It’s an option I’ll seriously consider when it’s time to change my device, but I’d also prefer a device where I don’t have to manually change the operating system. I’m neither that much of an expert nor do I have time to spare.
It is honestly pretty painless - unlock boot loader, attach device, give appropriate petmission on phone, run install from browser, verify install, lock boot loader.
That said, a dedicated Grapheme device is so exciting. I am not going to spend ~2k on it tho
This is accurate. I’ve been flashing phones with custom ROMs for years now, and doing it through the browser makes it both dead easy and pretty safe. You no longer need to be a tech shaman to do it. Just follow the instructions and you’re good.
Also, if you don’t like it, you can always go back to stock Android (i.e. what was installed before you started tinkering). It’s pretty painless. So roll up your sleeves and explore!
Graphene turned it into a process where you plug your phone in, and just press the buttons on their website in order. Much better experience than when I tried to fiddle with LineageOS
There is also an offline flasher? Like if you complain that it is too complex, get chromium, flash it with 3 buttons, remove chromium and be happy. If you are deep enough into everything, that you don’t want to install chromium to flash your device, use the offline installer.
How many Chromium users does GOS have? I don’t know, but their default browser is Vanadium, which is a chromium browser…
I don’t mean this in an insulting way. If following the instructions to install GrapheneOS is too hard or time consuming for someone, there is not much a GrapheneOS phone can do for that person. The biggest liability to security and privacy will be the user, not the phone.
I would say that if installing GOS is too complicated for you, you don’t really need it. De-googling, privacy and security take more effort than just owning a phone with some specific OS. Simply having GOS on your phone is meaningless if you don’t know how to use it properly.
Simply having GOS on your phone is meaningless if you don’t know how to use it properly.
Removing spyware from the phone of a complete non-techie means that non-technie has a spyware-free phone.
Sure, it won’t solve every privacy or security concern, but it outright solves a fuck-ton of privacy and security concerns, regardless of how technical the user is.
I’ve been handing GrapheneOS phones to young or elderly people in my life for several years, with very good results, compared to leaving them on iOS or stock malwared Android.
Yeah the graphene team has done an amazing job of making a privacy/security hardened phone that a regular user would really have to go out of their way to break the security.
Typical user will still install WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail and Facebook, give them all the permissions and willingly input all their data into them. I really don’t see what the benefit of GOS is here. Setting up alternatives for all those apps is more complicated than installing GOS.
Yeah until those are no longer supported and these expensive ass Motorolas are the only option BC Google is locking down newer models that won’t be able to have GOS installed eventually.
Yes, I said they’re slowly locking down the newer models. And yeah, older pixels still have some time. But is this crisis we are in gonna end by the time those pixels lose support or are these Motorolas going to be our only option. That’s all I’m pointing out. Yeah, still a little early to panic but if how things have been lately, I think this is looking to be bad for the average person who doesn’t have a lot of money. Over $2,000 USD is absolutely insane.
Get a used pixel 9a for 1/7 the cost, or a new pixel 10a for around 1/4 of the cost
It’s an option I’ll seriously consider when it’s time to change my device, but I’d also prefer a device where I don’t have to manually change the operating system. I’m neither that much of an expert nor do I have time to spare.
It is honestly pretty painless - unlock boot loader, attach device, give appropriate petmission on phone, run install from browser, verify install, lock boot loader.
That said, a dedicated Grapheme device is so exciting. I am not going to spend ~2k on it tho
This is accurate. I’ve been flashing phones with custom ROMs for years now, and doing it through the browser makes it both dead easy and pretty safe. You no longer need to be a tech shaman to do it. Just follow the instructions and you’re good.
Also, if you don’t like it, you can always go back to stock Android (i.e. what was installed before you started tinkering). It’s pretty painless. So roll up your sleeves and explore!
Graphene turned it into a process where you plug your phone in, and just press the buttons on their website in order. Much better experience than when I tried to fiddle with LineageOS
lineage also recently added something similar actually.
You have to press 3 buttons on their website …
Which only works if you use chrome. What is the overlap between gOS users and chrome users?
There is also an offline flasher? Like if you complain that it is too complex, get chromium, flash it with 3 buttons, remove chromium and be happy. If you are deep enough into everything, that you don’t want to install chromium to flash your device, use the offline installer.
How many Chromium users does GOS have? I don’t know, but their default browser is Vanadium, which is a chromium browser…
Chromium works.
This Motorola comes with regular android so you’d have to manually change this as well
I don’t mean this in an insulting way. If following the instructions to install GrapheneOS is too hard or time consuming for someone, there is not much a GrapheneOS phone can do for that person. The biggest liability to security and privacy will be the user, not the phone.
I would say that if installing GOS is too complicated for you, you don’t really need it. De-googling, privacy and security take more effort than just owning a phone with some specific OS. Simply having GOS on your phone is meaningless if you don’t know how to use it properly.
Removing spyware from the phone of a complete non-techie means that non-technie has a spyware-free phone.
Sure, it won’t solve every privacy or security concern, but it outright solves a fuck-ton of privacy and security concerns, regardless of how technical the user is.
I’ve been handing GrapheneOS phones to young or elderly people in my life for several years, with very good results, compared to leaving them on iOS or stock malwared Android.
Yeah the graphene team has done an amazing job of making a privacy/security hardened phone that a regular user would really have to go out of their way to break the security.
Typical user will still install WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail and Facebook, give them all the permissions and willingly input all their data into them. I really don’t see what the benefit of GOS is here. Setting up alternatives for all those apps is more complicated than installing GOS.
Yeah until those are no longer supported and these expensive ass Motorolas are the only option BC Google is locking down newer models that won’t be able to have GOS installed eventually.
Well if there at one point is no reasonably priced smartphone for graphene I’ll either go lineage or dumb phone.
It’s locking down newer models. Some models still have 6 years of updates ahead of them. It’s a bit too early to start panicking about it.
Yes, I said they’re slowly locking down the newer models. And yeah, older pixels still have some time. But is this crisis we are in gonna end by the time those pixels lose support or are these Motorolas going to be our only option. That’s all I’m pointing out. Yeah, still a little early to panic but if how things have been lately, I think this is looking to be bad for the average person who doesn’t have a lot of money. Over $2,000 USD is absolutely insane.
You got a source for this?