the Unprivileged play store you lose some of that privacy while retaining security, MicroG is private but not as secure
Still it's a shame that LOS can't find a better supporter than Google
Wdym?
This is about to change since LOS are about to include MicroG by default in future releases
Should I bet all my savings this isn't gonna happen? Just don't trust unverified rumors and never ever spread them as the truth.
more than any other ROM
ROMs without network support.
Wdym?
I believe LOS uses Google stuff because they get money for doing it, especially for making it the default search engine in the default browser.
never ever spread them as the truth.
How did you know it's not the truth...because I implied it wasn't.. and I don't see it as something that couldn't happen, people asked for MicroG support for years..
ROMs without network support.
I'm not a huge fan of trolling
because they get money for doing it,
I can tell you no Open source ROM gets funds by Google, unless if it's a program... For example GOS received many rewards for discovering vulnerabilities in AOSP
How did you know it's not the truth...because I implied it wasn't.. and I don't see it as something that couldn't happen, people asked for MicroG support for years..
Sorry but this sounds like you're defending yourself because you know you spread rumors or maybe even complete misinformation.
I'm not a huge fan of trolling
There was no trolling. You said it's the best ROM for security. I told you of a better one. Saying "best ROM for security" was more of an act of trolling than my response.
I can tell you no Open source ROM gets funds by Google, unless if it's a program...
Idk. I heard that Lineage receives money from Google so I said that but, in contrary to you, I didn't say that I'm sure of it. I just said "I believe it's the case".
I think you may be right but everyone's used to calling it a ROM. Now with increasing popularity of EROFS it makes more sense to call it that way.
I've seen that you basically have two choice (more but not very relevant) GrapheneOS for security and /e/OS for privacy. Thoughts on it?
DivestOS is the most thoroughly degoogled of the android ROMs (it removes the most proprietary binary blobs). DivestOS is also decently security hardened, better security hardening than any other Android ROM other than GrapheneOS. But since it removes more of these proprietary blobs, it further reduces the attack surface of the ROM. Both GOS and DivestOS are good options. As commented by another user, /e/OS falls behind on security updates often, which is quite bad for a security or privacy focused OS.
/e/OS is not for privacy but more for anonymization. It has a built in VPN and a ton of spoofing stuff afaik. It's closer to Qubes if you ask me. And I heard it had proprietary software so ehh it's made to make you look like the most average internet user so you can search anonymously. I don't have enough information about this ROM but I wouldn't use it on my main device.
Convenience, proprietary software and because it's not completely degoogled. I use LineageOS on my device and I'm happy with it. I can use Qubes or a VPN if I want an anonymous search.
LineageOS actually seems to be getting less degoogled recently. They're adding stuff for better Google apps support (that can be installed manually). But I believe it's as degoogled as reasonable custom ROMs get. Not much advanced privacy/anonymization features though and no stuff like Play Integrity support obviously. It's a ROM for these who don't need gapps at all. And if you do, just buy a second hand device with the stock ROM and put your banking apps there. Play Integrity doesn't work well on any custom ROMs now anyways.
EDIT: also EOS is EndeavourOS that is a Linux distro.
I used it for quite a while, but with most of the Google apps. One morning RCS chat stopped working and would not reconnect, since I use RCS for texting most people I'm back on stock for now. I know it's not graphenes fault, but I didn't want to have to keep dealing with Google randomly disabling stuff. Up until then, everything worked as it was described
I don't trust the google kernel when it comes to privacy or security. You think with how many people use Android and with how bad actors Google are they wouldn't put a backdoor somewhere?
its open source and well audited, so no I don't think they have it backdoored. they get all the info they want from people using google play services at a privileged level, running chrome, and using their other dozen services that come bundled with stock android
Unless you want to tell me that the Android kernel is the first OS kernel without bugs, it takes at the very least one bug to be left intentionally unfixed and shared with the feds to introduce a backdoor. I wouldn't consider it infeasible with how large the android kernel is, and how high a barrier of entry kernel dev is. If the bug is found, just move to the next one. Normally I wouldn't be so paranoid, but this is Google we're dealing with, on one of, if not the most popular kernels on the planet.
No the dev is very sensitive to criticism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4To-F6W1NT0
