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CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

calyxos.org

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Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#71

Post by zozbot234 »

atatatat wrote: post #64
dheera wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> B. The small group of people who have formed an organization which may or may not be another Anom like FBI controlled software. Um, this project is 100% open source, unlike Google's flavor of Android. If there are backdoors to the FBI they will be exposed in due time. https://gitlab.com/CalyxOS That said I'd love to understand how it compares to LineageOS.

Well, Calyx keeps the basic security model of Android intact (verified boot), unlike Lineage.

Custom verified boot needs to be supported in hardware. But with most devices, you can use "fastboot boot" from an external device to start from an image that you trust.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#72

Post by johnnyApplePRNG »

I made the mistake of purchasing a DOOGEE phone a few months back.

Won't touch it now that I realize the OS is completely hijacked by whatever chinese company produced this not-half-bad phone. (It goes so far as adding a watermark of the company logo to every photo I take! Sure I can disable it but I just don't feel right putting anything of value on there.)

What would happen if I tried installing CalyxOS on it? Or another android compatible operating system?

It's not listed as compatible on any alternative android OS that I can see at least.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#74

Post by nextos »

atatatat wrote: post #57
fitblipper wrote: post #28

The thing which always makes me hesitant about these projects is that they don't receive frequent security audits and not having an expensive brand behind them makes them more at risk to being willing to trash their name at the cost of my privacy and security. I consider these to be a fairly critical part of any project which claims superior privacy and security. I think about it this way: Should I trust A. The compa…

Disagree. The reputation of Nick Calyx (worth a look his Wikipedia page), or GrapheneOS team, etc, is so much easier lost than that of, say, Google's Android team.....or iOS security team. Having said that: Calyx shouldn't be considered much more secure than Android Open Source Project (AOSP). That's where GrapheneOS shines. Calyx should, however, be considered more private than AOSP, less dodgy & exploitable than Sa…

How does CalyxOS compare to GrapheneOS?

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#75

Post by dstryr »

godelski wrote: post #29
m12k wrote: post #24

As someone who knows quite little about Android (currently in the Apple ecosystem, but considering jumping ship): When you use these privacy-focused Android versions without Google Play, is there a consistent way to get apps from the Play store to run on there? (e.g. download the APK from somewhere and sideload it). I'd really like an OS that doesn't spy on me, but there's e.g. some goverment ID apps, transit apps an…

You are always able to add playstore in. But of course this comes with some cost to privacy. There's also other app stores like f-Droid. Usually these are populated with the same apps but often there are ones you are going to have a harder time getting. Does anyone know if there's a way to do a sandboxed playstore? Like you can use it to download the apps and update (assuming this won't be automatic) but that it is c…

- Install Shelter from F-Droid

- Install the Aurora store apk inside of Shelter

- Open Aurora store in Shelter's work profile and use like a normal play store and all apps installed within Aurora remain sandboxed

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#76

Post by _abox »

atatatat wrote: post #57
fitblipper wrote: post #28

The thing which always makes me hesitant about these projects is that they don't receive frequent security audits and not having an expensive brand behind them makes them more at risk to being willing to trash their name at the cost of my privacy and security. I consider these to be a fairly critical part of any project which claims superior privacy and security. I think about it this way: Should I trust A. The compa…

Disagree. The reputation of Nick Calyx (worth a look his Wikipedia page), or GrapheneOS team, etc, is so much easier lost than that of, say, Google's Android team.....or iOS security team. Having said that: Calyx shouldn't be considered much more secure than Android Open Source Project (AOSP). That's where GrapheneOS shines. Calyx should, however, be considered more private than AOSP, less dodgy & exploitable than Sa…

Yeah GrapheneOS is security over privacy, Calyx is privacy over security (and has a bit more mainstream appeal with MicroG, supporting push messaging and location services etc).

GrapheneOS has also pioneered a lot of security measures, a lot of which have been added to Android proper (if you see their feature log, a lot of it says "removed because it was introduced in Android"). I wonder if that wouldn't have been the case without them pioneering it.

Finally, the big guys make a lot of mistakes too. Remember the time when you could sudo on macOS with a blank password :) Or that other time when they showed your actual password instead of the password hint. AFAIK, Graphene and Calyx have never made any mistakes even close to that severity.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#77

Post by atatatat »

_rdvw wrote: post #49
Ninjinka wrote: post #37

Only available on Pixel phones and a single Xiaomi phone.

Unlike GrapheneOS (which I recommend you use if you can) and CalyxOS, my project https://divestos.org is tested working on 30+ devices.

Very cool!

Few quips:

Silence was last updated (on F-Droid) a year ago — is this project secure//being maintained?

& Mozilla-cousin browser: you're going to lose the security clout these days unfortunately.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#78

Post by cdesai »

Knighttime wrote: post #15
bmarquez wrote: post #5

> you can make encrypted phone calls directly, using the built-in integration for Signal and WhatsApp calls Does this mean WhatsApp is automatically installed with Calyx, or just that there are extra features if you manually install it?

Unsure. It seems that they have Signal installed by default, but not WhatsApp. However, if you install WhatsApp you can make a WhatsApp call directly from the dialer I think?

Exactly. Signal is available as a default however you can choose not to install it.

WhatsApp is shown as an option if you have it installed, the option won't show up if you don't.

The rationale being: We didn't exactly ant to promote WhatsApp but still have it present for those who already use it.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#79

Post by atatatat »

_rdvw wrote: post #49
Ninjinka wrote: post #37

Only available on Pixel phones and a single Xiaomi phone.

Unlike GrapheneOS (which I recommend you use if you can) and CalyxOS, my project https://divestos.org is tested working on 30+ devices.

Props on bringing verified boot to those devices Lineage can//will not, and doesn't tell users clearly that they could have it with other options.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#80

Post by _rdvw »

atatatat wrote: post #77
_rdvw wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike GrapheneOS (which I recommend you use if you can) and CalyxOS, my project https://divestos.org is tested working on 30+ devices.

Very cool! Few quips: Silence was last updated (on F-Droid) a year ago — is this project secure//being maintained? & Mozilla-cousin browser: you're going to lose the security clout these days unfortunately.

Silence is sadly no longer maintained, but it still seems to work for now. I will eventually replace it.

Re Mozilla: I do state on my browser comparison page that Chromium browsers are more secure. Also the Bromite repository is included in F-Droid by default on DivestOS.

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