this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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Privacy

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Curious what people think.

Do you think using the GrapheneOS operative system is useless if the user plans to/needs to install Play Store apps anyway?

I think I'm not alone in feeling this way, but sometimes I feel a sense of imposter syndrome because I'm not perfectly private and am dependent on some Play Store apps. This has caused me to question if the transition to GOS is meaningful at all.

Feel free to share your opinion. Cheers! ...posted from my GrapheneOS Pixel.

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[โ€“] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I dont use Graphene OS but my understanding was that it allows the user to sandbox Google play apps: https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play

So this gives Google play less access than it normally would. I think thats probably the biggest draw of it other than security updates for longer periods of time for older hardware i imagine.

Again, I'm not a user of it so i cant say for sure but I've beem interested in trying it out as it seems up my alley as I'm getting more pivacy conscious as the years go by.

[โ€“] Facebones@reddthat.com 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Been on Graphene for a bit less than a year, its been great. You're correct about google apps being regular apps with no special perms, but also there are sandboxed user profiles so if you're particularly concerned you can keep all your dependent apps over there with double sand boxed google ๐Ÿ˜›

Ive only had one or two issues with app compatibility but they have a setting to apply a less secure ruleset thats worked for me both times.

[โ€“] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thats pretty cool! My only gripe is I dont really wanna buy a pixel phone and I think there are unofficial roms for other android devices but idk if its worth the hassle.

[โ€“] Facebones@reddthat.com 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately your options are limited these days on devices with unlockable bootloaders, and iirc pixel is the only one you can lock again which is why graphene only supports them. My 8 Pro is solid, and if you're worried about supporting Google, hardware sales are a drop in their bucket - they only sell phones to get you locked into their ecosystem.

To be clear, I'm not knocking other Roms. I just don't have any experience with them. I know Lineage is pretty popular right now as well.

[โ€“] Bluefruit@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yea you're not wrong. Kinda fed up with most smartphone manufacturers these days. Its all so restrictive. And to your point that Google is one of the only manufacturers that allows the bootloader to be relocked, thats for now. No telling what will happen in the future which is another part of my issue.

At one point i was considering making a small pc out of a raspberry pi or something to replace my phone just cause i dont like the way phone manufacturing in general is going lol.

Kinda silly but i still think about it.