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.

  • 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.