Been using GOS since roughly 2020. I refuse to use a Phone without GOS on it. It's been amazing.
I am really hoping that other phone manufacturers will eventually realise that and start making phones that can be supported by GOS.
GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
111–120 of 967 posts
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#112Break free from Android... by installing Android? I'm not sure it's really breaking free when the first task to do is intall Google Play Services so your banking app works. Sounds like we can't actually breaking free from Android and iOS. Maybe with Linux like the Fedora Atomic for mobile devices? https://github.com/pocketblue/pocketblue Or PostmarketOS? https://postmarketos.org/ Even then banking would probably only…
You're confused. GrapheneOS is not Android, it's an AOSP-based OS.
> I'm not sure it's really breaking free when the first task to do is intall Google Play Services so your banking app works.
sandboxed Google Play Services. It's an important difference.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Other way around, actually. It's possible to make concessions to privacy, like providing crash reports, or running applications in sandboxes which limits what they can harvest, while keeping the platform secure. Any privacy you have on a system is reliant on no one tampering with that system and on software behaving itself. Without security, you can't trust the system to implement any privacy.
I also disagree with that, I trust my Linux distribution to behave well much more than I trust any Android platform and it doesn't even have much app sandboxing at all. You can't fix a lack of trust like you have in Android with technical solutions. The flaw in Android is fundamentally a social problem.
That reads more as sports team flag wavey thoughts and feelings trust than anything actually backed by objective data.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#114Break free from Android... by installing Android? I'm not sure it's really breaking free when the first task to do is intall Google Play Services so your banking app works. Sounds like we can't actually breaking free from Android and iOS. Maybe with Linux like the Fedora Atomic for mobile devices? https://github.com/pocketblue/pocketblue Or PostmarketOS? https://postmarketos.org/ Even then banking would probably only…
And the 50% of banking apps still wont work because it wants an android signed by google. And no tap to pay. Hopefully the new EU banking system will work on Graphene and Ill switch back
> And the 50% of banking apps still wont work because it wants an android signed by google.
Where do you get that number from? All the banking apps I've tried work on GrapheneOS.
> And no tap to pay.
There are countries where the payment terminals show QR codes, and banking apps work by scanning it. No need for NFC :-).
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#115I personally tend to own two Phones. One all-day carry GrapheneOS device (Pixel 8) and an older WiFi and at home only iPhone for all payment and ensurance stuff.
This is inconvenient in some ways, but at least it is sort of privacy as good as it gets while still being able to run official apps when I need them at home.
To de-google the phone, I use F-Droid as primary App store, Aurora as fallback for non-f-droid Apps and as a last resort Obtainium to install Apps that are not in these stores.
The only google App I really "need" (kind of) is the Camera App, which is sandboxed via GrapheneOS Storage Spaces and without Network permission (why would a camera need internet?).
To backup my phone, I use the integrated GrapheneOS Solution (seedvault!?) for storage and apps, immich for Photos and MyPhoneExplorer for Contacts.
Sometimes it is a bit hard to find good apps for specific purposes, so for everyone interested, here is a list of Apps that I personally use or have used.
Newpipe - Youtube Client
Audiobookshelf - Audiobooks
Voice (PaulWoitaschek) - Local Audiobook Player
Substreamer - Music
DSub - Music (alternative)
VLC - Video-Player
Organic Maps - Google Maps alternative (not as good)
PDF Doc Scanner - Open Source Document Scanner
Wireguard - VPN
Immich - Photo Backup / Viewer
LocalSend - File Transfer
K9 Mail / FairMail - Email Client
KOReader - Ebooks
Binary Eye - QRCodes and Barcodes
Pure Todo - Self hosted PWA PHP Todo List
Signal - Messenger
Open Camera - Open Source Camera AppRe: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#116This is especially interesting in regard to the recent HN dicussion on spyware by for-profit intel firms having access to Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, etc. ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47033976 ) through OS-level no-click hijacks. I wonder how secure GrapheneOS is in that regard, and what the other contenders are?
GrapheneOS themselves dont pretend that their secure from that level of attack, but its about evaluating your own threat level. State sponsered actors aren't burning zero days on the vast majority of people, and you only need to look at how badly several european governments want to ban graphene and similar to see that such exploits aren't even being burned on organised crime. Realistically unless you're a journalist or considered a political target you're gonna be fine with graphene.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the 50% of banking apps still wont work because it wants an android signed by google. And no tap to pay. Hopefully the new EU banking system will work on Graphene and Ill switch back
I would put the focus on having capable web-banking. I never install the banking app on my phone. I must also be getting old, because I don't get the big fuss about NFC payments. Firstly, I'd never use them if they go through Google/Apple. But even when/if they don't, it's not a big deal to use a card, isn't it (if you hate cash)?
Agreed about NFC, I'm happy to scan a QR code.
> But even when/if they don't, it's not a big deal to use a card, isn't it (if you hate cash)?
Card is usually linked to the US. Some people would like to not depend on that. But the rational solution IMO is for the banking system to use QR codes instead of NFC. Some countries do that and it just works.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#118I'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…
What exactly is the risk of getting temporarily banned on Uber? You have to use a different taxi app ? As if such a thing even exists?!? Unacceptable!! Every app on my phone has at least one other app, usually already installed, that can replace it. This wasn't intentional, it just happened naturally. Unless all two or three apps in a category get blocked for me at the same time, this already unlikely situation is ba…
If the same thing happens with the Lyft app, you may be stuck at your current location indefinitely, especially in less populated areas/late hours.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#119Been using this for about a year on a p9 pro. It works very well. I hear the google tap to pay does not work, but I've never tried it. However Vipps with their tap to pay works fine. BankID works but not with biometric login, which some things require IIRC. And for some reason DnB private works fine, but you are not allowed in on the corp app. It's mind boggingly stupid that they lock down apps like this, when you ca…
Thanks for the Norwegian perspective.
I agree that the locking down is truly stupid. For what it’s worth, the reasoning for locking down mobile apps is allegedly that mobile users are a less technologically competent demographic than desktop users. I do not think so myself, given the difficulty in trying Graphene vs. Desktop Linux.
Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple
#120GrapheneOS is Android isn't it? Same binary blob issues and such? Or is that not an issue on Pixel devices?
It is not. GrapheneOS is AOSP-based.
But yeah, same binary blob issues for firmwares, but Linux on Mobile has the same issues.