For those unfamiliar, GrapheneOS is a privacy and security enhanced custom ROM endorsed by Snowden. Despite these big names, plenty of people give it backlash
Even @[email protected] gives it backlash despite being a moderator of Lemmy’s biggest privacy community. A quote here: “grapheneOS trolls are downvoting every single post and comment of mine, and committing vote manipulation on Lemmy. They are using 5-6 accounts.” That was in response to downvotes on a comment posted in the c/WorldNews community, which is entirely unrelated to technology.
One of the reasons is that GrapheneOS can only be installed on Google Pixels due to security compatibility, which makes complete sense considering Android should be most compatible with Google’s own devices. GrapheneOS even lists the exact reasons they chose Pixels, and encourage people to step up and manufacture a different supported device.
One year ago, Louis Rossmann posted this video outlining his reasons for deleting GrapheneOS. Mainly, he had multiple bad experiences with Daniel Micay (the founder and main developer of GrapheneOS) which put his distrust in the GrapheneOS project. Since then, he has stepped down and will no longer be actively contributing to the project.
So, I am here to learn why exactly people still do not like GrapheneOS.
There are one or two accounts on Lemmy who seem to show up in every privacy or graphene thread and shit-talk GOS.
I say if there is something wrong with GOS or the code itself, identify it and prove it. The founder may have been “problematic” or whatever, but it doesn’t sound like that person is even associated with the project anymore.
I have personally daily-driven GOS for a year. It has worked well for me. I use a lot of FOSS apps. I use some traditional Play Store apps and avoid logging into Google and I manage permissions closely. I’d say GOS gives you options. Maybe some people would like other customized degoogled OS better, and that is fine. Just… for the love of all that is sacred, don’t use vanilla Googled Android.
I find the criticisms of the founder pretty seriously overblown. My interactions with him have always been positive. He’s on the spectrum and a lot of people engaged in pretty serious abuse toward him and the project he created… so I’ll give him some slack.
I’ve used GrapheneOS for 5 years. It’s good, the project has integrity, and there really isn’t anything that meaningfully compares in meeting its goals. It’s proactive in that they actually do meaningful security research and implement solutions. People who troll on the project are either straight up bad actors or just stupid.
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I just think it is a vessel for proprietary software and doesn’t protect my freedom.
There a certainly worse things to use but I like Lineage OS personally
I don’t understand your comment. Could you explain it a bit more?
TL;DR Lineage OS is fine as it pretty much anything else fossdroid
Is there any truth to the concern that Lineage could be hacked more easily than Graphene OS?
And what about how Graphene OS uses Pixels that have a chip that make brute-forcing hacking a locked device much harder?
Are those real things or just gimmicks? I really don’t know.
It depends on your threat model. However, I am skeptical of flashy security features. I haven’t heard of a case where Graphene saved a journalist or similar.
People who escape doom because of technological prowess don’t usual tell others out of risk of antagonizing an adversary and inviting more conflict.
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I hate that they use discord and telegram for comms without any notice that the matrix/irc room you’re joining is bridged to those services.
Any organization that thinks its OK to feed my chats to obvious bad actors is extremely concerning. I have brought this to the attention of the maintainers and all they do is say 'but the chats are public, and anyone can index them. So what’s to stop discord from harvesting the data from the other public forums".
Well, guess what, as bad as discord is I’m pretty sure theyre not going around to obscure forums to scrape user data when they have such a plentiful source feeding them with their own consent. I do not consent to this invasion of pitvacy and am disgusted a ‘privacy’ OS can do this and no one be outraged about it.
They tried to switch to Matrix, but it turned out to be too inefficient and buggy for such big community.
Matrix continues to be awful and weird. Discord is basically easy to use IRC – too bad no one else has figured out an easy irc
I’d like to know too, for picking out my next phone.
I was talking with Matchbox Banana Synergy in their Matrix Support Room and they said that there’s still no interest in making Graphene OS Lite for Pixel Devices which is very unfortunate since it won’t take 5 years to make but the GOS is still good to use just not easy like Lineage Or Calyx
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GrapheneOS developers were literally harassing me! No cap. I highly suggest avoiding it.
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I know this is somewhat controversial but I agree with this when it comes to FOSS software. Proprietary is a different story. But for foss software, the developer literally gains nothing from you using their software. So if the software is good and works to your benefit, why not use it? Yea okay the developer is a POS but how does that affect the product? And you using GrapheneOS does not mean you are supporting the developer as again, this is a FOSS product, you are not paying them with money or data or code.
if the software is good and works to your benefit, why not use it?
sometimes people just don’t feel comfortable using work of someone who opposes their rights. even just using the product gives the creator more exposure, recognition, possible funding in the future if it gets big enough, and so on. so, if the creator is openly transphobic, for example, trans folks won’t want to use the product, and doubly so when the community around the product is toxic, too. they’re voting with their feet.
That is understandable, but no need to be going out and attacking people who recommend GrapheneOS like the mod did. It would be much better if he just points out the major flaws of the GrapheneOS community the same way that Techlore and Louis Rossmann did, rather than dogging on anyone and everyone who recommends an otherwise great operating system.
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Basically because Daniel “MacCock” behaves like a massive paranoid schizophrenic prick when he doesn’t take very strong meds (that’s my take on it anyway). And as others have mentioned, his claim to have stepped down is just that, “his claim”. Everything points to him still very much being at the help of the project.
I like the project, but any software I use being directed by someone like that guy is a huge red flag.
I’m shocked that anyone can think that saying what you said here is ever okay.
The “claim” that you’re talking about was misinterpreted by so many people and warped by people who are hostile against GrapheneOS. The former lead developer only said that they were stepping down as the lead developer and another person would take over. They said it would take a long time for all of the duties to be transferred over to other people.
I’m good with a project that’s concentrating on privacy being run by a paranoid fuck. If he’s pouring all his lunacy into making it as locked down as possible, seems like a good thing to me.
I particularly like the recent duress PIN code upgrade. Seems like something every OS should have in it. I don’t need some cops fucking around with my social media and banking info because I got stopped for jaywalking.
It’s not just paranoid, it’s totally toxic and aggressive. He attacked and verbally abused dozen of different project for naive reasons, and spread FUD and slanders about other developers and projects
I don’t use it because Calyx is “good enough” and I make a lot of my decisions about which projects to use based on the community associated with them. Graphene has a toxic as fuck community, Calyx is very carebear.
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Same, I’ve been team calyx for several years now, the dev rocks and I’m very happy to donate to them for keeping my pixel 3 running.
You really shouldn’t be using that device. It’s not secure and it’s messed up that CalyxOS still supports it.
I suppose your “good enough” isn’t others’ “good enough”. They pile on security theater features and consistently are behind on keeping up with upstream updates.
Not sure what to say about GrapheneOS’s community being toxic. It’s not and just saying it doesn’t make it true.
GrapheneOS only works on Google hardware. Part of the advantage of Android is device variety, but GrapheneOS forces you down a narrow path. Want a rugged device, a headphone jack, microSD? Well Google doesn’t offer those so GrapheneOS can’t meet your device requirements.
I think part of the reason is there’s a chip that limits brute force attacks and it’s not in other phones
GrapheneOS has defined a set of security standards for their operating system which have hardware requirements. These standards have been published and there have been efforts to engage with hardware manufacturers to adopt the required hardware. Blame the manufacturers for skimping on security, rather than Graphene being unwilling to compromising their values.
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“What is this level of grand security…” Enumerated here: https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
Once manufacturers can implement those things, then you will have an alternative to Google hardware for running Graphene. I’m not telling people to trust anything, don’t put words in my mouth.
Who is PrivacyPhones and why should I believe they are in any way affiliated with Graphene?
On top of it, they have lied about testing. https://i.imgur.com/woNxPhx.jpg
Yeah, no. Pretty sure that’s just a rando with GrapheneOS logo as their avatar. The way they talk doesn’t sound like the dev to me, and I also don’t think the dev would ever misspell a word like “cellular” as “cullar”.
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It would be possible to ship generic system images with separate updates for the device support code. However, it would be drastically more complicated to maintain and support due to combinations of different versions and it would cause complications for the hardening done by GrapheneOS.
Sounds like they could, but have resource limitations to do it. It’s also a knock against Google whose hardware has gotten worse. Personally, IDGAF about these project-imposed requirements if I can’t have the standard headphone jack on portable device.
I wanted to love it but my bank’s development team is dumb and won’t run on Graphene, sending me back to the stock Pixel image.
Unsure if this is a reason to hate Graphene OS. But some people probably do because App X wont run.
I like grapheneos the product.
The staff is super abrasive and they constantly attack other privacy projects. See the recent attacks on Jonah from privacy guides, or the attacks on calyx, or the bs with rossman that forced micay out of the spotlight.
They need to hire an outside professional to manage their PR. The way they communicate is their biggest flaw.
There are no “attacks”. Members of GrapheneOS usually are just responding to people attacking them. You mention the recent “attacks” well Jonah was using their forum to say false things about GrapheneOS and how they’re marketing themselves to criminals. It’s a ridiculous claim. GrapheneOS focuses on improving the OS’s security and privacy and if companies can just hack the phone then GrapheneOS isn’t very secure is it? But recent news has shown that at least Cellebrite cannot get into a GrapheneOS phone. Isn’t that a good thing?
Oh, btw, the only reason GrapheneOS was talking about this stuff in the first place was because another person hostile to the project was posting completely false claims on Reddit that forensics companies could hack GrapheneOS. They conveniently left out the fact that CONSENT based extraction means giving away your PIN/password first.
So, what you’re seeing is project members defending the project from people making false claims. One leads to another. All they do is try to damage GrapheneOS’s reputation because that’s easier than improving their own products.
Why are y’all spamming this Rossman guy suddenly? I had never heard of him before two days ago, and now I’ve seen posts about him every single day.
Seems like a bro-y tech dude. He promotes Brave and references sexual assault when talking about the behavior of software vendors with their customers. Honestly he gives me kind of a shady vibe on top of that.
So like, why is Lemmy suddenly full of his fans? What’s going on?
Litterally one of the most famous tech guy on the web and one of the most influential voice of the “repair yourself” movement, on the internet for years
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Yeah, that’s the bit that gave me the bro-y vibe, honestly. That and Brave. Also like, not that it’s necessarily a bad thing that I can see his muscle veins through his shirt, but that’s often a component of that particular corner of Joe Rogan-NFT-Bitcoin-Tesla.
But yeah, that makes sense. It definitely feels very sudden and artificial, which makes me wary.
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Ive never used it, but i like the idea. I light op en a wasp nest now, but what Alternatives do i have, ? Using Android phone, i still have a Windows phone in the shelf, van i flash it with a better alternative?
Mikay is an asshole. He didn’t leave, he’s just not “lead” anymore. But he still continues to attack community members
He is the ‘Administrator’ account on the gos matrix. He’s definitely still involved in community shit he just doesn’t do it as strcat.
He’s still attacking folks. That’s what matters.
