- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
- privacy@lemmy.ml
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
- privacy@lemmy.ml
- technology@lemmy.world
And it still doesn’t support anything that isn’t a Pixel phone.
I respect GrapheneOS very much. But the fact that you need a Google phone to install a deGoogled Android ROM is one contradiction I just can’t get past. I hate Google and I’m never going to buy their hardware and give them money for the privilege of escaping the Google corporate surveillance.
I’m aware of the technical reason why GrapheneOS only supports Pixel phones, but that irony is just too rich for me. So I use CalyxOS on a very much non-Google FairPhone4, and while it’s formally slightly less secure than GrapheneOS, at least Google got none of my money and that’s a lot more important than security to me.
Their hardware requirements are pretty clear. Samsung is the only one with comparably secure devices, but they use nonstandard tools like Odin and lock down many security features to the stock OS only.
Other companies are supposedly not making anything as secure.
https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
Also, only Google can really ship updates that quickly and fully, as Android is literally their OS. They are also a huge company, so yeah they have way more resources than a random other company you might prefer.
Example Fairphone, which has horrible update schedules
I am aware of the shortcomings of my choice.
But my priority is to not give a cent to Google: what am I supposed to do then?
I argue that GrapheneOS gives Pixel phones more value, thereby supporting Google. That is not great.
If your priority is to not give a cent to Google then don’t use GrapheneOS. There are other degoogled OSes for people whose priority is that. If your priority is security then you’d be willing to sacrifice on avoiding anything Google by getting GrapheneOS.
In any case, technically if you wanted to avoid anything primarily made by Google you’d have a Linux phone. The degoogled Android OSes are still based on Google’s open-source code.