alt Hacker NewsGrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches
Comments
Why was it that in the early PC days, IBM was unable to keep a lid on 'IBM compatible', allowing for the PC interoperability explosion, yet today, almost every phone has closed drivers, closed and locked bootloaders, and almost complete corporate control over our devices? Why are there not yet a plethora of phones on the market that allow anyone to install their OS of choice?
Great, so this means that the only way to get an Android release that's up-to-date on security patches is a binary-only distro - either Google Pixel, or the GrapheneOS preview channel.
Just wonderful. Google should know better than this, shame on the other OEMs that forced this mess.
Understaffed gift product wants 1 week cycles.
OEMs want 2-4 month cycles.
This is a perfect representation of the state of the software industry.
GrapheneOS goes even further by allowing you to opt in to pre-embargo security releases, bypassing the vulnerable window between vendor disclosure and OEM patches. Awesome!
> may i ask how you obtain the source? Are you registered as an OEM at Google?
Same question, how does Graphene get patches?
So this is interesting, they release the patched binaries several months before anyone else does and several months before the source code of the patches is released?
This implies that anyone can download GrapheneOS firmware images and use binary diffing techniques to find what are still 0-day vulnerabilities on every Android other than GrapheneOS.
Useful! Thank you GrapheneOS developers.
I notice my battery life is much better switching to graphine from the stock google rom.
As a LineageOS user, I'd be interested in the disparity between GrapheneOS and LineageOS.
The problem with custom android ROM is that the kernel is built with proprietary drivers, and porting them to other custom android is really hard
which pixel model is best for grephene? I strongly prefer long battery life.
will other phones be supported? why only pixel?
You can tell it's truly secure and private because the Cellebrite leak says they can't break it (one of very few!) and some governments assume you're a drug dealer if you use it. My next phone will run GrapheneOS.
Graphene has really caught my eye in the last several months, but unfortunately I couldn't find a good deal for Pixel phones (>128GB storage), used or new. That's the biggest bottleneck for adoption it seems. I just finally switched from an S10E to a S25Ultra (black friday deal brought down to $820), but not being able to use Graphene in the future hurts a bit for sure.
Obviously this situation can't go on.
If neither of the two major players can make an open, secure, _simple_, easy-to-understand, bloat-free OS, then we somehow need another player.
Presently (and I confess, my bias to seek non-state solutions may show here), it seems that a non-trivial part of the duopoly stems from regulatory capture insofar as the duopoly isn't merely software, but extends all the way to TSMC and Qualcomm, whose operations seem to be completely subject to state dictates, both economic/regulatory and of the darker surveillance/statecraft variety (and of those, presumably some are classified).
I'm reminded of the server market 20ish years ago, where, although there were more than two players, the array of simple, flexible linux distros that are dominant today were somewhere between poorly documented and unavailable. I remember my university still running windows servers in ~2008 or so.
What do we need to do to achieve the same evolution that the last 2-3 decades of server OS's have seen? Is there presently a mobile linux OS that's worth jumping on? Is there simple hardware to go with it?
... maybe, but it also drops support pretty fast, and not supported on most phones :-(
Please be aware that every week there are bots pushing this distro up on the charts while blissfully forcing you to use hardware 100% produced by the same company (and government contractor) with a specific interest in undermining your privacy.
There are ZERO valid reasons to use compromised hardware. Lest alone to use a distro with opaque financing sources that fully endorses government developed/sponsored platforms such as Signal and Tor.
The downvote bots will arrive in heavy weight but will exist at least one voice exposing the honeypots tonight. Please consider saner options such as LineageOS or Replicant which support dozens and dozens of different device types.
Don't fall for the trick of "it wasn't proven yet" when there is so much smoke and red flags. 3-letter agencies take pride in counting the decades until such tricks are exposed.
https://tbot.substack.com/p/grapheneos-new-oem-partnership
> GrapheneOS has officially confirmed a major new hardware partnership—one that marks the end of its long-standing Pixel exclusivity. According to the team, work with a major Android OEM began in June and is now moving toward the development of a next-generation smartphone built to meet GrapheneOS’ strict privacy and security standards.