We will be switching to new signing keys along with the overhaul of the signing and verification process. As a result, current CalyxOS users will not be able to receive further security software updates until this process is in place.
wtf
DivestOS is dead, CalyxOS development is on hold, so non-Pixel phone users are basically left with stock Android or some insecure not “degoogled” ROM.
What we need is for Linux phones or some so-called “dumb phone” to make huge progress in security and usability for a third viable option besides iOS and Android. Using GrapheneOS and other custom ROMs isn’t much different from using Brave, Ungoogled Chromium, and other Chrome forks.
Well, this was informative and unfortunate.
It’s like everyone in the Android space is conspiring to keep me on iOS /j
Bummer though, competition is good even if they weren’t well liked by many around here.
Got a nose exhale outta me for that one
I dunno jonah. Linux phones suck, but out of spite, I might actually try to use them once something good enough comes.
But I also have faith in the GrapheneOS community. They’ll figure something out.
I really really don’t like Apple/iOS after I have used it and the lack of freedom I that I feel I have when I use it. But it may very well be my next phone if this Linux phone shenanigans will not work out. At the very least the banking apps.
I’m waiting for some really good Linux phone hardware to be released, I think that’s the missing link for most enthusiasts right now.
Obviously for regular people the software is still gonna need to get a lot better as well lol
Yeah the biggest wtf to me is that they will seemingly force all users to reinstall their phones.
Really annoying if they go through with that. Really makes me wonder if something else has happened.
We will be switching to new signing keys along with the overhaul of the signing and verification process. As a result, current CalyxOS users will not be able to receive further security software updates until this process is in place.
@tropics8997 this is sad because these communities are shrinking further. That begs the question, where’s everyone going, what’s now on full focus? 🤔
Personally, I think that custom ROMs have largely outlived their role for most users. Back when Android was relatively new, stock Android had almost nothing in the way of features.
Today, with Google Pay and stuff, you’ll end up losing appealing features by flashing a custom ROM. Also, even though installing a custom ROM is easier than ever it’s still too much for normies that barely know how to connect a keyboard cries in IT.
When I was younger, I thought it was fun to ROM hop whatever some kid had posted on XDA-developers. Today, I’ve largely settled for CalyxOS because that means guaranteed updates basically every month, and with great polish.
If Fairphone’s software was better, I’d probably never have installed CalyxOS in the first place.
I agree with the main point which is the need for an alternative and competitor, but I strongly suspect this wish may be fulfilled in a way that disappoints most people. Developing and maintaining a security-conscious ground up OS platform with rich application support rules out a lot of smaller teams and companies. Maybe the best positive shot at that was Firefox OS a while ago.
Feature/basic phone companies (Punkt, LightPhone, Mudita etc.) seem to generally leverage forks of memory unsafe RTOSs or outdated forks of AOSP.
There’ve been multiple attempts to release moderately powerful phone hardware with traditional Linux distribution and kernel support (Liberux isn't giving up on its ambitious Linux phone (despite crowdfunding fail) - Liliputing). However, projects like Purism, postmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish and so on have been around for so long that it seems there are several barriers to overcome beyond just hardware.
I would not be surprised if what we actually get is a third option nobody really wanted similar to an Amazon Fire Phone revival, Windows Phone reimagining or something unexpected like Huawei getting popular again.
Some people see consortia driven or community-owned Chromium (Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers) and AOSP as the ways forward, although it remains to be seen whether the security posture would remain as strong.
This week I almost bought 6 Moto phones for my family members, planning to install CalyxOS on them, because while GOS is great, I’m really tired of ridiculous Pixel quality issues and subpar specs for their price.
Now I’m happy I decided to wait a little bit for a better price.
But I’m sad because there is no more alternative to Pixels. And even for them future looks grim privacy-wise.
I guess it’s time for me to embrace the convenience of Google ecosystem and Chinese ROMs.
There is Furi phone as an OK linux option, but in my opinion, Linux can not compete in mobile space with Android. Everything is already designed and optimized for 2 OSes and noone wants to invest in 3rd one. So emulation is what we might have and that again has additional limits. Even custom degoogled ROMs can not provide 100% functionality of standard Google+OEM systems. Basically we have no choice
Those are currently the most unsafe phones on the market and likely will remain so for the foreseeable future.
One of the main problems with GrapheneOS is simply not having a reliable (and ideally open source) device to support, which is an issue any other new phone would have. If that can be addressed, an AOSP-based operating systems seem like a no-brainier. They’re the most secure, usable, and feature-rich base to build off of.
That’s an issue with phones in general. Operating systems have to be designed specifically for each phone and users can only receive updates for as long as the phone is supported. At least with desktops you can buy any PC or laptop with an x86_64 processor, install any Linux distro or even a BSD, and continue receiving updates forever without having to buy a new device because the updates are independent from the device. This is one of many reasons I still prefer desktops despite phones being more secure.
Perhaps, but they’re no more unsafe than desktop Linux, which millions are perfectly fine using every day, so I think there’s still a sizable market for Linux phones once they get better.
Also I can think of plenty of less safe phones currently on the market, but I know we like to think the Pixel is the only phone in the world.
I hope so. Unless Linux phones, a basic phone that only uses open source software and implements some kind of encryption for communications, or a fork of AOSP takes off, then pretty soon we’ll all be using iOS or Stock Android desperately trying to mitigate it as much as possible.
Even Android 6.0 at the time was still more architecturally secure than the 2025 Linux ecosystem. Including Linux phones, where even normies have different (phone level) standards than on desktop. They are “fine” with using Linux on PCs because they have been conditioned to put up with it the horrid security of the PC hardware and the desktop OS “security model”.
This becomes a bigger issue when someone sells it as a “phone”. Then normal people who expect a whole different class of device get a garbage PC masquerading as a phone, with the expected PC level of security.
Is that really true? My understanding is that even these native linux ARM devices are now mostly stuck on old, unmaintained kernel versions, which is very very bad.
As much as I hate the AMD/Intel duopoly in desktop computing, it’s a much more free and better landscape.