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GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

grapheneos.social

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Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#201
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One comment mentioned Jolla. Another currently available option is [FuriLabs]( http://furilabs.com ). It runs atop Hallium/etc but you are effectively still able to daily drive a mobile Linux shell and contribute to the ecosystem if you want to see it grow. Now with that said: so much work has gone in to Android (and by extension, Graphene) to improve on power usage/security/etc that I'm not sure I'd bother to actual…

Furilabs was just in the news here because they discontinued their device models from a few years ago, and released a new device for a big price bump with _significantly worse_ hardware. I know I would love to give them a try, but a 720 screen is an absolute non starter for me. It would be hard for anyone to sell me on just a FullHD (1080) screen in the era of QHD (2K) being industry standard. Additionally, I believe…

Yeah... I don't care.

Small company that deals with what hardware they can get their hands on. They're shipping a device when others are not. It's a pretty straightforward equation right now; people who want to advance the ecosystem should consider it if they want a device they can drive and build for.

Otherwise there's no real reason to not just run Graphene.

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that has the same cause. When you buy a Windows PC, the first thing a lot of tech people will do is format it and put on a clean install of Windows without all of the OEM crapware, or in these days install Linux if grandma is just using email and Facebook anyway. If you try to do that on your Android device, your bank app is broken, most importantly not because of anything the alternate OS is doing wrong , which…

For me the bank app was working, but the electric scooter app didn't and that was it for me :( Damn e-scooters, can't live without them. But I still haven't contacted the support to ask them to verify phones in another way.

Be sure to leave them a one-star review, and maybe name them here so others can do the same.

Anyone who does that sort of crap deserves at least that tiny bit of punishment for it.

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most likely contenders are OnePlus, Motorola, and HMD. > "It is a big enough OEM that there is good chance you may have owned a device from them in the past." I think this takes Nothing out of contention.

What about HTC, LG? Heck, Blackberry rising from the ashes? I'd love for it to be Framework.

BlackBerry has been out of the phone business for years now.

They basically sold the brand to TCL iirc

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#204
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're stateside and want a shipping Linux phone today, [FuriLabs]( http://furilabs.com ) is another option. Graphene is in a class of its own compared to both of these though and there's frankly no reason to bother unless you're trying to improve those ecosystems.

Thanks! I had no idea that this existed. Unfortunately, the specs aren't great, especially when compared to Jolla's offering. Oh well. I'm quite enthusiastic about Graphene's OEM partnership,though.

I share your enthusiasm re: Graphene OEM partnerships. I think it's fantastic what they've managed to pull off so far.

Re: the FuriLabs phone, yeah, it's rough - but it's definitely usable for early adopters who want to contribute and help build.

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can pay app developers to port their apps off of play services, you can pay developers to add support for your attestation keys. microsoft literally tried this back in the day when android/ios was rising against windows mobile... spoiler: it didn't work an additional anecdote from my time then: they came to where i was working at the time and proposed funding a windows mobile version of our app (quite a large s…

I think that is pretty different than what is happening here because: 1. It doesn't require an entirely new app. You can ship the same apk on all platforms. 2. Most apps already don't have a hard dependency on play services.

Amazon and BlackBerry both tried the whole “you can upload your same APK to our AppStore approach”.

And well, when’s the last time you used the Amazon android AppStore?

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not knowledgeable enough -- what would it take to escape the Apple/Google duopoly? I'm imagining a future where you buy a smartphone and when you do the first configuration, it asks you which services provider you want to use. Google and Apple are probably at the top of the list, but at the bottom there is "custom..." where you can specify the IP or host.domain of your own self-hosted setup. Then, when you downlo…

There are some good stuff on the software side that people mention, but a big one is the driver support. We would need device makers to upstream support so there is less worrying about reverse engineering or needing to run modified ROMs based on old builds. Or just publish specs on the hardware that is enough for implementation. Sure, you can buy a specific phone and run a de-googled android or linux, but that only r…

Halium [1] technically handles that right now.

It's not the right solution long term, but you can't expect the entire ecosystem to appear overnight. Using it allows deferring the driver issue a bit while building out the rest of the ecosystem.

[1] https://halium.org

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#207

As a LineageOS user, I'd be interested in the disparity between GrapheneOS and LineageOS.

If you have a Pixel -> Graphene, if not -> Lineage. I personally don't care about "security" all that much, my main reason for using Graphene is freedom to use my hardware in any way I wish. This means unrestricted ability to run any program on the phone from any source. Sideloading restrictions don't apply to Graphene, and it is also impossible for state actors to impose things such as client-side scanning of text m…

That sounds amazing. I aspire to get a setup like yours. I am on a Pixel with the stock OS and I can't stand the way Google is pushing AI into everything on my phone.

I haven't switched it to Graphene OS yet because I read that there are issues with NFC and a few other things. I assume this new phone won't have those problems so I think that will be my catalyst to do a big overhaul.

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#208
I absolutely loved my Moto X with the walnut back. I switched to an iPhone when it stopped getting security patches.

It was built back when Google owned Motorola, before they sold off everything but the patent suite. And was intended to be their flagship phone - which the Pixel later became. Looking at the GrapheneOS FAQ, it doesn't look like I have a prayer of installing it on such an old device as it doesn't have the needed security hardware. Is there a lightweight Android install available?

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#209
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if the big manufacturers would want to depend on a proprietary Google OS. Samsung does make a lot of changes to the OS, for instance.

What's the alternative? I doubt even someone as big as Samsung will be willing or able to develop their own alternative OS (atleast one that can actually grab marketshare enough that critical apps get ported), and I can't imagine them wanting to hitch their wagon to the Linux alternatives.

> I doubt even someone as big as Samsung will be willing or able to develop their own alternative OS

Huawei pulled it out with HarmonyOS (I don't know how good/bad is it, and if it'll have staying power, but other companies are putting in the effort)

PS: btw, Samsung already had its own, non-Android OS with Bada (of course, developing a new OS is only the first step, getting it to be successful wouldn't be easy)

Re: GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

#210
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huawei proved that they can move away from Android... unfortunately they did not go for a hard fork of AOSP but for a proprietary, new OS.

"they can move away from Android" nah, it still android

Since 2024, it isn't

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarmonyOS_NEXT

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