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gigglybastard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

how is pixel with graphene os ? does it completely remove all google spyware shit? or do they have some sort of hardware backdoor?

the reason I ask is because i have a motorola right now and it pisses me off immensely … there is this notification they keep pushing, “Activate Live Lock screen” which i don’t even know what it is, some background pictures crap. I uninstalled this app, but the notification remains. Like it’s not there always but keeps coming back every few days. this has been going on for months and i got so pissed i decided to contact support and complain there. they said, something along the lines of, we can connect remotely and do it for you. ( like disable, but they can’t disable because i went through every option on the phone, it cannot be disabled, it’s just bloatware) but their “we can do it for you remotely” got me thinking, backdoors, backdoors everywhere.

now i want a new phone lol and one that can support a custom firmware but installing custom firmwares on pretty much all phones is a nightmare.

but i also hate buying anything google, hence my question.

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LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Understand your worries. I can say that GOS is the gold standard of privacy phones , nothing beats it. Calyx comes in 2nd. A new install of graphene has a browser, pdf viewer sms app and that’s about it. Use as you wish , with secured bootloader and zero google stuff. And I think it’s the easiest install of any , anyone can do it.

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- gigglybastard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  thanks, this sounds great. i’ve installed a few custom firmwares but like a decade ago and i wanted to install one on my motorola recently and was just perplexed at the complexity of it all, i might be getting old. i mean i can follow instructions, but just so many things can go wrong, don’t do this, softbrick, don’t do that, hardbrick … honestly, the instructions were well written but unorganized a bit, just put me off.
  
  i think i might like GOS tho, sounds great and 2nd hand pixel 8 or so are cheap enough so i’ll probably give it a go.
  
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  - LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Yea a lot have changed in 10 years in the cat and mouse game. GOS is a completely different thing. Want to unlock or unlock bootloader on a Motorola = 2 pages instructions in different xda threads. On a pixel? fastboot oem unlock done. And that’s just because I’m old school , GOS have a webinstaller were I think you don’t even need to touch the terminal.
    
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sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

how is pixel with graphene os ?

Good?

By default, there’s no Google Play Services or any Google apps whatsoever. What you do have is a handful of utilities and a minimal app store that gives you the option to install Google Play Services and a few other apps. Or you can use the browser (Vanadium, a Chromium fork w/ some security options enabled) to download an alternative app store (F-Droid, Aurora, etc). They recently added Accrescent to the built-in app store as well, and I see 12 apps in that app store. I think by default there are 6 apps installed? (Messaging, PDF Viewer, Vanadium, Info, Auditor, and the App Store). I can’t remember which I had to install manually since I set it up a few months ago.

So yes, I think they thoroughly remove Google’s stuff from the default install.

Most Android apps seem to work (i.e. installed through Aurora), though a few have issues without Google Play Services running or one of the security features. I use a separate profile for the apps I need that don’t work w/o Google Play services, and I switch profiles as needed. That way I don’t have Google Play Services running at all unless I actually need it.

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- gigglybastard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  alright thanks for the extensive answer, this sounds great. i like the two profiles setup. and i didn’t even know about aurora store ( i am out of the loop i know :) ) looks like this could be my next phone, and previous gen looks great enough, i don’t need the latest bells and whistles, pixel 8 would be great.
  
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Cool!
    
    I’m happy to answer any other questions.
    
    BTW, Aurora is just an alternative frontend to the Play Store, it has the same apps, but you can use an anonymous profile instead of logging in with a Google account.
    
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