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CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

calyxos.org

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Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#131

Post by _abox »

kelnos wrote: post #124
_abox wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calyx has more focus on functionality and privacy rather than security. On Graphene, security is always priority #1. For example: Calyx provides MicroG. This means you can talk to Google Play services, though in a better, more privacy-conscious way. MicroG is an open implentation of Google Play Services. However, MicroG requires signature spoofing: You need to install a fake Google certificate so that it can trick of…

This is the trade off that I hate having to make, and I'm glad to see something like Calyx here. I want a phone that respects my privacy and is secure, but I also want to use apps like Google Photos (my favorite app that I use more than anything, aside from Firefox), Lyft, Netflix, Slack, banking apps, airline apps, and, critically, Google Pay. I get that using many of those apps might increase my exposure to trackin…

I agree, this is my stance as well,. Though I don't think Calyx tries to limit tracking on installed apps. I would recommend using something like TrackerControl to limit those.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#132

Post by brundolf »

vbsteven wrote: post #113

I’m thinking about buying a degoogled Android phone to replace my iPhone. The main things I want are: * Spotify needs to work over Bluetooth in my car * WhatsApp needs to work (preferably with push notifications) * I need the Fitbit app to work so my watch can show push notifications from my personal apps * a network-based location provider to be consumed by my personal apps (I’m working on a personal data and automa…

> Can other Android flavours like GrapheneOS or LineageOS do this?

There's a separate question you're missing: what your Google Services situation is

Distros like Lineage come without Google Services; if you want them, you install them yourself

"gapps" is the official one. It's straight Google everything. Lineage OS + gapps will give you a very clean and nice Android experience if you don't care about Google collecting your data.

If you do care about that, you have two options:

1) go without Services entirely (most apps will have problems; if you're lucky they just won't send push notifications or be able to use your location, if you're unlucky they will be flat out broken or crash)

2) use microG, which is an unofficial non-Google replacement masquerading to the rest of the system as Google Services. I've heard mixed things about how well it works, but that appears to be what CalyxOS comes with. You can install it on Lineage, but I don't know what extra hoops may have to be jumped through. Note that it's also walking a fine line with Google and I could see them intentionally breaking it at any time down the road. Depend on it at your own risk.

I care about privacy and I would not buy a degoogled Android phone today. I switched to iPhone a few years ago after roughing it without Google Services for a year and a half. It was fairly awful.

I once had to return some headphones because the app that went with them simply wouldn't work.

I had to use a combination of the Google Maps web app and OSMAnd (which was just atrocious) for navigation, which basically meant I didn't really have navigation.

Slack wouldn't send me push notifications.

I couldn't use my banking app.

Even Signal struggled to run in the background/send me notifications.

It was basically back to the iPhone 1 days where your phone could text, call, web browse, take pictures and play (local) music. Though even the iPhone 1 had a functioning Maps app.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#133

Post by dopu »

It used to be that iOS was the recommended phone OS if you were looking for the best combination of privacy and security. Even Daniel Micay (the lead developer of GrapheneOS) thought so, 2 years ago [0]. But these ROMs are looking much more mature these days. Anyone have thoughts on how CalyxOS and GrapheneOS compare to iOS in the present day?

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/bddq5u/os_secur...

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#134

Post by hadrien01 »

cdesai wrote: post #126
hadrien01 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For you first two questions: Spotify will work with Bluetooth, and WhatsApp will have eventual notifications (real-time if the app was recently opened, up to seven hours later otherwise, at least on my device)

We're very close to getting the notification issues fixed. We've sent some patches to microG to address them at https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/pull/1483 I'm running it on my device since a few weeks now and it has been quite reliable so far.

I don't use microG, the delay is WhatsApp waking itself up

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#135

Post by trulyme »

securitypunk wrote: post #85
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…

Anyone who has managed a product security program will tell you that's it's impossible for small groups to keep up with the complexity and attack surface of products like android. From a consumer perspective, going with A and trusting the company is by far the safest option.

Meh. Given the option of a secure but adversarial OS and less secure but open one, I will always pick the latter. Then at least there is a fighting chance my data stays mine.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#137

Post by cdesai »

azdle wrote: post #11
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?

CalyxOS has a handful of apps that exist in the image that you can optionally install. I would assume it's one of those. I run CalyxOS and don't and never did have WhatsApp installed.

WhatsApp is not one of those apps, we only include FOSS apps.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#139

Post by cdesai »

LukeShu wrote: post #130
rodolphoarruda wrote: post #122

Most of the de-Googled or Linux based mobile OSes have their installation restricted to Pixel phones. Why? Is there any option for old Motorola phones?

Because those are the phones that are supported in the upstream Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which these OSes are typically based on. Other phones, even ones that to a great job of publishing their sources (like Sony's), have their support living outside of AOSP. And older phones get dropped from AOSP, the original Pixel was dropped in Android 11. So, by only targeting the devices that AOSP supports these OSes…

The other aspect to this is that you can install a custom OS on the Pixels and still re-locked the bootloader, which means you get Verified Boot and all the security guarantees that brings.

https://source.android.com/security/verifiedboot

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#140

Post by vbsteven »

_1 wrote: post #118
vbsteven wrote: post #113

I’m thinking about buying a degoogled Android phone to replace my iPhone. The main things I want are: * Spotify needs to work over Bluetooth in my car * WhatsApp needs to work (preferably with push notifications) * I need the Fitbit app to work so my watch can show push notifications from my personal apps * a network-based location provider to be consumed by my personal apps (I’m working on a personal data and automa…

> * I need the Fitbit app to work so my watch can show push notifications from my personal apps It's going to hard to degoogle your phone and stay attached to your Fitbit.

Is there a specific reason for this? Does the Fitbit app rely on Play Services?

I don’t care too much for on wrist calls or anything like that. I just want to use the Fitbit app to sync stats and mostly display notifications from WhatsApp and my personal apps.

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