Hello, I am considering de-googling my mobile experience. It seems like Samsung has bad security on their phones, which is why GrapheneOS is not available on Samsung phones, I guess. Ironically, google pixel phone is supposed to be the best fit for GrapheneOS.
So anyway, should I switch ? Ideally, I want to keep my phone. But my phone is quite old at this point, so I can consider buying a new phone. If I buy one, which one should I get?
Also, I heard call and mobile data does not work well on GrapheneOS and the like. How bad is it?
When it comes to de-Googling, you have many options such as LineageOS, CalyxOS, and a few more custom ROMs. GrapheneOS is good; however, Google Pixel hardware isn’t great. After running GrapheneOS for 2/3 years on Pixel 6 and 8, I ditched the Google Pixel series and got OnePlus 11 with LineageOS.
I was thinking of switching to Graphene but I then read your comment.
Would you be able to honestly tell me why you ditched Graphene?
This is true, but if you’re coming from a Galaxy S8, a Pixel 9 will be a significant upgrade in performance. More comparable to an S21 or S22 as far as cpu performance goes.
People focus way too much on Graphene, Lineage with microG is fine for most people (particularly those who can’t or won’t shell out for a Google flagship model).
As a die hard paranoid security guru, I want to highlight your point here.
I adore GrapheneOS, but Lineage can be a fast and easy switch for a solid 80% or 90% improvement in privacy for most people.
Thanks, I guess I will keep my phone for now. As it is significant risk for me to install different OS, I would resort to using android and just replacing google apps with FOSS apps.
Sad that current infrastructure is soo dependent on the spywares.
I used to be really anxious about it, but after installing GrapheneOS or LineageOS on many devices (I started doing it for friends who asked), they’re all humming along nicely
The way I got comfortable enough to do the first one was upgrading my previous phone right after replacing it. Of course I found that the older phone running free software was more responsive and had better battery life. (Funny how not running crapware helps!)
Experiencing that difference was enough to tempt me to put a cleaner operating system on all my new phones immediately, going forward.
In the meantime, there’s strong evidence that getting rid of random apps substantially improves privacy. May as well go for it.
But, of course, getting rid of Google apps is still the elephant in the privacy nightmare room until it’s done.