Why YSK GrapheneOS is a step above the rest. I understand it’s ironic de-google phone/tablet with google hardware, but it just works better then anything else. Permission toggles, pin scrambling, auto-reboot, scopes, MAC randomization, isolated user profiles, longer passwords, sandboxed apps, open source firmware, no bloat & the battery life is incredible now.
I hope people understand how easy it is to move to Linux & GrapheneOS full time & remove Apple, Google, Microsoft etc. It exceeded expectations so much so that I want to share it with other people. I cannot recommend this enough to improve your life. #FOSS
Can you add “Why YSK” to the start of your text body? This is for readability purposes as stated in Rule 2.
Agreed with many others here. GrapheneOS it’s fantastic.
A few points that haven’t been highlighted:
- The GrapheneOS camera is fast and responsive. I haven’t had a responsive camera in several generations of Android until I installed GrapheneOS.
- Everything is faster and more responsive on GrapheneOS. A $300.00 phone from last year running GrapheneOS responds to input like a $1000.00 phone, while keeping the longer battery life of a $300.00 phone.
- Defense-in-depth privacy and security controls. A lot of good privacy and security defaults add up to a lot more peace of mind. Thiis phone feels like my property, not just a portal to deliver ads and collect data about me.
Too bad it’s only on available on the Pixel. My pixel 6 had a terrible fingerprint scanner… And when I upgraded to the 7, it was even worse (didn’t work in the dark).
So for now afwall+ on my rooted Moto Edge 2022 Plus gets the job done with blocking Google (and other invasive) apps.
I have a Pixel 7 that runs GrapheneOS and don’t have any of the fingerprint scanner issues you described. I don’t even understand how using it in the dark could make a difference since a circular portion of the screen under your finger lights up at maximum brightness when it is scanning your fingerprint. The only issue that I have is that sometimes a piece of dead skin peels off of my thumb or I wore a glove in the heat making my skin a little pruney which makes the scanner unable to read my fingerprint right. But that was a problem with my old Moto phone as well.
Edit: After making some research it appears that Google fixed the fingerprint scanner issue with a software update.
Not to mention Pixel phones aren’t available at all in several countries, don’t think I’ve ever seen one myself
On my 7a, I found that making sure your thumb is clean and then pressing kinda firmly does the trick. I still prefer the back fingerprint sensor from my previous phone, a Pixel 2, as that was fast, locatable, and could be used to bring down the notifications, but honestly the success rate now is about equal
I’m sitting on a Chinese phone hoping the pixel 8 switches to a unltrasonic sensor. It’s really too bad my work doesn’t let me use custom ROMs. Makes me want to get a work phone
If the pixel 8 switches to ultrasonic instead of optical, then I’m all over it. The pixel fold has it built into the power button… The phone I’m using does the same and it has a 10/10 success rate. So I’m hoping they to with that.
Why do you let them take over your device like that?
Because I get a lot of flexibility from being able to take meetings from my phone. I can go for a walk during a meeting for example
Fair enough. I thought you meant they forced you into it lol.
Oh lol nope, that would be pretty crazy
On my pixel 6 you just have to wipe clean the scanner area first or press hard with your finger.
I have the pixel 6 now and the fingerprint scanner sucks. I thought about getting a pixel 7 because I assumed it would be better, thanks for the warning. Also, how did you manage to get a custom ROM for the Moto Edge 2022? I was looking for custom ROMs and found nothing. I read that nobody really has that phone so the support is lacking.
Don’t hold back from getting a good deal on the Pixel 7 because of the fingerprint scanner issue. It has been resolved with a software update since then. I have a Pixel 7 and the fingerprint scanner works just fine regardless of lighting conditions.
You didn’t mention which devices this is compatible with, which even on the Android side is very limited, unfortunately.
It’s a neat idea, I’m glad it exists, but I can’t be sure it has full support the way stock Android does, and it’s not necessarily compatible with my Android phone anyway, and I’d have to root my phone and void the warranty, so I think I’ll give it a miss for now.
Maybe in a few years I’ll try it on an old phone that I don’t mind killing if something goes wrong, just in case! :-D
GrapheneOS only has support for OEM unlocked Google Pixel phones, and it runs pretty much perfectly on every device it supports. It is extremely easy to install, no rooting required. You just click buttons in a web browser while your phone is plugged in and there’s pretty much 0% chance of breaking anything.
https://grapheneos.org/install/
You’re supposed to buy a phone specifically to run GrapheneOS. This isn’t a ROM that you can swap onto any device, it’s native to a specific platform. Also, using GrapheneOS does NOT void the warranty, you can always switch back to stock Android with Google’s web installer.
Isn’t this for Pixel only devices? Or does this work on non-pixels too?
Pixel only I believe
Pixel only for now, yeah.
Here’s the list of officially supported pixels: https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices
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The main reason I keep a “real” smartphone around is for banking app, that requires Google Play Protect (or whatever it is called, the thing that supposedly check around if you’re on a rooted phone). Support for this doesn’t seem there yet, which defeat the purpose.
banking should not be done on a phone
Why not?
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Shhhhhhh…the banks might hear us!
very insecure. especially if your 2fa method is on your phone as well (unfortunately many banks enforce this)
Sounds like scare mongering.
Why would that be any different than a PC with the 2FA app on the PC?
Banking on suitably patched and secured phone is NOT an inherently risky activity.
banks have old ahh security. not many support proper 2fa. but if u log in on your phone, and u do have your phone as the 2fa method, it makes no difference having 2fa. if someone gets your phone they get your banking log in and your 2fa method. its like putting totp 2fa on a computer to sign into something on the same computer. different devices for different purposes. remeber banking apps are always proprietry, so any zero day could be active right now, and we would not be the wiser. i suppose banking on a webpage on your phone is better, if you delete the cookie after.
If your phone is secure with screenlock, kept up to date and uses grapheneos than your banking should be safe. Using grapheneOS auto reboot feature would prevent anybody accessing private data stored in RAM , as it’s all at rest after reboot
i still dont trust it. theres no real reason to use it on phone. just becoming more dependant
I’d bet that a GrapheneOS phone is more secure than your average PC.
That is correct they are
not if u have linux and a hardened browser
And how many people have Linux with a hardened browser? More importantly, how easy is that to set up compared to setting up GOS (I promise GOS is much, much easier to set up and use).
But if we’re going with extremes like this: no one should use banks on Linux with hardened browsers. Just go in person.
installing a just-works distro (say linux mint) is just/almost as easy as grapheneos. assuming not doing dual booting (the phone is dual booting is it).
librewolf (hardened fork of firefox) is like 2 commands on linux, or an installer wizard on windows.
unironically the last statement is based. less technology is always more secure. we managed without it back in the day didnt we.
im not going to say privacy and digital security is easy or one-size-fits-all or anything, we each have to make comprimises on convenience.
It’s harder for the average person. You have to know how to change device boot order in BIOS/UEFI, average person barely knows what an operating system is, let alone how to find their PC UEFI/BIOS setting menu to configure boot order. Grapheneos explains it clearly, how to install. You simply tap a few buttons on the browser and on the phone, when prompted.
its like 10 key presses total. there are many tutorials (although none as good and official as grapheneos i assume). people can learn things, and digital literacy is very important
Linux is the least secure desktop os 😂
what r u smoking ? linux is the only widely used open source desktop operating system. it has heaps less viruses made for it. its unix-like permission system (like mac) is always better than uac of windows. you can say a lot of bad things about linux, sure, but security is most certainly not one of them. unless you compare it to a locked-down os like android, it is the most secure.
source model is not indicative of security. besides that, though, Linux is much easier to gain privilege escalation and perform a data exfiltration.
in order of least to most secure is; ChromeOS, MacOS, Windows, Linux. (BSD derivatives arguably below Linux but that is a more complicated topic that I’m not educated enough on).
do you have a source for this claim by any chance ? windows is main target for viruses
can confirm! grapheneos is very easy to install. love it, the only problem is the limited hardware support, but that is the fault of manufacturers not the os
Agreed. I have actually spent a lot of time reading through their code and I find what they do amazing. It’s a solid OS and is actually secure where the phone owner actually has control over their own phone.
You are such a nerd…
… and so wonderful! Thanks for looking over source code so busy folk like me don’t have to! :)
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Who said anything about less important?
We’re all busy, and we use our time how we choose. They choose to use it in this way and I thanked them. Maybe consider how you spend your time. Arguing on the internet gives you very little.
Mobile phones are the part of my life that I’m so unlucky with, and just can’t get right as far as privacy is concerned.
I don’t like phones, or spending money on phones, so I always went with random cheap phone I found that lasted me for years. But every time I got a phone, I’ve always chosen one that can’t be flashed easily… Fort it was Zenphone, then Redmi, and now I’ve gotten a company issued Galaxy XCover.
I would love to switch to Lineage or something similar, and get rid of that Google and Samsung bullshit, but last time I checked, the device has a locked bootloader or something…
I’ve also just got PinePhone as my second phone, mostly out off curiosity, and it’s not really working as much as I’ve hoped, mostly due to battery life and the fact that my bank is dumb and haven’t yet discovered that physical MFA keys exists, and requires a bloated mobile app… But the PinePhone is fun, I can boot Kali Nethunter whenever, and if we are going to a internal pebtest engagement I can start while waiting in a lobby :D
but last time I checked, the device has a locked bootloader or something…
That’s why I love Pixel phones. I’ve tried Xiaomi, LG, Sony, Samsung, but Google’s phones are much easier to use and offer more options. Plus, when it comes to longevity, a Pixel can last the longest
I just recently got myself a Sony Xperia and while I haven’t delved into fully working on the privacy of it, Sony seems mostly hardware focused, so they just run vanilla Android on them, which I like. Degoogling has been super easy so far, though I havent switched out location services yet.
They are definitely a pretty penny though. I was lucky and got mine open box for half price, and even that could have gotten me 2 pine phones.
ETA: Unlocking the bootloader isn’t available on the US editions, apparently
I can’t recommend this enough. Been using GrapheneOS for the past 3 years and been happy with it ever since. No issues whatsoever and works just as well as the stock OS. Granted, it has less features but I like the minimalist approach.
I don’t understand most of those terms, but uh, sounds good?
Permission toggles that mean something, battery life and no bloat ware sound great to me.
GrapheneOS, Signal (or, I suppose, Telegram, just something E2E encrypted) and a raspberry pi running PiHole are 3 of the best investments I ever made in my day to day experience.
Telegram is NOT e2e encrypted by default. Even Signal has issues due to its insistence on not federating with other servers and being the sole CA in the system.
Not had issues with Signal, but yeah, wouldn’t touch Telegram with a barge pole. Probably a CIA honeypot.
I could never get my pihole to remain stable over long periods of time. Multiple reinstalls, two different pis, always issues with the network dropping or requiring both the pi and connected devices to be rebooted. A pain in the neck for a reason I’m not immediately able to figure out.
I wonder if it’s an SD card failure.
Mine was up for 200 days or so, basically untouched, before I upgraded the hardware.
Interesting, I basically set it and forget it and the only time I’ve ever had to interact with it again was to tweak the blacklist to block something new or allow something through
It might be an issue with your particular cocktail of router/modem/isp/what have you - which is way harder to diagnose
I’m a long time Android user but have rarely gone further than changing the launcher regarding costumization. Can anyone ELI5 the benefits I would have, as a regular consumer who uses his phone to just text and browse lemmy and the internet from time to time, and is just starting to learn about FOSS?
Not like I would be able to install this, I think. I’m on a Redmi 10 atm. I just want to learn.
it’s like the Linux distros. Depending on the Custom ROM/OS you choose they offer many things. As for grapheneOS it doesn’t have anything related to the Google apps and services that run in the background so there is no google listening or spying on your stuff. Redmi 10 can install it iirc. There is a good community on xda-developers.com. You can start there with the subforum for your phone. They will have a lot of guides and different Custom ROM/OS options you can choose from.
Here is the subforum for your phone. https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/redmi-note-10.12197/
Is it at all feasible to install on an iPhone 13? If it matters the most techy thing about me is that I have a Plex server that my fiancée built for us.
iPhone iOS and Android doesn’t mix. This is for Android based phones. I don’t think Apple will let people have that freedom ever with their phones and with their proprietary hardware and software it’s impossible.
I just knew that you could swap OS on Mac to have a Windows system, wasn’t sure if it worked the same for the iOS.
No, as it has very limited hardware support, mostly the google pixel line due to the pixels having unlockable bootloaders. The best you can do with an iPhone is jailbreak it.
Thanks for the links!
You’re welcome.
Woah, way more info than I thought I would get. Thanks! I’ll look into it.
You’re welcome. Enjoy.
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Atm, Niagara. Like it much better than the default one.
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That’s a single person on a project with multiple contributors. He’s also since stepped down. You’re acting like he’s the sole guy.
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/5235-stepping-down-as-project-leader-of-grapheneos
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Yeah doesn’t he have some kinda meltdown? Seems like a control freak.
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That’s a link to Louis’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4To-F6W1NT0
Sad really as I also like the idea behind it. I’ve been running Cyanogenmod on 2 old phones in the past and just installed LineageOS on an old Tab S2 to breathe some new life into that old but still good tablet.
I wonder if it is somewhat related to that?
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/5235-stepping-down-as-project-leader-of-grapheneos
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=4To-F6W1NT0
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I have already saw the video about Louis and I’m totally with him totally, the only threat I just saw in that chat was threating banning Louis because he commented on a video of a youtuber with a community that swatted him and always go against him.
Yes, not the best way to get someone do what you want to do, but not as worse as leaking a private chat with someone without the other part agreement, and falsely accusing someone of possibly injecting malware inside a project only to go against you.
this is informative, and unfortunate
Great operating system, run by a narcissistic child.
That’s a single person on a project with multiple contributors. He’s also since stepped down. You’re acting like he’s the sole guy.
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/5235-stepping-down-as-project-leader-of-grapheneos
Ohhhhh, didn’t know that. I guess it’s time to try this OS again. 👌
That’s a pretty harsh thing to say about one of the most talented and dedicated open source devs around. It’s also no longer true, he stepped down from his post in the GrapheneOS team a few months ago.
What did the team feel about him?
This is informative, and unfortunate.
It is truly unfortunate (and informative), the situation with Daniel. But they have stepped down from the project, so safe to say this won’t be an issue.
Good thing open source projects are… open and worked on by a bunch of people.
Not a helpful comment.
Here’s the original Techlore video Rossmann is referring to: https://neat.tube/w/gctuauB8TRVxCWjwdGWr8d
It’s been two years, so I’m not 100% sure, but I recall it being very detailed and convincing. Techlore’s main argument against using GrapheneOS is that “Leadership reflects the project.” Since the person in question stepped down, the project should be fine, now, even if that holds true. (Personally, I installed GrapheneOS despite that video.)
To get out of my bubble, I’ve also searched for a meta-video about the Techlore/GrapheneOS dev drama. I came to this frankly ridiculous video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjCM8srhTW4
I’m 7 minutes in, and having not seen Tom Sparks before, he pretty much ruined his reputation with me already. He tries find evidence of Techlore being toxic by searching for his own name. His “evidence” of toxicity is literally people saying that Tom Sparks has a bad reputation and that specific videos or recommendations by him are bad. Literal case of “all criticism is toxic”.
Later, I paused when he scrolled through the dozens of mentions he brings as “evidence”, and nearly everything is either neutral. Even the negative posts seem to be more about how is takes on various topics are, apparently, bad enough to become a bit of a meme.
Even his interpretations of what he quotes directly from Techlore are stretchy at times.
The fact that this is the supportive evidence of Techlore being toxic, my faith in Techlore being a good creator is fortified.
They have trouble interacting with people. Although I got frustrated with their behavior from time to time, nor do I in anyway endorse their behavior; I do not believe they are acting out of ill intent.
I do believe they need to get some help though. I personally go to therapist sometimes; I think they would benefit from the same help that we have access to.
Unfortunate and informative. Time to look into CalyxOS.
Does anyone else find it strange that three separate replies to this post use the words “unfortunate and informative?” Same guy with sock accts, bots, or just “unfortunate and informative” has been added to the lexicon today in the fashion of “cap” or “bet?”
Either way I guess it’s unfortunate and informative.
I can’t tell if you are asking in jest or seriously, but if you really are wanting to know, the phrase comes from Louis Rossman’s video about his encounter with the creator/previous lead dev on GrapheneOS. The dev was flipping out at Rossman and threatening him despite his product being advertised for free. So Rossman publicized the conversation and called the whole interaction “unfortunate and informative.” It’s become a bit of a meme phrase for the people who watch him and within his ongoing videos.
No thanks for clueing me in, I was aware of the situation but nkt the meme phrase, felt real creepy to see in the wild for the uninitiated lol.
