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 @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml 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.

        • MrSoup@lemmy.zip
          0·
          5 months ago

          Thanks for the alternatives.

          I’m currently using a used ('cause fuck Google, you’re not gettin my money) Pixel phone with GrapheneOS (since my Pinephone stopped turning on) with TrackerControl and InviZible Pro. Is nice having a real clean AOSP rom with privacy/security customization.

          GrapheneOS also provide an indeed cool feature: a proxy for Android services provided by Google, like Attestation key provisioning, Widevine provisioning, SUPL and PSDS. Does CalyxOS and/or LineageOS provide something like this?
          Thanks in advance.

    • MagneticFusion@lemm.ee
      0·
      5 months ago

      Genuine question for you and I hope you don’t ban me again for asking an objective question.

      Do CalyxOS or LineageOS (which doesn’t even allow you to lock the bootloader) have all these others security and privacy features?

      Storage Scopes

      Native Code Debugging

      Hardened Memory Allocator

      Pin Scrambling

      Auto Reboot

      Secure App Spawning

      Bluetooth and Wifi Autodisconnect

      MAC Address Randomization per connection

      Sandboxed Google Play Services (I know Google is the devil and I know of Micro G but certain applications simply do not work without the actual Google Play Services installed, and having them sandboxed is significantly better than giving them privileged access)

      These are just the few I can think of on top of my head. Because as far as I’m concerned, I originally had the same reaction after Rossman’s video and wanted to switch over to LineageOS (not Calyx because they’ve fallen as long as 4 months behind on security updates which is why Henry from Techlore stopped using Calyx even though he really likes the project), but GrapheneOS objectively is the most secure and hardened version of Android in my view. I would love to be proven wrong by actual evidence and not just a distrust in the OS because of the developers and their toxic community.

    • NuclearDolphin@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      bruh, I think I agree with most of your conclusions, but you gotta work on your delivery, as it definitely doesn’t serve your message well. I think you receive a lot more pushback because you use so many harshly negative words to describe people.

      Just in this comment, you use:

      • disease
      • sewer
      • “security” clowns
      • pure snake oil
      • disgusting sole developer
      • minions
      • witch hunt
      • maliciously
      • trained monkeys

      which makes this comment sound more like a Donald Trump rally than a well-reasoned argument. It’s understandable given your history of conflict with members of the project, and I usually hate tone policing, but I think this word choice severely hurts your argument. Remember, most people here are just passerby and have no idea about the drama or your experiences with their community. Their first impression is gonna be you’re the flip-side to Micay.

      I think your thesis is largely correct, that the project does a suspicious amount of shilling for big tech and Google and pushes a lot of anti-FOSS propaganda and has a toxic social media presence that silences good people geniunely asking questions or voicing opinion in good faith.

    • hifov7@futurology.todayEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      These people have been infiltrating the community for a while now. Look at that madaidan guy who blatantly pushes corporate propaganda similar to the grapheneos bots. They want to eventually make you use closed source garbage for “security” and compromising privacy in the process. That’s the intended plan.