Other people have already mentioned this, but Google absolutely spies on the whole OS when it makes the OS, either Android or Chrome OS, Google Play Services are spyware and also required for full Android functionality
And Apple aren’t that much better. They make a lot of privacy claims, but are still pushing hard for their online services like iCloud, and their hardware is designed to hide what it’s doing from the user. Apple is still collecting user data. They might be sharing less with third parties, but they are still collecting it.
Should I pull the trigger on the Pixel 8 listing I’ve got up on eBay right now? My level of tech savvy is ‘I installed Bazzite on my gaming laptop and it’s mostly just worked’, I think I should be fine with Graphene but…
(Also, anyone know if Tuta is good? I’m looking for a replacement for Google calendar and Gmail and that seems to fit the bill.)
If you were able to install Bazzite then installing graphene shouldn’t be any harder than that. It has a web-based installer that was pretty easy to use as long as you follow the instructions.
The pixel 8 will be supported through the end of 2030 (graphene support follows the same timeline as Google because of firmware-level updates that are still needed from them) so you could still get a lot of use out of it.
As someone said, they cleanup free accounts without remorse, a don’t move your life into it before moving to a paid account.
Edit: And GrapheneOS is lovely. I frequently forget that is isn’t stock Android, and ask colleagues why they don’t use the obvious quality of life features (that are apparently too privacy friendly for Google to allow into stock Android?)
My credit union app worked fine until I got in the habit of keeping location tracking disabled. Now I use their mobile website, which works fine. I am shopping for a new credit union, but not just over their invasive app.
Tuta sucks, they deleted an acct of mine for inactivity, then when I went to replace it they flagged the new one for manual review and said “this addr cannot send mail until the review clears, please reach out to our support team using the email we just said can’t send email for some reason.” I went with Disroot.
GrapheneOS is super easy to install, they have a walkthrough on their site.
Do banking apps work well? I used to be pretty into custom OSes on my phone (it was the cyanogen mod at the time, I believe?). But banking apps are notoriously bad with anything they deem non-“standard”…
I am considering switching phones (or rather, my phone is considering dying anytime soon and so I want to get ahead of it) and if any custom rom works well with banking apps and whatnot, how easy it would be to flash a new rom would definitely factor into my decision
It can be hit or miss, really depends on the bank. I’m in the US and mine worked fine after I enabled a compatibility setting in the app list, but that’s kind of anecdotal. I think there is a community compatibility list somewhere of banking apps that work/don’t work on GrapheneOS.
I can’t answer the banking app question, but in regards to ease of installation, i’d recommend checking out the web installation guide beforehand so you can estimate how comfortable you’d be following it.
Flashing GrapheneOS is pretty easy. On Linux you may have few complications: you must install Chromium or Chrome in order for the USB flashing to work (feature not available with Firefox). You may have to also manually set some permissions for the device in order for it to be detected in Chromium/Chrome.
Tuta is good, free plan to try, 3 euros a month for the cheapest paid plan, they are supposedly adding a “cloud drive” to store some files
GrapheneOS is amazing, easy to install, you control all the permissions if you want, and it’s the most plain and basic Android out there (they don’t make decisions for you out of the box, it’s the realest Android)
We need to support Ubuntu Touch. It’s such a promising alternative and it would be a dream to have it at same level and app support as current major platforms.
Other people have already mentioned this, but Google absolutely spies on the whole OS when it makes the OS, either Android or Chrome OS, Google Play Services are spyware and also required for full Android functionality
And Apple aren’t that much better. They make a lot of privacy claims, but are still pushing hard for their online services like iCloud, and their hardware is designed to hide what it’s doing from the user. Apple is still collecting user data. They might be sharing less with third parties, but they are still collecting it.
GrapheneOS my beloved
Should I pull the trigger on the Pixel 8 listing I’ve got up on eBay right now? My level of tech savvy is ‘I installed Bazzite on my gaming laptop and it’s mostly just worked’, I think I should be fine with Graphene but…
(Also, anyone know if Tuta is good? I’m looking for a replacement for Google calendar and Gmail and that seems to fit the bill.)
If you were able to install Bazzite then installing graphene shouldn’t be any harder than that. It has a web-based installer that was pretty easy to use as long as you follow the instructions.
The pixel 8 will be supported through the end of 2030 (graphene support follows the same timeline as Google because of firmware-level updates that are still needed from them) so you could still get a lot of use out of it.
Tuta has been fine, for me.
As someone said, they cleanup free accounts without remorse, a don’t move your life into it before moving to a paid account.
Edit: And GrapheneOS is lovely. I frequently forget that is isn’t stock Android, and ask colleagues why they don’t use the obvious quality of life features (that are apparently too privacy friendly for Google to allow into stock Android?)
My credit union app worked fine until I got in the habit of keeping location tracking disabled. Now I use their mobile website, which works fine. I am shopping for a new credit union, but not just over their invasive app.
Tuta sucks, they deleted an acct of mine for inactivity, then when I went to replace it they flagged the new one for manual review and said “this addr cannot send mail until the review clears, please reach out to our support team using the email we just said can’t send email for some reason.” I went with Disroot.
GrapheneOS is super easy to install, they have a walkthrough on their site.
Tuta is good as long as you’re aware that you’re bound to their client and that they treat usable search as a paid feature.
The Pixel 8 is great with GrapheneOS! You don’t need to be very tech savvy to use it.
Just keep in mind that Tuta does not support PGP or S/MIME.
Do banking apps work well? I used to be pretty into custom OSes on my phone (it was the cyanogen mod at the time, I believe?). But banking apps are notoriously bad with anything they deem non-“standard”…
I am considering switching phones (or rather, my phone is considering dying anytime soon and so I want to get ahead of it) and if any custom rom works well with banking apps and whatnot, how easy it would be to flash a new rom would definitely factor into my decision
It can be hit or miss, really depends on the bank. I’m in the US and mine worked fine after I enabled a compatibility setting in the app list, but that’s kind of anecdotal. I think there is a community compatibility list somewhere of banking apps that work/don’t work on GrapheneOS.
I can’t answer the banking app question, but in regards to ease of installation, i’d recommend checking out the web installation guide beforehand so you can estimate how comfortable you’d be following it.
Flashing GrapheneOS is pretty easy. On Linux you may have few complications: you must install Chromium or Chrome in order for the USB flashing to work (feature not available with Firefox). You may have to also manually set some permissions for the device in order for it to be detected in Chromium/Chrome.
Biased answer but:
Your tech level is more than sufficient. Just follow the install instructions on the official site.
Tuta is alright. One of many good alternatives. Just try it out in parallel.
We need to support Ubuntu Touch. It’s such a promising alternative and it would be a dream to have it at same level and app support as current major platforms.