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GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

grapheneos.social

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Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of the exercise is for Google and Apple to maintain control over the ecosystem. RCS is technically superior (protocol, transport, security, all of it) but is captured from the start on the technical level by design by the big players. From the perspective of the vast majority of users who have very limited technical awareness, it was silently slipped in as an upgrade at one point or another. This means that…

Eh, I don’t think you have to include Apple here. If it were up to them, the iPhone would still have zero RCS support right now. The current implementation of RCS, even in iOS 27 beta, is clunky. To me, the only they’re trying to maintain control of is AppleOS-to-AppleOS text communication.

> To me, the only they’re trying to maintain control of is AppleOS-to-AppleOS text communication.

Yes, exactly. Apple and Google are both acting to maintain control and this has resulted in a standard that improves functionality but is effectively poisoned at the technical level. Left to their own devices I'm sure Apple would have preferred to stay with their original solution that is even more closed off.

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#62
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree FUTO is the best right now but it's not open source so they won't.

The source is here: https://gitlab.futo.org/keyboard/latinime Featured prominently in the "Source Code" container on https://keyboard.futo.tech/ AFAIK everything FUTO makes is open source? I haven't seen a counter-example (I have not looked hard though!), and https://futo.tech/about claims the following: > All FUTO-funded projects are expected to be open source or develop a plan to eventually become so. No effort wil…

Right, they are adhering to a definition of open that includes free as in liberty, so licensing matters. What good is it to read the source if I don’t have rights to modify and redistribute?

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the concern? They are working with Motorola as a manufacturer. It'll probably be a hard fork eventually but why not make it work in the meantime.

[flagged]

They basically have opposite goals to Google so I don't imagine there will every be good feelings there. There shouldn't be.

Yes Google wants android to be secure, but the problem is that to be truly secure it should be secure from Google too. And they don't want that. They want it to be their personal datamine and walled garden. Just like Apple with ios.

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#64
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree FUTO is the best right now but it's not open source so they won't.

The source is here: https://gitlab.futo.org/keyboard/latinime Featured prominently in the "Source Code" container on https://keyboard.futo.tech/ AFAIK everything FUTO makes is open source? I haven't seen a counter-example (I have not looked hard though!), and https://futo.tech/about claims the following: > All FUTO-funded projects are expected to be open source or develop a plan to eventually become so. No effort wil…

https://gitlab.futo.org/keyboard/latinime/-/blob/master/LICE...

It is not open source. They use a custom source available license. There's no way any Android distribution would include it. A layman's reading is that FUTO could claim license violation on account of the distribution accepting donations (non-commercial use only) and there's a weird clause about not accusing FUTO of patent infringement.

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#65
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heliboard is good, customizable, and actually open source - GPL3.

I like Heliboard a lot, but its autocorrect gets stuck in the mud all the time. It completely falls apart and starts injecting nonsense phrases made up of nonsense misspelled words moment you miss a space ('v' or 'b') or type a really long word it doesn't know. It also stubbornly incorrects other things like 'a' into "and" if it thinks it knows a phrase fragment. It's always wrong. It just happened to me now twice .…

this was my experience. the autocorrect for heliboard is beyond atrocious and renders the keyboard unusable.

i ended up just using gboard on gos because every other one i tried fell short.

hopefully the stock gos one can be reworked into an actually decent keyboard.

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#66

I hope they replace the AOSP keyboard with FUTO keyboard. I'm mostly fine with the other stock apps, but that keyboard was the one thing I absolutely had to end up replacing due to its jenky behavior.

I use Gboard with the network permission disabled. It works well but I hope they have a better stock keyboard, I haven't found any others that don't annoy me in one way or another.

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#67
post #49

Graphene is clearly bullish on Android, but I have no idea why. The writing is on the wall, Google is slowly asphyxiating AOSP.

Yes RCS is barely a standard worth implementing, let alone the best one. Make SMS/MMS and XMPP work together seamlessly in one app, forget RCS.

Yes RCS is a pig with lipstick. Invented by the carriers to recoup some control over instant messaging, then abandoned and picked up by Google for the same reason. They're the ones that added encryption to it.

It was always meant to be a walled garden. Exactly what an open system shouldn't be.

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#68

Graphene is clearly bullish on Android, but I have no idea why. The writing is on the wall, Google is slowly asphyxiating AOSP.

What's the concern? They are working with Motorola as a manufacturer. It'll probably be a hard fork eventually but why not make it work in the meantime.

If they hard fork, a lot of apps that are generally "necessary for the average person" (e.g. Uber, banking apps, Gmail, Whatsapp/Wechat/Line) might stop working.

Re: GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard

#70

Graphene is clearly bullish on Android, but I have no idea why. The writing is on the wall, Google is slowly asphyxiating AOSP.

What's the concern? They are working with Motorola as a manufacturer. It'll probably be a hard fork eventually but why not make it work in the meantime.

Seriously, I don't see a mediocre android provider like Motorola running and maintaining a hard fork.

Forking is all easy, keeping it up to date year after year as codebases diverge is a whole different story.

I could see Samsung doing it. But they won't, they're too good buddies with Google. But they have the resources. A Motorola no. The grapheneos team won't either, maintaining a disparate fork and introducing new features independently from aosp would just be beyond their scope. You're not just hardening at that point. You're basically doing everything.

Don't forget when Huawei didn't fork. Well they started with that but then replaced every component with their own design. It's easier because if you fork you're still bound by decisions made by the original party. Better to greenfield the whole thing then.

And look at how many people made a soft fork of chrome with some ui changes. There's tons of those. There's no hard fork that no longer follows Google. Even a large company like Microsoft didn't.

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