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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

#241
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the batteries are not interchangeable on phones. You'd think all phones should have the same exact battery, that this kind of standardization is beneficial for phone manufacturers as it helps them bargain with their parts suppliers but no for whatever reason we can't have that. Edit: I am not saying just user replaceable. I mean standardized so the same cells in a 2024 phone also works on 2025...

Why, of all parts on a phone, would you expect the battery to be the one that's already good enough that it should never need to be upgraded? "Battery capacity" is like the one thing phone manufacturers still try to improve.

The interfaces and the external dimensions can remain the same even as the internals change though, right? And you can have more or fewer cells. The cells don't have to be cylinders, either. They can be flat.

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

#242
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're getting a lot of indirect responses. If you've ever tried to mod your android phone the answer is simple. Its google play services and hardware attestation for things like banking websites. Its really easy to make a custom rom but hard to do serious "real life" stuff; companies don't want to make it easy. To most regular users, if they cant download apps from the google play store, and they can't use venmo\cas…

Yeah but lots of phones you can't get ROMs for from a reputable source, and I sure as heck don't have the know how or time to build one, even if possible, which a lot of times is not due to locking down bootloaders, drivers, etc.

Years ago I used to love playing around with roms on my phone on XDA and it worked OK. I don't know what folks use these days. But as recently as a few years ago I merely rooted my phone and I couldn't use a lot of apps, not just banking, but even some games.

It's crazy how locked down the ecosystem is.

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

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

[flagged]

I think they're agreeing with you

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

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So why would a company, in this new environment, invest resources in making their hardware compatible with competing software environments? Because that's what customers want to buy. People are paying premium iPhone prices for hardware with mediocre specs and then the hardware sells out when someone like Purism or Fairphone actually makes an open one. How many sales would you get if you did the same thing on a phon…

Some of the funnest work, if you could get it, was swapping ssds out of laptops coming through customs for high value targets.

Can you expand a bit? They didn’t notice the ssd swapped? Which country? Customs as in sending deliveries or passing a border with a laptop?

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

#246

... maybe, but it also drops support pretty fast, and not supported on most phones :-(

Pixel's design makes a good candidate for GrapheneOS or a secure OS in general.

The baseband hardware is not integrated the same way like other phones are.

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

#247

https://tbot.substack.com/p/grapheneos-new-oem-partnership > GrapheneOS has officially confirmed a major new hardware partnership—one that marks the end of its long-standing Pixel exclusivity. According to the team, work with a major Android OEM began in June and is now moving toward the development of a next-generation smartphone built to meet GrapheneOS’ strict privacy and security standards.

Has the OEM in question been revealed yet? Likely not one of the major OEMs because they all lock their bootloaders. I'm crossing my fingers it's Fairphone but that's because I love my FP5. The GrapheneOS devs have been pretty harsh towards Fairphone because of their slow updates.

If you've run a open source project almost of any size, it's quite a task having to support it on various devices scenarios.

The GrapheneOS devs are doing the right thing for the longevity of the project. Focus on a small number of phones/hardware. It guarantees its long term success.

Excellent work I think, also the Pixel hardware design offers slightly better security with the baseband.

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

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not knowledgeable enough -- what would it take to escape the Apple/Google duopoly? At this point? Reliable emulation that can run 99% of Android apps, to provide a bridge until the platform is interesting enough for people to develop for it "natively". I think the easiest way to do that would be to run Android in a VM.

Has no one mentioned not using a smartphone as an option?

It's not really an option. Beside various communication tools, many many banks require you to have a smartphone as their 2FA option.

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

#250
post #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 t…

I've rooted and installed a few custom ROM's on phones back on the day, nothing recent though.

Here is a good place to get started with your Moto X. https://xdaforums.com/c/moto-x.2449/

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