geteilt von: https://lemmy.ml/post/38682476
(translated) Everyone has a phone. Whether it’s an iPhone, where you can’t install a better YouTube Music client without ads, or an Android, where you have pre-installed apps from three different manufacturers plus ads for new phones popping up as notifications. Anyone who reads my articles regularly knows what I’m talking about. Today, after a very long time, we’re going to review a phone from Google, on which I installed GrapheneOS.
Use the translator in the sidebar to translate the page.
I appreciate and applaud your are trying to get away from Big Tech, but… GrapheneOS isn’t really deGoogled—honestly, this post fits better in a privacy or security sub, not the deGoogle one, if you ask me. Most apps on Android today need at least something from Play Services to work. Yeah, GrapheneOS doesn’t come with Play Services pre-installed, but they make it super easy to add, and most importantly: they don’t even support microG, which is the great open-source, deGoogled alternative for Play Services. Oh, and then there is the fact you can literallt only run GrapheneOS on Google Pixels right now… If you’re serious about ditching Google, CalyxOS, /e/OS, or LineageOS are way better options imo
Lmao it’s you again, I could immediately tell. So now I see you’re just a hypocrite GOS anti, because shilling for microG but then saying GOS isn’t “truly deGoogled” in the same post is crazy lol.
Play services and store are optional and if installed are treated the same as any other app in the system.
just spreading misinformation. Dont make such a comment if you know nothing.
This thread explains why microG is not used and why with microG the properteary google libraries are still used https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/10793-clarification-about-microg-what-is-it-is-it-insecure/24
e/os lags behind security and privacy patches, more info in this thread https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24134-devices-lacking-standard-privacysecurity-patches-and-protections-arent-private
CalyxOs currently does not even get updates at all https://calyxos.org/news/2025/08/01/a-letter-to-our-community/ https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24791-departure-of-calyx-calyxos-leadership-and-discontinuation-of-calyxos-updates
And LineageOS is just not secure aswell, but i dont know much about this one besides that 🤷
Most of this is false and/outdated information. CalyxOS indeed is temporarily suspended, but all of these OS that you mention and microG deserve praise for everything they do to help people be more private, deGoogle and use open source software imo
oh what exactly is false about microG? be specific. and add a source.
i wont even ask about e/os it is well know that they are behind on updates.
edit: and the other OSs dont really matter tho. I just added this to highlight how you blindly ignore glaring issued in other ones, because of some misinformed understanding of MicroG. and as a warning to others to not get them, if they have the oppertunity to get graphene.
What a weak line of argumentation. Hopes and dreams don’t matter on the face of reality.
There is a reason why Journalists, activists and whistleblowers use GrapheneOS, and it is the only OS that is recommended for such use cases. It’s the only OS that has the receipts to prove their are resistant to remote penetration breaches lfrom the likes os Pegasus and common evil maidens like Celebrite.
There are no high-risk personas using microG OSes. The ones who did are now dead.
Yes and this is indeed the target population of GrapheneOS, people with extremely high security needs. And that’s great. But my point is that such efforts come with compromises and in the case of GrapheneOS it has led to a reduced level of user friendliness for regular normal users. Which is fine, it’s all just choices. Because of those choices, GrapheneOS is not the best option in terms of deGoogling, others are better. Again this ok, you can never do everything at the same time
What compromise are you doing with GrapheneOS+Google services that you aren’t making with microG? In my experience the sandboxed version of Play Services works much better than MicroG, with the added security of using an android native service developed by Google themselves.
You can argue “MicroG isn’t Google” but it actually is since it’s just a bunch of Google libraries with some FOSS costing on top. And again, you’re more likely to get your phone remotely hacked by a silly exploit that was patched months ago but still got you because instead of GrapheneOS you decided to use some other security-void like Calyx, LineageOS or /e/OS.
Have you ever tried running Android apps on Graphene? Most run just fine without Play Services, many even have smaller degoogled versions. Some Play-only apps may have an error dialog here or there, but very few just flat don’t work at all. Graphene + Obtainium config to pull apps in from various sources and manage updating them. Maybe a few sideloads. About as zero Google as one can get on a modern smartphone.
Do you even hear yourself?
“GrapheneOS isn’t really degoogled”
“GrapheneOS doesn’t come with Play Services pre-installed, but they make it super easy to add”
So in your estimation it would be only degoogled if they made it difficult to add instead of super easy? What are you even talking about dude?
Also, you don’t have to buy the pixel from Google. You can get one refurbished or used.
What I mean is quite clearly explained in my post above… GrapheneOS only offers Play Store integration, not microG, while microG is a great Google alternative for Play Services. So basically, with GrapheneOS you’re not only tied to a Google device, but also to Google Play Services, all 30 or something of them. How is that being deGoogled? As I said, for deGoogling there are better options: those that don’t use Google Play Services but microG (most other custom Roms) and those that support other devices than Google Pixels
MicroG is insecure software and there isn’t a single ROM that uses it that passes even basic security checks. Low tier Chinese hardware is more secure than the best ROM using microG, including /e/OS.
You are NOT tied to Google play services on gOS. An OPTIONAL sandboxed version of play services, without the system level privileges, is offered.
Also, consider the reasons for degoogling. For many, it is privacy. GrapheneOS is currently the only player on the field with any serious level of security.
Well you are tied to Play Services if you want to run most apps, which all require Play Services to some degree. I’m not saying you can’t use GrapheneOS without Play Services, of course you can, just like AOSP, your phone just won’t run most apps (well). My points remains: GrapheneOS only supports Google Play Services while there is a great non-Google alternative available + they only support Google devices when there is a whole marketplace full of other devices. In the area of deGoogling they do poorly
This is important because microG contains all sorts of cool stuff that will help break Google’s monopoly over the Android ecosystem at some point, like UnifiedPush, an alternative to Google’s push notification system. That’s why they are better. By offering support for Google Play Services but not microG, the monopoly of Google and the continued use of Play Services is supported, which imo it should not be