For those who use GrapheneOS, is it worth it? Do you like it?

My backups are done, all that is left is the final choice to wipe my whole phone.

  • kalpol@lemmy.ca
    3·
    2 hours ago

    Big problem for me - Intune. If I want it, I have to have a stock OS. Right now I’ve got a Samsung tablet which is nice hardware but dogshit software. I’d love to not carry two devices around, but that’s the price of freedom and convenience.

  • Darcranium@lemmy.world
    3·
    3 hours ago

    I love it. I even went a step further and found some alternatives to Google maps, calendar, mail etc. And it took a couple days to get used to but I never went back!

  • Armand1@lemmy.world
    9·
    4 hours ago

    Made the jump last week.

    The only thing I miss is Android Pay, but it’s not a big deal. Cards are fine, you’ll just need to remember your wallet.

    I did find I had a problem with my work 2FA app, but that’s their problem to solve, not mine. Maybe they’ll give me a 2FA USB key.

    A few pieces of advice:

    • Don’t forget to back up any apps with local data that support it. You won’t get your app data back from the play store. Many FOSS apps have built-in backup optioms to files etc.
    • Back up your phone logs and SMS if that’s valuable to you, and ideally make sure the backup works on another device.
    • Install GCam to keep the same level of camera quality and features as the original app provides. I recommend BigKaKa’s versions for good compatibility with Pixels, though they can get a little cluttered.
    • Do install both the Play Store and Play Services if you want to use any Google app like YouTube or Maps (even some non-Google ones will need it). Then use a more private app store like Aurora and remove all permissions from the Play Store to strike a good middle-ground.
    • The Fossify apps are great alternatives to the imo not very good stock apps preinstalled on LineageOS.
  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    28·
    6 hours ago

    100% love it.

    I was worried that I would try it, not be able to use it for my needs, and be stuck hating what android has turned into, but not yet able to jump ship for linux phones (because moving to apple is as bad as what android is turning into).

    Instead, graphene reminded me of why I loved android in the first place. It genuinely works so much smoother, I don’t have to worry about much of anything at all, but can relatively freely do whatever the fuck I want on my device.

    As usual, you do have to be aware that some apps just will not cooperate with any OS changes that aren’t OEM. And graphene isn’t root friendly. So that’s why the “relatively freely” is present in the previous paragraph. Within those bounds though, holy crap is it a better experience than anything else I’ve ever used since my lgg3 was new. Faster, better battery life, and zero bloat to deal with. That’s compared to pixels I had fucked with that weren’t the same model as the one I was so generously given me by a great friend. Can’t say for sure that if graphene was available on my other devices that it would be better in terms of speed and battery life, since that’s hardware dependent to a great degree.

    But I can say that when I fucked around on pixels newer than the one I have, that they were less responsive and drained battery faster doing similar tasks, despite having newer hardware.

    I’ve said it elsewhere before, but my experience with graphene pissed me off. It makes me so angry that this experience isn’t the default experience for all devices, out of the box. I hate that until the recent announcement, that having this experience meant being limited to the shitty choices Google made for pixels (like no sd card, not the chipset or anything like that). I’m hopeful that the Motorola option is realistic for me once this phone has met its end of life. I’m riding it until the wheels fall off though lol.

    Legit, if you aren’t limited by work requirements regarding apps you have to use, and your bank app isn’t pissy, don’t hesitate. I haven’t been this happy with any device since I put lineage on an old tablet years ago and it fit my needs so perfectly I couldn’t believe it. Even my beloved g3 didn’t work as well with any rom as this pixel does with graphene.

    • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 hours ago

      Graphene isn’t root friendly because root friendly is a security vulnerability.

      You CAN install GOS builds which allow you to have root, but if you care about security (and, that’s why you’re here) then you should not.

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        8 minutes ago

        Well, security isn’t 100% the same as private, if you meant here as in this C/, rather than here as in this post. I tend to favor security over privacy, when only one is possible, but there is a small difference in how they apply to phones.

        But, yeah, afaik, rooting a device decreases security. But if you can’t/don’t want to jump through hoops, not having it is also a decrease in entry level personal choice. But that’s true of any android rom, not just graphene. It’s just that graphene is explicitly against root because of the holes it can cause.

        Again, on my end, root isn’t currently high value. The things I would do with root access aren’t worth the extra hassle and decrease in efficacy of graphene to do what it is intended to do.

        Mind you, there are devices I would root if I weren’t too lazy, for a small number of options. Just being able to easily use older apks is becoming a huge pain in the ass, and it’s annoying enough that my irritation will eventually outweigh my laziness on a couple of devices, just not those I use for anything beyond playing games and writing fiction (where keyboard choice matters a lot on android, and my keyboard of choice is 32bit based, which you have to root for two of my devices to fix).

        Anyway, tangents aside, I appreciate your extra detail :)

  • Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.ccOPEnglish
    1·
    2 hours ago

    I don’t intend on cutting Google from my life, but I want the option to, and I want boundaries with Google. I felt as if I didn’t install GrapheneOS, I’d lose the ability to in the future. Google could easily roll out an update locking the bootloader, so I felt like doddling with it was a risky move.

    So far it is good, I am still exploring what I can do with GrapheneOS. It’s bare bones to start with, no included wallpapers so I have to fetch my own. RCS seemingly works after granting Google play to access my carrier or whatever, so that’s good.

  • Vik@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    5 hours ago

    I’ve done it and I will accept nothing less. I’m glad though, that it’ll be expanding in availability to more than just google pixels.

  • Valarie@lemmygrad.ml
    1·
    4 hours ago

    I think when I need to change phones I am gonna put graphene on my new device but as of now I am running a galaxy s21+ that has had software purged and swapped to the point of being as Foss as I can make it as of now

  • MynameisAllen@lemmy.zip
    5·
    6 hours ago

    It’s worth it, it’s a very easy install, there’s some growing pains but it’s relatively simple to move past