Calyx. It just works. I’ve honestly just used it like stock Android, using as many private apps as possible. It’s so fun seeing all the cool little projects not on iOS! I just recently discovered Petals, which helps with measuring THC intake.
By what standards? Micay adding features risking lives of privacy users, like shutter sounds? Or the countless times he has lied about people and events? Or the dogmatic nonsense he and his community spreads in privacy community everyday? Or the crybullying and witch hunting he and his mods/members do? Or the outright bans delivered upon the slightest criticism or questions?
GrapheneOS is the worst thing a phone privacy user can use, outside of iOS.
I also use calyx but I’ll agree that graphene is technologically superior of the two. I’m more comfortable with the idea of using MicroG as opposed to sandboxes google play but that’s not to slant the implementation in any way.
I appreciate the info. For my own learning, could you provide a link to some context around the types of official binaries leveraged by microG? The only firm info I have of its behaviour is that it will pseudonomise as much user information as possible.
I’m familiar with sandboxed google play on grapheneOS and have used it in the past.
I appreciate that you’re trying to inform me but if you make such a claim, you should be able to prove it.
A friend was able to provide some context, regardless:
The one binary I’m aware of microG downloading (assuming it still does) is the SafetyNet “DroidGuard” thing, which it only does if you explicitly enable SafetyNet, which is not on by default. There is no other way to provide it.
microG only has privileged access if you install it as a privileged app, which is up to you / your distribution, as microG works fine as a user app (provided signature spoofing is available to it). Also, being privileged itself really doesn’t mean giving privileges to “Google”.
Apps needing Google services may indeed contain all sorts of binaries, generally including Google ones, which doesn’t mean they contain Google services themselves. Anyway, they are proprietary apps and as such will certainly contain proprietary things, and it’s all to you to install them or not. It’s not like microG includes them.
Its also just a reimplementation of a small handful of useful Google services, such as push notifications, or the maps (not the spyware stuff like advertising) and each can be toggled on/off.
Also, SafetyNet is deprecated, and Google has said that app developers shouldn’t use it for a long time before that, so I’ve never had to use it. My experience of a blob-free microG has been really good, and I trust FOSS code a hell of a lot more than sandboxed proprietary code, because I can’t be sure what it does with the data I inevitably do provide it.
MicroG has also been very clear IMO about SafetyNet not being a reimplementation, but rather a sandbox when it was relevant.
Re-implementation means reverse-engineering and building new binaries. What’s the point of MicroG if it is just downloading google binaries? An app with privileged access is different than a remote access trojan. The whole point of a sandbox is not to have the same access as the original app.
I couldnt find what is the correct definition of “reimplementation” but we can assume it either means “taking the binaries and bundling them in a different bundle” or “writing different code to do the same thing”.
The whole point of a sandbox
What sandbox? Not the Android app sandbox, as microG (when I used it) needed to be installed as system app i.e. flashed to the system partition.
microG may isolate the binaries or whatever code it runs in some way, but not via the Android App sandbox.
Now GrapheneOS uses a privileged app that channels the calls of the unprivileged to the OS. This is also possible for microG, so it can run unprivileged too. DivestOS does that.
The concept of signature spoofing and more is poorly pretty flawed.
I would really like if a fully open source rewrite of the core services could just work, but these apps are written for Google, contain the official proprietary code anyways, and signature spoofing only works if you dont use many hardware security features.
GrapheneOS can be extremely secure when degoogled, but it cannot securely fake to be a Google Android. And neither can microG Android.
I run LineageOS for microG, on LOS for more than 5 years now. I am not willing to pay for Pixel phones, even the used devices are to expensive for me. I do not really care about an unlocked bootloader, so that’s alright.
As of the latest release (21), you can simply install microG on regular LOS and no longer need to install LineageOS for microG since it now includes the necessary signature spoofing support.
Shorty after release it still had no support for UnifiedNLP, which I rely on for a decent location. That’s basically the only reason I use LineageOS for microG, as I am kind of an OpenStreetMap power user.
I’ve just been logging in upside down for a couple years. My monitor’s vesa Mount is like 3 inches from the top for some reason so having it upside down is the only way I can get a reasonable ergonomic height
Changes to your display configuration made in a Plasma Wayland session (e.g. monitor layout, resolution, etc) will not persist to SDDM. To make them persist open Plasma’s System Settings and navigate to Startup and Shutdown> Login Screen (SDDM) and click “Apply Plasma Settings…”. You will need to have permission to perform this action.
Sorry, but how are a lot of the questions relevant for this community?
Especially concerning the (family) income, age, being neurodivergent etc. These are sensitive information and seem more fitting for a market survey/selling ads.
What is your goal with the answers? What are your research questions? How will the answers help this community?
I use CRDroid /CRAndroid, because it was the only de-Googled ROM for my specific model of phone (S20 FE Exynos), also (I think) it’s a fork of LineageOS.
I’ve used LineageOS in the past, and have nothing to complain about it, but realistically I only root and change the OS of my phones after warranty is over and I could potentially lose it without being a problem.
GrapheneOS is nearly the worst custom ROM you could use to achieve privacy, and Google Pixels the worst phones you could use to get away from Google.
GrapheneOS officially supports and encourages the use of Google Play Services and a Google account for “security” purposes. Their “unofficial” members also spread propaganda advocating for the same.
They are also an embargo partner with Google for security patches, and add features that may threaten the lives of privacy users, or end up in jail or death in certain circumstances.
Trusting unstable people and projects like GrapheneOS is a massive risk. Micay has lied more times than anyone in the history of privacy community, as far as “prominent” people go.
As someone whose employer is strongly pushing them to use AI assistants in coding: no. At best, it’s like being tied to a shitty intern that copies code off stack overflow and then blows me up on slack when it magically doesn’t work. I still don’t understand why everyone is so excited about them. The only tasks they can handle competently are tasks I can easily do on my own (and with a lot less re-typing.)
Sure, they’ll grow over the years, but Altman et al are complaining that they’re running out of training data. And even with an unlimited body of training data for future models, we’ll still end up with something about as intelligent as a kid that’s been locked in a windowless room with books their whole life and can either parrot opinions they’ve read or make shit up and hope you believe it. I’ll think we’ll get a series of incompetent products with increasing ability to make wrong shit up on the fly until C-suite moves on to the next shiny bullshit.
That’s not to say we’re not capable of creating a generally-intelligent system on par with or exceeding human intelligence, but I really don’t think LLMs will allow for that.
tl;dr: a lot of woo in the tech community that the linux community isn’t as on board with
As for google devices - yes, there’s irony in the notion that the most de-googleable phones are theirs, sure. They’re often sold at a loss around the holiday season, though.
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