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GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

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Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#281

Post by ttkari »

svilen_dobrev wrote: post #227
rubymamis wrote: post #43

We 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.

what happened to Sailfish? the successor of meego et-al It is finnish, anyone knows how are they going? i used that for 2 years, it's linux+kde bottom to top, a terminal + shell is a builtin, though only supporting 5+ years old Sony phones got tiresome. Still.. it seems the only one that's usable enough apart of the duopoly. May have to switch to it again.

There's a new Jolla Phone in pre-marketing phase right now (almost 9000 phones have been pre-ordered so far). First device deliveries are scheduled for this summer and this should easily be the new benchmark for officially supported SailfishOS devices.

The situation with Sony Xperia devices is not great, the best experience is still on the X10III (from 2021 I think) and there are significant issues with the support of 10 IV and V generation devices (a free beta release is available for those as well).

It seems that recently there has been quite a lot of buzz in the Sailfish community compared to the past few years. In the public repos there are some interesting contributions like xdg-shell support for Lipstick, which looks set to enable compiling many previously unavailable Linux apps natively if that will actually be integrated in an upcoming OS version.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#282

Post by neobrain »

p-e-w wrote: post #204
haskman wrote: post #185

And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge ( https://gadgetbridge.org/ ) I run a Thinkpad with NixOS and KDE, a Pixel 9 with GrapheneOS, and an Amazfit watch paired with GadgetBridge on my phone. It's a testament to the hard work of the FOSS maintainers of these projects, and the spirit of open source, that everything works flawlessly together without a…

> And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge Then switch back to Google/Apple after half a year when you discover that you can’t run - your banking app - any government app - the app required to access large sports events - the pandemic tracking app without which you can’t enter an airport - various other random apps because they ALL detect that you’re…

> - the pandemic tracking app without which you can’t enter an airport

Not sure if airports specifically used another mechanism, but the Android contact tracing APIs were actually reimplemented in microG, allowing these apps to work even on custom roms.

Your other examples don't hold universally either (banking apps are compatible with un-rooted custom ROMs more often than not, and not sure how many sports event apps use integrity checks), but your general point stands that it may come with trade-offs.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#283

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F »

haskman wrote: post #185

And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge ( https://gadgetbridge.org/ ) I run a Thinkpad with NixOS and KDE, a Pixel 9 with GrapheneOS, and an Amazfit watch paired with GadgetBridge on my phone. It's a testament to the hard work of the FOSS maintainers of these projects, and the spirit of open source, that everything works flawlessly together without a…

I tried GadgetBridge because it cannot sync the activity files (.fit and/or .gpx) so I still had to plug the watch into a computer to keep the actual data.

So I ended installing ActivityLog2[0] to do something with the files I had to have on desktop and GadgetBridge was of little use because relying on GadgetBridge without actually syncing the files might make me forget about doing the backup to a device I control (GrapheneOS or a computer).

As soon as GadgetBridge support syncing the files from the watch to the app (or any local folder on Android), I'll install it again and stop doing the manual backups over USB. Syncthing will do it automatically.

[0] https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#286

Post by phantom784 »

shevy-java wrote: post #236
fodmap wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's mind boggingly stupid that they lock down apps like this, when you can just open the thing in a website anyway. I can use my bank on some linux distro... Not in Spain. I can access my bank's website but I can't do anything without their bank app. Even sometimes they require to confirm my identity using their app in order to access their website. I have several linux phones but I can only do banking with their…

This should be illegal that the government forces people into apps controlled by private, commercial entities. I call such a government corrupt. Here in central Europe I can still access the bank website fine without smartphone. I need a physical device to yield a TAN though, but I can access and do online transactions fine. So I think something is wrong with the spanish government. People need to protest.

Especially in Europe! They shouldn't be forcing you to run an OS from an American company.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#287

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F »

raincole wrote: post #132
palantird wrote: post #127

> "Perplexity - I switched to Gemini, but I confirm it works" Oh the irony.

Where is it? I had a really hard time finding the irony.

If they switch mostly for privacy reason, then starting using Gemini might be counter productive as Google might learn far more about the end-user than if they just did some basic search on any other Android devices. To enable Gemini, one was to accept some crazy T&C and accept that Google collects an incredible amount of personal data.

I prefer to use intermediaries like Kagi Assistant, thanks to the strict privacy conditions of the API and the mixing of queries from thousands of users.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#289

Post by mft_ »

mvanbaak wrote: post #244
mft_ wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should probably be "break free from Google and Apple"?

how will it help you to break free from apple if it only supports pixel phones?

One reason that people use Apple phones is they are seen as a less privacy-invasive option than Android/Google.

So it would follow that a valid privacy-respecting third option would potentially help Apple customers as well as Google customers.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#290

Post by gf000 »

RRRA wrote: post #262

Until these OS also start putting forward something like WebOS that tried to get phones back to on open web, there is no breaking the binary format and Appstore monopoly. I wish Europe would have forced that 10 years ago since the US is beyond saving.

What binary format?? Go read facebook's "source code", is that any more open than a random apk? If anything, apks decompile quite well.
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