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GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

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Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#61

Post by wisplike »

arein3 wrote: post #40
haunter wrote: post #29

Break 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

[dead]

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#62

Post by gf000 »

onli wrote: post #38
ramon156 wrote: post #18

Does 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

GrapheneOS claims to be a lot more secure, having additional hardening. See https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm - keep in mind that it is not an independent comparison, the Graphene guys directly feed what this table is supposed to say in the issue tracker, https://github.com/eylenburg/eylenburg.github.io/issues/ . But it gives a good representation of the state of the ROMs according to Graphene. In re…

> GrapheneOS claims to be a lot more secure

That's not just a claim, this is an objective fact. GrapheneOS has a excellent track record when it comes to security, they have made several patches that got upstreamed to Android, etc.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#63

Post by palata »

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.

While I respect the Linux on Mobile work, I believe that AOSP is a lot better, with a much better security model.

Remember that GrapheneOS is not Android: it's an AOSP-based OS.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#65

Post by simonh »

franga2000 wrote: post #49
Myzel394 wrote: post #10

I'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…

The key phrase there is "such services". It's not just about one problem once with Uber, it's the risk of problems like this with any service of that kind, or really any service you rely on.

If using GrapheneOS significantly increases the risk a person won't be able to use a service they rely on, that may be unacceptable.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#66

Post by palata »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #32
ordainedclicks wrote: post #3

One of the only big downsides I've noticed with GrapheneOS is that several banking apps don't work with it at all thanks to being tied to Google's verification ecosystem. Luckily I have hardware 2FA keys from my bank so I can authenticate using that. It also slightly decreases the suck-factor from whenever the phone decides to fly off down a drain. This may not be the case for you, so do your research on what you nee…

I contacted my bank, insisting that GrapheneOS is one of the most secure OS on the market and therefore should be supported if they actually care about users' security (it's actually far more secure than all the old, far less secure but Google-approved devices out there). They acknowledged an fixed their app, one of the most popular in France. Still missing Android Pay but that's due to Android Pay being closed. I wi…

> I wish banks would do something and support NFC payment systems that don't require the device to be controlled by Google

There are countries where it's possible to pay everywhere with the banking app scanning a QR code. No need for NFC :-).

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#67

Post by galangalalgol »

gf000 wrote: post #54
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.

Android is a Linux OS and is eons ahead anything that would sit on top of "GNU/Linux" userspace. Why start from scratch?

Yeah, just need to decide where to start the fork. The larger problem is radio firmware. FCC regs were the initial excuse, for wifi and Bluetooth too, but we need to open up the source for all of these and allocate money for enforcement if we are truly worried people are going to start adding wifi channels etc. Open firmware phone radios would let you do things like truly turning off the radio when wifi was present, no gps ping even.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#68

Post by anal_reactor »

franczesko wrote: post #7

Why only pixel phones are supported?

Because phones have device-specific code. Effectively, each single model is running its own fork of Android. Naturally, Google has no incentive to change this - it makes it difficult to update (planned obsolescence) and install other software (like GrapheneOS).

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#69

Post by gf000 »

realusername wrote: post #52
SockThief wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

privacy != security.

And sandboxed Google Play services serve both goals -- it runs the service as a regular android service, not an exceptional one that has a bunch of extra permissions. So you can allow/restrict it as you seem fit, while not "getting behind" on features/apps that mandate it.

Re: GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

#70

Post by gf000 »

absqueued wrote: post #47

How is it a break from google/appple if the only supported devices are Pixels? I can't use my sony or other vendors hardware at all. Are there valid reasons to only support pixels?

They are the only Android phones that have the proper security primitives to build a secure OS on top.
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