TLDR: i complain about samsung’s flagship and newer android.
I use samsung flagship phone and it’s crazy, how unable I am to use full potential of my phone, just because I don’t want to log in to google neither to samsung. I try to use F-droid and Aurora Store whenever possible, but its so bad experience…for maps I use Organic Maps, but google forces it to be installed specifically from Google Play Store to work with Android Auto, so I have to log in every time there is an update. Most of games won’t work, because they require being signed-in to google, and thats actually kinda weird…before my phone now I had an old Galaxy S5 Android 6.0 and games there didn’t complain that much as here on Android 14 (so the newer android the less privacy you get, while them all companies “focus on privacy”, bullshit liars), samsung requires signing-in to usd like 1/10 of the flagship features…It’s so sad, as I love samsung’s quality, phone is really outstanding, overall all samsung products are very good quality, but pushing these fucking accounts is convincing me not to buy samsung’s flagship anymore. We need to finally unite and make some alternative to those close-sourced bloatware, as phone industry is nowhere near to being as free as desktop industry. I feel more free using Windoze than those fucking " smart"phones. Really if you have to buy new smartphone and are into privacy, think twice before you buy samsung…phone itself is great, but software side is a nightmare.
GrapheneOS on modern Pixels, DivestOS on older or other brands.
I bought a phone for something like $20 which is very simple. It has no vibration. It has 65 KB of onboard storage. And it is not a smartphone. I don’t even take it with me most of the time, because I know that nobody will call me anyway, so why bother. I use it very rarely. The most usage I have from it is calling, flashlight and maybe as a clock once every so often, since I have many actual clocks.
On the computer I use GNU / Linux. And I have no complaints.
So I don’t understand why even bother with a smartphone in the first place?
PS: I would love to try Pinephone or Librem5 though.
As someone who’s used android literally since the first android phone was released, it’s a massive disappointment how locked down and enshittified it’s become.
the google corporate overlords are just straight up evil
We can all blame Google for that.
I am surprised it took you this long.
The next step in this evolutionary thinking is simple. Buying hardware specs is a fool’s folly. I don’t compare hardware. Ads and marketing are totally nonsense and not worth even a slight glance. The ONLY thing that matters is what open source projects exist and what hardware do they support well. This is how I shop. Open Source or F.O.
New motto: open source, open purse
Pay to play? Finance to FOSS.
If it ain’t free, it ain’t for me (if it ain’t libre, no way)
Lineage and a fork, DivestOS are very close to Graphene, and run on far more devices.
The search for perfection is the enemy of good.
I’ve run Lineage for years on some spare devices. Battery life is so much better without Google Services.
My most recent device (Pixel 5 with DivestOS) is averaging 1.1% battery consumption per hour over the last day. That included an hour of navigation, using Google maps with microG services.
One old device runs longer with DivestOS than it ever did with stock, and the battery has lost 40% capacity. That’s how bad Google Services eat battery.
Plus Lineage permits you to use a number of old devices, unlike Graphene. It’s good, it gives you far more control than Google.
My final thought on Graphene - it needs to be taken over and lead by some professionals. Those folks act like stereotypical geeks of 30 years ago, arrogant, condescending (I worked with their type 30 years ago, and was a little like them then). They also denigrate anything less than what they deem “perfect”. The very definition of hubris.
Their attitude is “if you have a problem you must’ve done something wrong, why did you do something wrong”. Having that experience with them has put me off Graphene permanently.
Edit: I can re-lock the bootloader with Divest, so the condescending Graphene folks are just plain wrong about being the only OS that can do this. I don’t lock it, because my threat model doesn’t require it. The odds of my phone being grabbed by someone with state-actor-level skills being after me is non-existent, and there are easier ways to get the same data from me.
Yup, divestOS allows for booloader lock though unfortunately they don’t support microG. I hope they somehow help upstream their relock solution to LOS. I use LOS for microG instead, since I need stupid bank apps and also for the office some stupid proprietary multi factor authentication apps… If only LOS for microG could lock the bootloader at will (it needs to be unlocked for major upgrades, like on regular LOS), that’d be great.
There’s as well CalyxOS, which uses microG and also locks the bootloader, however I do prefer LOS since the strategy from CalyxOS and GrapheneOS trying to deGoogle pure Android in my mind sound like having some limitations, as opposed to LOS approach to be based on AOSP instead. Though that’s just in my mind, I’m sure those guys in Calyx and Graphene are the best at security and privacy.
All in all my conclusion after experiencing the same: Samsung wants to replicate the same level of surveilance Google has. So with a Samsung phone I need to degoogle AND to desamsung …
They are all buying and selling that information to each other, any door you leave open will be used by all of the major datamininers of the western world due to their many agreements.
it spreads anti-libre software
That’s only as long as you have money for a Pixel (and most people don’t).
The a series is pretty good bang for your buck, if you can’t afford that and neither used ones, then maybe you could settle for one of the cheaper Asian ones supported by Divest OS
Exactly - I’m still very happy with my 4a. A used 5, 6 or 7a would be very cheap and very usable.
I’ve bought used phones since 2013. The most I’ve ever paid is $150, and that was recently for a Pixel.
You can pickup a Pixel 4 for about $100.
Surely “most people” are paying far more for their phones.
Old second hand Pixels are pretty cheap but they don’t receive Graphene updates for very long.
Pixel 4 is past EOL with Graphene (and google)
Genuine question because I’ve been out of the loop on this. I had a Galaxy S5 that only got one major upgrade from Samsung (4.4 to 5.x I believe) but CyanogenMod and later LineageOS took that thing right up to Android 11.
Why can’t the same be done with modern phones today? What changed between that old S5 and the Pixel 4a I ultimately sold for going EOL on GrapheneOS?
Edit: apparently I shouldn’t compare apples to oranges without so much as quickly checking support for the Pixel 4a…
The kernel started moving faster, but also the kernel for these devices are orphans. They can never be updated properly because the source code for the kernel modules is not available. The way the phones get updated in ROMs is by back porting changes from the present back to the old orphan. It requires someone super familiar with both kernels to do so. Eventually it becomes untenable. The whole scheme of Android is centered around this source code/orphan kernel scheme. Everything is setup so that hardware manufacturers never have to add their source to the mainline kernel meaning you can never own the device. There is not a single phone or mobile device that you can completely own and running on mainline with available source code. The pixel is all about the TPM chip.
I got a refurbished Pixel 7A for $220 just to mess around with GrapheneOS. It’s a very affordable phone.
335 eur new on Amazon.
The biggest problem is the scarce availability outside the US.
Or should I say, that the biggest problem is software (OS) compatibility with other devices than the Pixel?
My money is on the latter.
Most people have no problem paying more for an iPhone.
most rich people*
Rich?
So only the half of the US that buys iPhone’s is rich?
Or is it they don’t know what they’re paying because it’s part of the monthly bill?
Most of the iPhone users I know are in their 20’s and make less than half of what I do… And I’m far from rich.
So only the half of the US that buys iPhone’s is rich?
Yes. A lot of people worldwide are much less rich than that.
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or want a pixel, or want to buy a new phone. the insistence on pixel support only is frustrating.
Graphene doesn’t have an advantage over other options if it doesn’t get newest security patches so support is mandatory.
to respond to the title, I’m not sure about that. your problems are with the samsung system, not with all the custom roms. I think it’s not only graphene that’s the solution. It’s even only available for a little subset of the phones.
This is why I specifically pick phones that have custom ROM support. Then I don’t need to install gapps and I just use fdroid
I used to use Lineage OS before without gapps and it worked flawlessly although it was few years ago. Give it a try.
If you liked LineageOS without gapps, than I highly recommend DivestOS. It is a soft-fork of LineageOS with significant security hardening and removal of proprietary binary blobs.
Ive been meaning to flash this onto my fairphone but the websites instructions are a bit confusing (I’ve installed calyx, eos and graphene on other phones)
I would avoid /e/os (and iode) because they are frequently behind on Android security patches. More information here: https://divestos.org/pages/patch_history
That’s great if not having to use any proprietary apps depending on google services, including push notifications, since part of divestos unsupported stuff includes:
Google Apps or microG or Sandboxed Play Services are NOT supported.
Which is fine, if you don’t need to use such apps. An alternative to /e/os, which now a days is actually murenaOS, is lineageOS for micro G, which does sort of monthly releases based on whatever is available as nightly releases on lineageOS. It does provide you with microG and also with F-Droid with privileged extensions installed and already set for you. This might be more suitable than divestos if in need for some such apps.
MicroG actually works on DivestOS. It is “unsupported”, as-in the Dev doesnt want to put any significant time into development for Gapps support.
True, but not entirely, signature spoofing needs OS support, and LOS and divestOS don’t, whereas murenaOS (/e/OS) and lineageOS for microG do. Other than that microG’s own f-droid repo makes it easy to keep microG’s component up to date.
That’s why I mentioned it would be nice to upstream divestOS bootloader lock/unlock at will solution, so that not just LOS, but derivative ROMs can inherit that solution. As some people don’t like the tight integration from murena (/e/) with all of its rebranding, LOS for microG is a very appealing option, if wanting full microG’s support. Actually LOS for microG was there quite before /e/ was created.
As I said, DivestOS supports microg. It signature spoofs the latest microg release, enabled with a toggle in the settings.
lets start the divestos wave, its somehow rarely heard of but has the support of lineageos with the hardening of (almost) grapheneos, and the principles of GNU.
It also has bootloader locking for some devices, which is a plus.
/e/os?
I really like /e/os and have been running them for almost 2 years now. But recently they are having infrastructure issues and I may be moving on from the project. Sucks since i am a paying customer (online ecosystem) of them
One of the worst names ever. Maybe also one of the worst launchers. Otherwise I really like it.
I personally use GraphineOS on my phone and Alpine on my laptop
How did you install it on a Samsung device?
Samy usually requires Odin3 to flash ROMs – which requires a m$ 4 pane trash shoot OS. I haven’t used m$ since the Samy S3 Galaxy era, so things may have changed but I doubt it.
I used that a long time ago to flash Lineage OS on this here Samsung tablet. Still works fine.
Check Heimdall instead.
I think I did at one point but it did not work for me. That was a long time ago though.
Android Auto has a setting toggle to turn it on. “Unknown” apps or some bullshit.
I’ve always used Samsung phones but I’m not buying anymore.
