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Oh that's one of the best news in the smartphone world in a long time. It's impossible to escape the Apple/Google duopoly but at least GrapheneOS makes the mos
by axelthegerman 10mo ago
Oh that's one of the best news in the smartphone world in a long time.
It's impossible to escape the Apple/Google duopoly but at least GrapheneOS makes the most out of Android regarding privacy.
I still wish we could get some kind of low resource, stable and mature Android clone instead of Google needlessly increasing complexity but this will over time break app compatibility (Google will make sure of it)
Edit: I do think Pixel devices used to be one of the best but still I'd like to choose my hardware and software separately interoperating via standards
- Kuraj 10mo agoYou might also be interested in Jolla Phone https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162368
- Klonoar 10mo agoIf you're stateside and want a shipping Linux phone today, [FuriLabs](http://furilabs.com http://furilabs.com) is another option. Graphene is in a class of its own compared to both of these though and there's frankly no reason to bother unless you're trying to improve those ecosystems.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- embedding-shape 10mo ago> Stateside - being in, going to, coming from, or characteristic of the 48 conterminous states of the U.S. In case others, like me, weren't aware.
- Klonoar 10mo agoI admit to being shocked that such a common phrase isn’t widely understood, but this site has plenty of international traffic so I can only say thanks for the context comment. :)
- embedding-shape 10mo agoYeah, it's funny how our contexts shapes what we believe to be universal :) I had the same experience with "ground floor" and "first floor", where seemingly every country has a different understanding and way they use those. Or even what "Caravan" actually is seems to differ too. Language is fun :)
- umbra07 10mo agoThanks! I had no idea that this existed. Unfortunately, the specs aren't great, especially when compared to Jolla's offering. Oh well. I'm quite enthusiastic about Graphene's OEM partnership,though.
- Klonoar 10mo agoI share your enthusiasm re: Graphene OEM partnerships. I think it's fantastic what they've managed to pull off so far. Re: the FuriLabs phone, yeah, it's rough - but it's definitely usable for early adopters who want to contribute and help build.
- tenthirtyam 10mo agoI'm not knowledgeable enough -- what would it take to escape the Apple/Google duopoly? I'm imagining a future where you buy a smartphone and when you do the first configuration, it asks you which services provider you want to use. Google and Apple are probably at the top of the list, but at the bottom there is "custom..." where you can specify the IP or host.domain of your own self-hosted setup. Then, when you download an app, the app informs the app provider of this configuration and so your notifications (messenger, social media, games, banking, whatever) get delivered to that services provider and your phone gets them from there accordingly. Is there anything like that in the world today?
- immibis 10mo agoAny one of us here could learn the skills to design a smartphone. It won't necessarily be good, but I remember that years ago, someone made one with a touchscreen hat and GSM hat atop a Raspberry Pi, rubber-banded to a power bank. I'm sure any one of us HN users could do this. And it worked. Quality only goes up from there. The problem is it won't run any apps, so you'll need to carry this open-source secure phone in addition to your normal phone.
- zdc1 10mo agoOr use everything via the web browser; but yes, I think apps are the main reason we can't just have a generic Linux phone OS on an open hardware platform
- bossyTeacher 10mo agoApps make or break operating systems and app stores. Just ask Microsoft (Windows Phone) or Huawei (HarmonyOs). IIRC amazon was paying devs to publish to their app store or something like that. Thankfully, some apps have both web and native mobile versions but for a modern digital life, the critical apps are sadly not on both versions.
- immibis 10mo agoWe can have it. It won't become as popular, but we can have it.
- itissid 10mo agoI have been trying to come off of google and cloud by building — quite slowly — my own nas server which has 2 nodes in two geographic regions where I am building certain services like cloud storage and backup, webhosting etc. But I think there are a few key things that need to be community driven to really get rid of this duoply. 0. A privacy first approach would be something like this: `You+App --Read/Write-> f_private(your_data) <--Write only- 3p` and App cannot communicate your data to 3p or google/apple. Think of Yelp/Google Maps but with no _read_ permissions on location, functions can be run in a private middleware e.g. what's near an anonymous location or ads based on anonymous data. You can wipe your data from one button click and start again for EVERYTHING, no data is ever stored on a 3p server. Bonus: No more stupid horrible permission fiascos for app development that are just plain creepy. 1. An opensource data effort that can support (0) with critical infra e.g. precise positioning, anonymous or privacy preserving functions that don't reveal their data or processes to 3p. Here is my favourite open source effort: Precise Location Positioning. A high recall, opensource, 3D building and sattelite-shadow Data-Infra effort[3]. This world class dataset on shadows and sattelites are a must. Most geo-location positioning tied to Radio signals is just a bandaid and fraught with privacy issues — thought there are heroic privacy first efforts in this direction[1][2] which though amazing will be playing catch-up with google already deploying [3]. [1]https://beacondb.net/ https://beacondb.net/ [2] https://github.com/wiglenet/m8b https://github.com/wiglenet/m8b [3] https://insidegnss.com/end-game-for-urban-gnss-googles-use-of-3d-building-models/ https://insidegnss.com/end-game-for-urban-gnss-googles-use-o...
- yipbub 10mo agoI don't understand your syntax: `You+App --Read/Write-> f_private(your_data) <--Write only- 3p` Does this mean a server where third parties can send code to run on your data, but cannot respond to them?
- RandomThrow321 10mo agoTotally agree. Pixel devices are probably still the best Android offering, but I originally got into the ecosystem because it was less confined and that appears to be changing. While I'm likely not representative of most consumers, I would love it if I could choose both the right device and right software for my particular needs .
- toastal 10mo ago> but still I'd like to choose my hardware and software separately interoperating via standards This is why I can’t do GrapheneOS. Pixel devices do not suit my needs (& aren’t available). 2 of the big appeals for my going Android was 1) device options 2) ability to customize (appearance, apps from other sources, root access). Google has basically done everything to prevent #2 & GrapheneOS prevents #1. …This is why I also have a Linux phone to just leave these restrictions.
- bpev 10mo agoWhat kind of Linux phone setup do you have, and what kind of experience has it been? I want to make the leap sometime, but not quite there yet.
- toastal 10mo agoI have an Xperia with Sailfish OS. The Android app support ironically ends up what makes it usable, but the new patch isn’t released with kernel support that actually makes the IO work properly. Its own app selection is pretty small. It would be cool if all desktop Linux didn’t need an entirely new skin to work at this form factor, else I could get what I needed. I also use Nix to smooth over some of the repository shortcomings.
- tranq_cassowary 10mo agoSailfish OS just takes the wrong approach, to be honest. It makes more sense to have the more secure OS at the host (Android) and the less secure as a guest for compatability (traditional Linux distro). Its also problematic that the app compatability delivered via the Anseood support uses an outdated Android version etc.
- drnick1 10mo agoThe success of an OS is inevitably linked to the availability of apps. A "smart" phone today is basically useless if it can't run either iOS or Android apps. Projects like Waydroid can make Linux phones viable, but since there are approximately zero native Linux apps for phones, you might as well use Android as a FOSS base. This is precisely what Graphene and Lineage do.
- test1072 10mo agoEven if google breaks compatibility, still using some compatibillity mode it's possible to run such apps right ?
- brightball 10mo agoI’ve been an iPhone user from the beginning but this would really tempt me.
- sans_souse 10mo agoPixel phones currently have the additional benefit of a full Debian OS running via AVP. This is (imo) on par with or better than having Termux on a rooted device. It's still fairly off-the radar which makes it a really good time to be exploring it's uses.
- Grisu_FTP 10mo agoI agree, it has been lots of fun testing around in the KVM. Recently a GrapheneOS update even included the Button to attach to the "screen" of the VM. It also has GPU passthrough iirc? When i have more freetime during the holidays i will test further. I especially want to try how it works when i combine stuff like steam + fex + Proton or run other GPU stuff
- sans_souse 10mo agoKeep me/us updated!