I know the generall guidance for private phones was Pixel with graphene OS. I was financially planing on buying a 10th gen pixel when they come out later this year to only put gos on it. However with the recent news, I am wondering if this is still the recommended best practice from this community.
I am worried that if the gos team needs to spend tonnes of ressources on maintaining basic drivers and stuff then they won’t have any time to work on the privacy and security features they are best known for.
What is your oppinion?
Also does anyone have a way to dpam feedback to google? I couldn’t finf a generall feedback form, but if they know that people aren’t buying their hardware because of this decision, they might back down. (I really fell in love with gos researching it lately so I would hate to have to switch to something like /e/ os or calyx or something)
Only time will tell. But you may get better info from their own forum: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/23080-aosp-and-pixel-device-support
Just bought a 9 for Graphene. Up and running - works like a charm. Devs are not announcing end of the line for Graphene development- they are making daily updates on their way to bringing out Android 16. At this point I’d grab a 9 rather than wait for the 10. Get yourself up and running before Google tries to lock us out of more apps - right now everything I need runs fine without any play services whatsoever. The OS is solid, Vanadium is really good - I could go on and on. If you are onboard and interested in the project its 100% worth it from where I sit.
Nothing is ever perfectly future proof
I’m using 7 pro right now and there is absolutely nothing making me think about upgrading. So I support the idea that you’re fine with a 9.
OK First thing GOS team is currently assuming that Pixel 10+ won’t meet their requirements. But for older Pixels it’s tough. Google just stopped sharing vendor blob, device tree, and instead of openly developing AOSP now it is fully behind close doors only releasing source later with full update. But I have hope. I’ve been daily driving custom ROMs for 10+ years and before I could afford Pixel I had cheap phones which also didn’t share any of these things but custom ROMs were very much thriving and they will always. Yes there may be a little more delay for new devices. All the new features may take longer but GOS already has a lot of security and privacy stuff figured out.
I think we should all support however we can to not just GOS but also other Custom ROMs. Because there will always be those who’ll stop society from progressing and all we can do is fight back with donations, our time, and resources.
In the GrapheneOS development room there’s a lot of talk about finding an OEM to get security partner status from and/or to design a grapheneos specific device. I saw they were tentatively chatting to the CEO of Mecha (currently crowdfunding for a Linux handheld called the comet) as well as another anonymous Android OEM lead. So I’d say be patient, wait and see. I’m confident the project will continue, hopefully with full support for pixels via a partnership but potentially on their own hardware.
I’ve decided not to invest in any more Pixels, personally. Even if they reverse the decision this time, it just means it will happen later, so then future versions of the OS will be out of reach or at least not as good as they could have been. I probably will keep my Pixel 7 Pro with Graphene until the battery is too bad for daily use.
Wondering the same. I’ve been hoping to hold off on a new Pixel until the new EU battery laws take effect (also, where the hell is concept art for a new generation of user-serviceable batteries?).
You know those factories that pump out iPhone clones? Honestly, I’d love to get whoever runs one of those hooked on GrapheneOS. It’s damn impressive how they can set up the tooling, clone the iOS UI, and sell it all for cheap within a couple of months. And without the kickback Google gives for pre-installing Google Play or whatever. Imagine that effort being put towards a phone just for GrapheneOS.
Admittedly, someone who makes iPhone clones is probably not someone who thinks about security much, but my point is, I really wish someone stepped up to produce phones with first-class support for GrapheneOS.
More realistically, I’m banking on the passion of the folks at GrapheneOS. Should Google pull the plug one day, I’m hopeful the GOS team can recommend a plan of action until a more GOS-friendly device shows up. Worst case scenario, I’ll keep my Pixel with GOS kicking around and have a separate device with regular Android. It’ll be just for the apps that demand spying, shut off at night, and I’ll minimize travelling with it.
Bought /e/OS running CMF https://murena.com/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-cmf-phone-1/ few months ago, no frill, no tinkering, just works. Daily driver since I received it.
I do have more… specific phones, e.g. PinePhone and PinePhone Pro, but I never managed to use they as daily drivers.
That said, I’m only sharing this because it is “good enough” for me but you probably have different concerns than me. I’m not a political dissident, not a journalist, not a security researcher, just a random dude living in Western Europe.
I tend to find that identifying precisely what your threat model is facilitate pinpointing pragmatic options.
The second best option is LineageOS, so purchasing a Pixel is still hedging that bet.
The refusal to release pixel-specific source code also affects every other alternate OS for pixels.
