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Separately from this, it's a misconception that CalyxOS and GrapheneOS are similar projects or that they're working on similar things. They are not. GrapheneOS
by strcat 4y ago
Separately from this, it's a misconception that CalyxOS and GrapheneOS are similar projects or that they're working on similar things. They are not. GrapheneOS is a hardened OS with substantial privacy and security improvements:
https://grapheneos.org/features https://grapheneos.org/features
CalyxOS is not a hardened OS. It substantially reduces security. It recently went 2 months not shipping standard security patches.
Compatibility with Android apps on GrapheneOS is also much different. GrapheneOS provides our sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer:
https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play
Can run the vast majority of Play Store apps on GrapheneOS, but not CalyxOS with the problematic microG approach.
https://blog.privacyguides.org/2022/04/21/grapheneos-or-calyxos/ https://blog.privacyguides.org/2022/04/21/grapheneos-or-caly... is a 3rd party article explaining some of the substantial differences between GrapheneOS and CalyxOS. It's a common misconception that they're similar. CalyxOS is far more similar to LineageOS than GrapheneOS. There are many other alternate OSes available.
https://privsec.dev/posts/android/choosing-your-android-based-operating-system/ https://privsec.dev/posts/android/choosing-your-android-base... is another article about privacy and security differences between alternative Android-based operating systems. Talks about other alternate operating systems including DivestOS. Unlike most content, these are based on real experience and technical details.
- jtode 4y agoThis seems like a pretty good couple of answers to OP's question.
- throwaway_graph 4y agoI said that the goal of the projects is the same. It seems they're not equally effective in their efforts of reaching that goal, but that's besides the point.
- strcat 4y agoThe goals of the projects are not the same. CalyxOS is not a hardened OS and it doesn't aim to be a hardened OS. They don't work on the kinds of privacy and security features we do. For the most part, they work on much different things with very little overlap. Their approach is incompatible with ours. As an example, since they took over the Seedvault project and are running it in a similar way as their OS, it has blatant security issues. It uses privileged permissions it shouldn't and violates multiple aspects of the security model including bypassing app install rules. Encryption is not as opaque as it should be either. We aren't going to be able to use it anymore. We have to start over with a new backup service. Seedvault was originally written by a GrapheneOS community member for inclusion in GrapheneOS, based on the design that we laid out for it but it has deviated so far from that now and their goals / approach is incredibly incompatible with ours. Not even something like this can be shared. We had to drop F-Droid in 2018 because it has such huge security, usability, robustness and functionality issues. It still targeting Android 7 is the tip of the iceberg. It hasn't kept up with the platform at all and doesn't respect / follow the security model.