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My partner went back to an pixel 7 so I’m going to take her pixel 8 and see about putting Linux or Graphene on it.
If it works well I’ll put it on my pixel 8 and if her 7 pushes for an update then that will go Linux/Graphene
We all love grapheneOS, but please stop buying Google Pixels to do it. It’s such a contradicting action to first stuff googles pocket with even more money, and then be like “I am privacy conscious.” Please spend your money on alternatives that will put the money to actually developing good alternatives like FairPhone.
Second hand and refurbished is a thing
Just don’t buy them new, and it becomes far more ethical.
(US perspective disclaimer)
It’s unfortunately a lot more involved and a lot less stable/reliable to install graphene on non-pixel phones. Most of the big names are extremely locked down on the hardware end, and for a good few years Google was basically the only big tech hardware manufacturer that still let people root their devices. They were consistently better than Samsung, Motorola, and of course Apple in this one category and so were the go-to despite it giving money directly to Google in the process. I get that giving money to big tech in general was part of the problem but there were legitimately few to no good alternatives until pretty recently.
If you check the officially supported hardware list for GrapheneOS, you will find that it’s exclusively populated by different Pixel models :/
Last I remember (before writing this) FairPhone was an exclusively EU product and wasn’t available in the United States, mostly for environmental reasons surrounding shipping. I just checked and it appears they are now available over here via Murena which is really good to know; if/when the time comes where I need to replace my current phone I’ll be strongly considering them as an option.
There are also the Chinese smartphone brands which are increasingly becoming compelling options. I’ll probably be looking into some of those too but the govt here seems very trigger happy on banning Chinese manufacturers, and I think several of them also don’t allow rooting either.
haven’t rooted an Android phone in quite some time, but looks rooting is back on the menu
Direct Link to Petition mentioned in Post
Remember Change.org is a for profit company, when they ask you to “chip in”, do not do that, if you wish to chip in donate to an advocacy org that fights stuff like this such as the Electronic Frontiers Foundation.
They won’t let me because my email address is for my personal website… How stupid is that‽
Annoying, but not surprising.
Update… Apparently fuckoff@gmail.com is much more valid than admin@mydomain.com
This is the reason I’ve disabled automatic system updates since 2024.
it will not come with system updates, but with updates to the google play services package. you can’t disable that. how else would they lock down most phones if manufacturers only supply updates for such a short time, if any.
Whenever a malicious app breaks or scammers get to you, its always through the google play store. Their shit isnt even safe to make this fucken claim about safety.
Right but its official, so its safe. That’s what matters. Not whether it has malware or not.
But most importantly, some rich asshole will make some money this quarter and that’s all that matters
I hope they push this out and spark the ire of the EU, who tells them to unfuck it or starts funding an alternative like Ubuntu Phones or something. That would be an amazing outcome.
Unfortunately, things have to get worse before they get better. It’s how people learn.
It’ll be like Edge, where you can uninstall it in certain EU countries, but nowhere else. It won’t really change anything on the grand scheme
I hope they push this out and spark the ire of the EU
probably will take a bit longer because it will happen in certain countries like Indonesia and Brazil first (i.e. not EU countries)–basically the countries with rampant
apkscamming, unfortunately. I think this move is also partially forced by the government in those countries, but that’s just my conspiracy hat talking, note that I’m also against this move and much prefer a scam education (I’m in Indonesia).Apk scamming? What’s that? People retinf to get proprietary apps and getting scammed?
Given who is winning european elections I wouldn’t hold my breath.
As I said, gotta get worse before it gets better. It’s unfortunately how people learn.
My brother has ordered the Jolla phone, and I will too if it works out for him and works on American networks
I think they’ll argue they’re better than ios
Everyone happy about motorola and GOS scene, moto has been recently found out for some honey pot scam they were doing in people phone. So the brand we will be paying is not that good and is also just evil like Google
Is this the Honey scandal all over again? Motorola phones caught adding affiliate codes to Amazon orders
I have a motorola, absolutely no clue what anything else you wrote means.
Graphene OS has a partnership with Motorola for some phones that are supposed to be coming out. Apparently Motorola has been up to shenanigans though
But currently graphene only works on pixels iirc?
Well yes at the moment, but if I remember correctly the misunderstanding was regarding Motorola who is supposed to be producing some Graphene OS models in the near future
This is a nice list I’d consider for new phones.
- Murena (France) with /e/OS (France) on:
- Fairphone (Netherlands)
- Hiroh (USA)
- SHIFTphone (Germany)
- Teracube (USA)
- Punkt MC03 (Switzerland)
- Volla (Germany) with Volla OS or Ubuntu Touch (Germany)
- Jolla (Finland) with Sailfish OS (Finland)
- Purism Librem (USA, manufactured in the USA)
Purism is a grift, should be removed.
Many people are still waiting on phones they ordered years ago.
Oh! I’ve never heard of that one.
i got a fairphone from murena with /e/OS preinstalled recently. i love it so far, but theres a weird glitch where it will randomly switch timezones and only goes back when i restart it and some apps are a little broken.
the issues are relatively minor and its nice to have a phone i know i can plan to keep for a really long time. also the camera is so much better than my old phone. some people said its mid compared to other new phones but if i wanted a camera that nice id buy a real camera.
- Murena (France) with /e/OS (France) on:
I’m on GrapheneOS on tablet and phone running mostly/exclusively open source, so not affected.
How does this work, can you install it on any android device or do you have to specifically get a graphene device? Can you run common apps from the play store if you choose?
For time being you’re limited to Pixels. Some Motorola models in a year or two. Installation is a breeze. You can run completely Google-free or install Google Play services in a sandbox, so you could install them in a common shared or separate profile.
ironically, installation is only a breeze over a google chrome based browser. but it’s not harder the other way either, just looks a little more complicated.
GrapheneOS only support Pixel devices.
Can you run common apps from the play store if you choose?
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/10855-google-play-store-install
I think you can install Google Services (including Play Store) if you want, but there are alternative like Aurora Store that lets you download apps from Play Store without Google Services, but obviously you can’t buy apps from it
the main concern is probably banking apps or some apps that require Google Play Services to run
Currently, graphene can only be installed on Pixel phones, but Motorola will be releasing phones that are compatible although I’m not sure when. Graphene runs a “sandboxed” version of the play store. You can get just about any Android app and your apps can’t really talk to one another or to the play store. Occasionally you’ll find an app that doesn’t work. If you want more detail you can join the graphene OS discord. It’s pretty quick & easy to install.
Fucking hell. I’m not joining discord for support.
That’s fair. I’m sure there are other places to get info but there discord is where I’ve seen the most users in one place.
september i get my jolla phone :))
Same here
So, do I finally need to learn about GrapheneOS? What are other people doing?
Graphene is only of help (today) if you buy some shit from Google namely a Pixel. If you have another phone, step numero uno is always to learn what custom ROMs are available for your make and model.
Used Pixels are cheap and the money doesn’t go to Google again.
It supports Google by making their reseller market strong. People will buy pixels knowing they will be of value on the reseller market thus strengthening the primary market.
That’s the problem with buying a used Pixel.
On theory, yeah. I got a 512gb pixel 9 fold with a dead inner screen, the rest works fine, for $200. It’s a good deal.
Probably depends on the market. Here where I live they are like Nintendo games: near-full price even when second-hand.
I bought my Pixel 6 Pro refurbished and carrier unlocked and installed GrapheneOS. Pretty happy so far.
Graphene is by far the best. I highly recommend it.
Right now you need a Pixel to run it but soon you can get a Motorola that works with it.
Soon? Was there an update with a timeline? Last I saw it was only ‘announced’ And there’s no ETA
I thought it was Early 2027 but I may have made that up!
Is this update going to affect older Android versions in phones that stopped receiving OS updates years ago?
And, if so, how do I disable all OS updates entirely?
Depends on your version, search for “update” in the settings area.
And what are we supposed to do about it?
I made a goddamn prediction back in 2012 when Google was introducing the Nexus line of handsets. I FUCKING KNEW this “open platform” bullshit had it’s days numbered.
These companies are fun when they’re young, but they will ALWAYS turn on the consumer.
Adam Smith was right. Without ethics and morals, the system WILL crumble.
Ethics and morals are irrelevant when the entire economic paradigm is designed to reward whatever makes the most profit regardless of ethical considerations.
Buy an unlocked phone and tether a laptop to it, only use the phone for calls and sms.
pissed-tier: take it off on your taxes out of spite
We have extremely moral billionaires preaching their theology in silicon valley, so it should all be fixed pretty soon.
@dudesss@lemmy.ca made a nice list of phones.
Wow, you knew in 2012 that finally in 2026 the days of Android phones are numbered, nice one.
I mean, 14 years isn’t exactly a short time for something to turn shitty.
This is why I’m happy about Motorola next year
With some luck I’ll have time to put together my diy palmtop-esque machine, but we’ll see if that works out.
I really hope the Motorola thing actually pans out. Based on the general state of things I’m done with both Apple and Google.
What about Motorola? 😯
They are going to start loading GrapheneOS on phones from the start
Fantastic! Thanks for explaining 🙏
I got a reply clarifying that theyre partnering with graphene. I figured I’d reply so you didn’t miss it in the thread
Yeah same, I have no idea what’s happening with Motorola…
They are partnering with GrapheneOS
I don’t trust Motorola to make a phone that doesn’t have numerous hardware backdoors. Motorola does a ton of work for both the US and Israel. If it sounds too good to be true than it probably is. I think the US/Israel gave Motorola a bit of cash to make backdoored hardware that’s made specifically for a privacy hardened software.
Same here. And its not like we are overwhelmed with alternatives, too.
Things have taken quite the turn from the nexus era to now, dropping nexus for pixel felt so blatant too.
What is the Motorola thinf being referred to here?
The GrapheneOS folks are working with Motorola to have Graphene pre-installed on one of their phones. It would be the first time it is officially usable on anything but a Pixel. It won’t solve the problem described in the OP though. It’s still Android.
Afaik GrapheneOS won’t be affected, neither will e/OS. The real problem with them still being based as AOSP is, that google might stop the AOSP project. That would mean the forks would need to do that continous based development themselves.
It affects Graphene because people using it still get their apps from Google Play, Aurora Store (also the Play Store), and F-Droid, etc.
I searched for statements from GOS and e/OS and what I found tells a different story
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/26337-android-developer-verification-are-we-screwed-no-doesnt-apply-to-gos/25 https://xcancel.com/GrapheneOS/search?f=tweets&q=certified&since=&until=&near=
https://community.e.foundation/t/e-os-statement-about-google-developer-verification/79892
Do you have different information?
For anyone who hasn’t heard, Motorola is partnering with GrapheneOS to release compatible phones in 2027.
