Hello there! This is my problem: I’m going to buy a new smartphone, and I’d really like to degoogle myself as much as possible. The idea would be to buy a device compatible with LineageOS, but… Supported devices are usually older models, and often there are newer devices with better specs for the same price, that does not support lineageOS. Is seems a shame to buy a device with lower specs than another one just because of software compatibility. So the alternative would be to buy an unsupported device, unlock the bootloader and debloat it as much as possible, flash privileged fdroid and aurora store on it, install microg, etc… What do you suggest me to do? Is the second alternative a viable option? What other steps should I do if I decide to go that way?
Thanks in advance folks!
Edit:
Thanks to anyone for the great answers! I finally decided to buy a pixel 6 (or 6 pro if I find a good deal) and install a custom ROM on it!
GrapheneOS will support it for “only” 3 more years, while other roms like lineageos or divestos will have longer support. What do you suggest? Graphene OS and when support ends switch to another one? O directly use the other one?
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Ironically, the best devices for degoogling are Pixels. You can unlock the bootloader very easily and then flash something like GrapheneOS or CalyxOS, and finally even relock the bootloader afterwards for security. Graphene can run google services in a sandboxed mode and Calyx has microG by default iirc.
Thanks for the answer! Sadly pixel devices have no SD card, and it is a quite important feature for me
Out of interest what specifically do you use an SD card for?
probably storing files
If you have the money and you care about not buying or owning a Google product, and / or you care about repairability, get a FairPhone: you can install
GrapheneOS orCalyxOS on them and they too support relocking the bootloader. It’s not just Pixel phones.Bonus: they have a SD card slot, unlike Pixel phones.
They’re not the speediest or sleekest devices, but that’s not where the interest lies with Fairphone cellphones: they’re mostly designed for long life and easy maintenance, and they’re made by a cool company I want to support personally. And they’re not made by Google, so buying one won’t support Google or the Pixel ecosystem in any way.
If you have the money
here’s the problem XD I’m willing to pay around 350€, 400 at most, and the fairphone 4 starts from over 500€
Fairphone is the bomb diggity
Buying a pixel isn’t the end of the world, but it is still feeding the enshittification beast
A used pixel takes the brunt off of the moral compromise.
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I am dismayed at the current scenario of basically nothing but the pixels being supported for rooting (not the fault of the community). Also a bit saddened by how easily everyone has accepted it.
If I don’t go the pixel route, I will probably purchase a cheap OnePlus mobile next year with at least kernel version 5.10. By next year, KernelSU should be more mature, and if you know about KernelSU, you know that passing SafetyNet is not a problem. I’d run microG in the work profile and put my apps there, and also debloat the pathetic excuse of ColourOS (or whatever Oppo uses). Fuckwads couldn’t even keep the damn tool open to unbrick devices (which is why development stopped). By next year I just need to figure out how to install patches with a modded kernel.
Sorry that doesn’t answer your question since you need a mobile now. I’m just quite annoyed at the state we are in. I really hope linux mobiles take off in the near future and I don’t have to deal with such nonsense.
I am dismayed at the current scenario of basically nothing but the pixels being supported for rooting (not the fault of the community). Also a bit saddened by how easily everyone has accepted it.
Serious question, what the the community not accepting it look like?
Thanks to anyone for the great answers! I finally decided to buy a pixel 6 (or 6 pro if I find a good deal) and install a custom ROM on it! GrapheneOS will support it for “only” 3 more years, while other roms like lineageos or divestos will have longer support. What do you suggest? Graphene OS and when support ends switch to another one? O directly use the other one?
I have the P6. It’s an all around good phone. Don’t forget to look at GSI ROMs. All recent devices handle those. I can and eventually will install LineageOS on my Galaxy Tab S8 and have it on my old Tab low end tablet.
I’ve never heard of GSIs and it seems really interesting! I’ve found nothing about it on the LOS website, is it something “unofficial”?
Since devices that came with Android 10, all devices are expected to adhere to a standard Android interface. The GSI stands for generic system image.
Given a particular Hardware platform and drivers any GSI should run on any matching Hardware.
I know that Andy Yan’s LineageOS GSI works on my sm-t510 (a64 variant) and from user testimonials, it also runs on the sm-x720 (arm variant, TAB S8).
I linked the forum section that contains the thread for his and many other GSIs.
Thanks for the answer!
If pixel/GrapheneOS is not an option I would recommend DivestOS which supports a very wide range of devices
I recommend you purchase a Google Pixel 6a or above (minimum security support ends July 2027) and flash GrapheneOS. (Pixel 8/pro preferred)
Aurora Store doesn’t avoid Google since a lot of the apps from the play store include Google’s SDK and libraries. microG also doesn’t avoid Google as it is still running proprietary Google code and has more privacy/security weaknesses
Sandboxed Google Mobile Services is a much better implementation which is featured in GrapheneOS. The services are not privileged and is treated like any other app. They don’t downgrade privacy or security unlike the other alternatives.
There are much more privacy and security benefits using GOS. Here is a 3rd party comparison between different mobile OS.
microG also doesn’t avoid Google as it is still running proprietary Google code
What proprietary code?
has more privacy/security weaknesses
Source?
microG runs Google Play code just like Aurora Store. It is not fully open source. Here’s more information.. It is still connecting to Googles propriety servers.
microG requires Signature Spoofing and alternative OSes usually ship with microG as a privileged system app. This increases the attack surface as it is not confined by the regular sandbox rules.
Now you’re using a privileged component, which downloads and executes Google code in that privileged unprotected context, and which talks to Google servers because otherwise, how would FCM work for example?
Despite doing both of those things, MicroG doesn’t have the same app compatibility as Sandboxed Google Play despite the extra access it has on your device. Even in some magical universe MicroG worked without talking to Google servers or running Google code (again, in a privileged context), the apps you’re actually using it with (the apps depending on Google Play) have Google code in them.
microG runs Google Play code just like Aurora Store. It is not fully open source.
Neither of them run “Google Play code”.
You can download proprietary apps through the Aurora Store and those on their own might include Google play libraries but that should be painfully obvious.
µG can optionally download and run the proprietary DroidGuard for implementing the proprietary SafetyNet. If you don’t want proprietary software, you should not explicitly enable SafetyNet (I don’t know what app you’d use it with anyways).
That’s a Twitter thread with no cited sources aka. the truthiest information known to man.
It is still connecting to Googles propriety servers.
If you ask it to, yes. That’s one of its explicit purposes.
It obviously must talk to Google servers in order to facilitate things like cloud messaging for example; there is no other way.
It does try to implement many APIs that would ordinarily talk to Google’s servers in regular GMS using alternative methods however and if it has to talk to Google, it does so with the least amount of data possible.
microG requires Signature Spoofing
This is usually only enabled for the µG app itself and nothing else.
ship with microG as a privileged system app. This increases the attack surface as it is not confined by the regular sandbox rules.
This does increase the attack surface a little. In a world where blindly trusting gigabytes of privileged vendor blobs is the norm however, I don’t think it’s all that significant.
Compared to the hundreds of MiB of regular proprietary GMS code that ships on Android devices, it pales in comparison.
downloads and executes Google code in that privileged unprotected context
As opposed to …running running the entire GMS in a privileged context?
MicroG doesn’t have the same app compatibility as Sandboxed Google Play despite the extra access it has on your device.
You’re comparing apples to oranges. µG replaces GMS, not the tool used to sandbox GMS. You could sandbox it in the same way.
There is no “extra access” that µG has compared to regular GMS.
[if] MicroG worked without talking to Google servers
I don’t know why you keep mentioning this, it was never up to debate.
the apps you’re actually using it with (the apps depending on Google Play) have Google code in them.
Apps that bundle Google Play code have Google Play code inside?!
Start the presses! Notify the President!
A wild revelation, the world must know it!
thanks for the answer! I would gladly do this if only pixel phones had an SD card… Sadly they don’t, and I really need it, so no pixel for me :(
Is there a reason you need SD storage? Some Pixel devices have onboard storage of 256GB+, so unless the storage needs to be removable, they could still be a good option.
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Just because a lot of people are saying it doesn’t mean they’re astroturfers, GrapheneOS isn’t even a company with an advertising budget, it’s just an open source project! Do you go to the Linux community and accuse the people using Arch of being shills?
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Appreciate the very, very detailed response, but I’m just a guy who wants a secure device, I don’t really want to go down this red-string rabbit home or join anyone’s side in this shit-flinging match!
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Wow, I didn’t expect you to be on lemmy. I was subscribed to your privatelife subreddit when I was on reddit. Do you have anything similar on lemmy?
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