While I admire GrapheneOS and its goals, I feel that until we free the proprietary baseband processors and their RTOS from the grips of Qualcomm and friends it's a pyrrhic victory, at best.
GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
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Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#52Does anyone have a good grasp of the differences between GOS and /e/OS? I'm buying a Fairphone soon and was wondering what both are like
Consider this (by Graphene OS): https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24134-devices-lacking-stand... /e/OS community talking about it: https://community.e.foundation/t/article-from-grapheneos-abo... And then maybe this: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm Hope that helps.
I like GrapheneOS but they fail to understand in this post that the #1 security concern an android user face is the lack of privacy.
Sure they have hardened everything but realistically, that's not the main threat for your average user.
Their top contribution to android is the sandboxed Google Play, by far.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#53Many are complaining about banking app compatability, but I've never felt compelled to use anything other than my browser for banking. What's the big deal with the banking apps? Am missing out on some huge advantage here?
Some banks force you to validate transfers on your phone; unfortunately its not the user who decides
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#54We need Linux OSes and phones to catch up to really break free from this duopoly. Only when there is enough traction, essential infrastructure like banks will start supporting Oses like that. It's a chicken and egg kind of problem.
Android is a Linux OS and is eons ahead anything that would sit on top of "GNU/Linux" userspace.
Why start from scratch?
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#55I've been using GrapheneOS for about 3 years now. For the most part, it works very well. I don't have any issues with banking apps, nor any other closed source apps. I'm using two profiles both with sandboxed Google play installed. I'm logged in into my private Google account on the work profile. However, there was one case that lead me to thinking about ditching grapheneos to this day. I installed Uber on my phone a…
No problem here with Uber on GrapheneOS.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#56While I admire GrapheneOS and its goals, I feel that until we free the proprietary baseband processors and their RTOS from the grips of Qualcomm and friends it's a pyrrhic victory, at best .
When there isn't a perfect solution, the next best thing is... the next best thing :-).
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#57What about device attestation? Will you be able to run banking apps and Netflix et. al.? For me the biggest concern is that while you may be able to use and run your own device, you will be locked out of most propietary services. Much like how more and more websites simply don't work with Firefox anymore.
I only use Firefox. It has been years since I ran into a chrome only website. Though recently I ran into an edge only websit on my corporate network, not even sure how that happens.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#58GrapheneOS' approach is to focus more on security than privacy, because they believe increased security leads to increased privacy. Unfortunately, that means their hardware requirements pretty much limit the hardware that you can run it on (currently only the Pixel phone range). Worse, it also means they stop supporting a device when it reaches End-Of-Life as software security updates stop for it (see How long can GrapheneOS support my device for? - https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime ). Sad though - GrapheneOS on Sony Open Devices ( https://developer.sony.com/open-source/aosp-on-xperia-open-d... ) would have been nice.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#59While I admire GrapheneOS and its goals, I feel that until we free the proprietary baseband processors and their RTOS from the grips of Qualcomm and friends it's a pyrrhic victory, at best .
When there isn't a perfect solution, the next best thing is... the next best thing :-).
[deleted]
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#60Does anyone have a good grasp of the differences between GOS and /e/OS? I'm buying a Fairphone soon and was wondering what both are like
GOS creates a complete bunker of a phone that can provide defense against pretty much all but the most dedicated state level actors. If you're worried that someone would steal your phone specifically to target you, Graphene will protect against that. Securitywise it's hard to argue against them, although GOS tends to sacrifice usability in favor of security, which leads to odd decisions. Their device depreciation timeline is also pretty aggressive and really just matches that of the Pixel. (You're also buying the Google phone... to not want Google in your life; this bizarre paradox will always be strange). It's not exactly a recommendation for long-term support. Worth noting however is that usage of GOS is also seen as a signal in and of itself for the authorities that you may have something unsavory to hide, so using it stands out in that regard; some law enforcement officers (I think it was in Spain?) have said that the OS is popular with organized crime. GOS obviously denies the connection and they're probably honest in that the OS isn't deliberately designed for criminals, but it's worth noting at the very least. (Basically GOS is the paradox where someone trying their hardest to be anonymous ends up standing out way too much from the crowd and drawing attention to themselves.)
/e/OS (and similar "non-LineageOS" ROMs really) instead focus more on de-Googling. They're still generally security focused, but the priority is less "someone's after you" and more "corporate surveillance is kinda scary innit". The aim is less to avoid someone actively trying to drain your phone of data and more to prevent your phone from passively sending everything it can possibly find to the Big G's ad machine (as well as whatever other trackers get snuck into apps.) Because of this, they usually have better depreciation timelines and support a lot more devices compared to GOS who only support the Pixel line (which is an increasingly awful set of phones truth be told); their scope is much smaller.
Finally, it's worth noting that the GOS community is absurdly toxic to anyone doing anything privacy-related that isn't under the banner of GOS. It's extremely maximalist, tends to get very upset at other projects whenever they get attention (see sibling reply to this, where they pretty much melted down because an outlet dared to recommend a Fair phone+/e/OS) and the projects official channels have generally encouraged this sort of behavior. It doesn't really damage the software itself, but it's worth considering.