As noted by the news release from CalyxOS and Mastodon thread from GrapheneOS, Google did not release the Pixel device-specific source code alongside their Android 16 AOSP release like they usually do. I think many of us, including myself, are hoping this will be published in the near future, but considering they moved AOSP development behind closed doors earlier this year, it’s more likely Google has stopped publishing this section or their code altogether, making development of custom ROMs for Pixel devices significantly more difficult. Sad news for the Android ecosystem, and for open source in general.
Google is slowly closing access to everything. It’s a boiled frog situation. All the red flags are there. We’re fucked.
keep the faith - we are not fucked, we just need to move to different systems entirely.
Less reason to buy a Pixel, then.
Uhg then what? Samsung’s got too much of their own shit data harvesting crap on top of the Google stuff. All other phones basically have shit cameras. Time to go to iPhone? Seems they’re all the same at this point 😜
If you’re in Europe, Fairphone is an option. I’m pretty happy with mine.
Graphene is centered around security. I’ve heard bad things about Fairphone in that regard - the Graphene team even talks about them in the replies on that thread.
Respectfully to the Graphene team, they say that about literally every other OS.
Read their comment and I’m left scratching my head. Their role in security with the straight android phone (not the /e/OS version) is simply pushing security patches as/when they get them from the Android team, as they’re using straight Android. Security is handled by Google for Android, not them. When it comes to /e/OS, no idea how good/bad it is, but apparently Graphene has some beef with Murena (the people who make it), at least according to their comment.
Not at all knowledgable about mobile kernels and drivers to comment on the rest of it. I do know Fairphone 5 uses an unusual CPU normally used for SoC as that was the only CPU that was both good enough to run Android reasonably while simultaneously providing very long-term driver updates (they’re aiming for a minimum of 8 years of updates).
You heard stuff? What stuff specifically? Care to elaborate and provide sources?
The FairPhone is expensive and I’m not sure it can run Android Auto properly. If I can’t run my own OS anymore, Android will be an ugly alternative to the iPhone and I’d have to go back to iOS, it’s absolutely stupid from Google to do this.
Fairphone is not expensive. All the other phone are too cheap due to slave like labor both in the raw materials and production of the phones. Fairphone pays every one along the production chain fairly.
Why can’t you run your own OS anymore? You don’t have to buy a Pixel. This news is about Pixel phones, one of the many many many Android phones…
