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CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

calyxos.org

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Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#341

Post by [deleted] »

strcat wrote: post #326
cdesai wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On CalyxOS you do get an option to disable microG when setting it up for the first time, see https://calyxos.org/features/microg/#1-microg-disabled microG being disabled but present is still enough for some apps to work, which makes sense given that you can disable Google Play Services on the stock OS.

GrapheneOS has https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-play-services so our users have the option to use Play services too, in a way that will provide more functionality and avoids losing the security checks and key pinning that are missing in microG. We'll be making it easy for users to install via our app repository rather than bundling Google services in the OS. Google's Play client libraries are still used on Caly…

[deleted]

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#342

Post by privacyking »

ignoramous wrote: post #142
_abox wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

TrackerControl doesn't encrypt your DNS queries, though. You'd need to proxy DNS requests to another app like http://github.com/ch4t4r/Nebulo which supports DoT / DoH3 / DoH for that. (disclosure: I co-develop a FOSS TrackerControl alternative)

What is your trackercontrol alternative called? What makes it better or worse?

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#343

Post by ineedasername »

brundolf wrote: post #132
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 collecti…

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

Kind of awful when we're at a point where a pair of headphones requires a specialized app to use them.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#344

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

entropy1111 wrote: post #295
tholdem wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OS in this case has nothing to do with not being able to be ported to other phones. Google is one of the few who will pay extra to Qualcomm for the ability for users to flash their own signing keys. Lineage does not support one of the most important security feature of any modern smartphone, lockable bootloader and verified boot. Lineage might be more privacy respecting than Googles Android, but far behind regard…

There's no point in using LineageOS after they dropped PrivacyGuard instead of expanding it. You start going down this road and suddenly you'll have a phone that doesn't pass SafetyNet anymore. You have to use 3rd-party applications and probably a ROM made by a random internet user not affiliated with LineageOS because they drop support for devices all the time. The phone manufacturers bribe ROM developers to do that…

What’s your FOSS phone?

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#345

Post by dead-snake »

commoner wrote: post #329
strcat wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Calyx has more focus on functionality and privacy rather than security. That's not true. GrapheneOS is heavily focused on privacy and offers much better privacy than CalyxOS. See https://grapheneos.org/features for the privacy and security features offered beyond AOSP. Unlike CalyxOS, we aren't listing AOSP features as our own. CalyxOS has a leaky firewall which apps can bypass and a leaky VPN tethering implementat…

While I really appreciate your work on GrapheneOS (and I will be checking out the sandboxed Google Play Services feature), I don't think it's very good form to heavily promote your OS in a discussion about a different OS, especially in such an adversarial way. There's room in the FOSS space for both GrapheneOS and CalyxOS.

> There's room in the FOSS space for both GrapheneOS and CalyxOS.

I doubt strcat disagrees with that. He's responding to specific statements comparing GrapheneOS and CalyxOS. I don't think we would have seen those comments if nobody had mentioned GrapheneOS.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#346

Post by busymom0 »

flir wrote: post #304
NullPrefix wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube app can be replaced with Firefox

Vance gives you an audio-only option, which is nice.

I use Firefox for YouTube with the following add-ons:

1. uBlock Origin 2. Video Background Play Fix add-on

This allows me to use YouTube as a background playback music player.

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#347

Post by danvittegleo »

CalyxOS is an awesome project. I have worked with the lead developer a bit over the past few years and it's been such a pleasure. We share some bits of code between our projects here: https://github.com/AOSPAlliance.

If anyone is interested in building their own custom android OS in the cloud (AWS) with same ability to lock your bootloader like CalyxOS, you can checkout my project I've been maintaining for a few years now called RattlesnakeOS: https://github.com/dan-v/rattlesnakeos-stack.

And if you prefer to not build in the cloud, there is also a really great project called robotnix (https://github.com/danielfullmer/robotnix) which provides a way to build many flavors of OS (AOSP, GrapheneOS, LineageOS, etc).

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#348

Post by NeoLaval »

zozbot234 wrote: post #283
tholdem wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OS in this case has nothing to do with not being able to be ported to other phones. Google is one of the few who will pay extra to Qualcomm for the ability for users to flash their own signing keys. Lineage does not support one of the most important security feature of any modern smartphone, lockable bootloader and verified boot. Lineage might be more privacy respecting than Googles Android, but far behind regard…

If you care about verified boot, you can let your phone boot in fastboot mode and issue a "fastboot boot" command from a trusted device. Combine that with plain FDE, and it's as secure as anything Qualcomm will support out of the box.

!

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#349

Post by busymom0 »

danvittegleo wrote: post #347

CalyxOS is an awesome project. I have worked with the lead developer a bit over the past few years and it's been such a pleasure. We share some bits of code between our projects here: https://github.com/AOSPAlliance . If anyone is interested in building their own custom android OS in the cloud (AWS) with same ability to lock your bootloader like CalyxOS, you can checkout my project I've been maintaining for a few yea…

How expensive is it to build android in the cloud? And how are the build times? Is it possible to do it on a local Mac mini instead or will that take too long to build?

Re: CalyxOS – De-Googled Android Alternative

#350

Post by bigyikes »

danvittegleo wrote: post #347

CalyxOS is an awesome project. I have worked with the lead developer a bit over the past few years and it's been such a pleasure. We share some bits of code between our projects here: https://github.com/AOSPAlliance . If anyone is interested in building their own custom android OS in the cloud (AWS) with same ability to lock your bootloader like CalyxOS, you can checkout my project I've been maintaining for a few yea…

Could you explain why you would build in the cloud? Based on a sibling comment, it sounds like it might be because it’s crazy resource-intensive? I’ve honestly not heard of cloud building before. Is it common for large projects like operating systems?
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