- GrapheneOS
- iOS
- Stock OS (Pixel)
- DivestOS
- LineageOS
- CalyxOS
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voters
Iâm using Android in Samsung Galaxy 
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The main reason Iâm not using Graphene is because the Pixel was always too expensive for me, but now that just about every phone is becoming just as insanely expensive, it makes no sense to choose something else.
There should really be an âotherâ option for people who arenât running iOS or Android.
And why does it say âStock OS (Pixel)â? What if someone has a Samsung or any other manufacturer?
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I guess they are not allowed to vote 
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iodéOS
There should really be an âotherâ option for people who arenât running iOS or Android.
Is there anything viable?
Blackberry 10 (RIP) and Windows Mobile are dead. KaiOS (fork of FirefoxOS) is only used on feature phones.
GNU/Linux phones are still in their infancy⊠the most mature mobile GNU/Linux distribution seems to be SailfishOS but itâs not free software so the typical Linux crowd (rightfully?) ignores it. Tizen (Samsung) and webOS (LG) phones failed and these OS are now just limited to Smart TVs. Ubuntu Touch, PureOS and postmarketOS are tiny niche systems without an app ecosystem.
(I say GNU/Linux because Android is also Linux technically)
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e/OS
is something else viable
It is currently shipping Chromium Browser/System WebView from December of 2022 with 275 known security issues: https://divestos.org/misc/ch-dates.txt
Users cannot change the system webview, Android only allows pre-included ones as it gets directly loaded into the process space of all apps using the WebView widget.
And it still makes many connections to Google and includes proprietary Google binaries and downloads more at runtime: https://divestos.org/misc/e.txt
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Depends how you define viable, but there are projects like this, that are certainly not ready for mainstream audiences, or even your average âearly adopterâ,
Here is what they have to say about the state of Linux Phones:
Contemporary mobile Linux operating systems have a way to go before they can be considered true alternatives to Android or iOS.
While mobile Linux isnât in a state that could satisfy most mainstream electronics consumers, we recognize that a sizable portion of our community is ready to make the jump to a Linux-only smartphone today. The PinePhone Pro has the raw horsepower to be your daily driver, granted youâre ready to accept the current software limitations.
Is it worth paying extra for an iPhone? Even the cheapest iPhone is very expensiveâŠ
No. Unless iPhone is the only choice that works for you.
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Depends on your threat model and expectations.
Privacy Guides only seems to recommend things on the very serious end of the spectrum and discourages iOS for those reasons.
Speaking practically, if your network has a lot of iPhone users who wonât be swayed to signal or even WhatsApp, it can be a practical upgrade over many stock android options. If youâre planning on being a whistle blower or political dissident, then youâre probably going to want a privacy based android derivative.
While it is expensive, any phone that is going to for sure be updated for 2+ years is going to be a flagship with a flagship premium.
For me itâs a great compromise though. Encrypt my storage on icloud, can add proton drive, E2EE for iMessages, and I actually have a smart phone that isnât entirely gutted of the services the phone is bought to use. Speaking practically for a daily driver that Iâll actually use itâs the best mix of privacy and practicality. A phone running graphene would be useless for a daily driver for me because itâd lead me into a false sense of security.
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What did I just read?
No, Privacy Guides recommends best options that are private and iOS isnât private thatâs why itâs not recommended, not because Privacy Guides is on the very serious end of the spectrum or is only useful to high threat models.
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This person clearly never ysed grapheneOS. As they seem unaware that it actually is a fully functional and user friendly OS.
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Blockquote What did I just read?
A practical statement that I mistakenly thought was self explanatory?
Saying the main distribution of linux I run as my daily driver is kali doesnât make me a hacker. It doesnât give me skill to hack, nor the understanding of the tools it has, the protocols it uses, and the ins and outs of modern computer systems.
Similiarly running a pixel with Graphene wonât make me anonymous or private. I have no desire to own a smart phone that can not allow me to check my bank info,/credit card/financial institutions online, that I canât access some form of navigation for driving, and quite frankly,t hat i have to bend over backwards to ensure isnât related to my âreal lifeâ in any way shape or form, and quite frankly probably a lot more than this. Even in a magical world where those are all available without the android app store, in the process of using them, my phone then gets tied to my identity, which means every thing I do is then compromised. Never mind the fact that how you behave online is literally a criteria a financial institution might use to verify your identity! If they read that you normally log in from nowhere USA, and today youâre logging in from Somewhere, USA thatâs going to potentially look suspicious or so will logging on a new device. All of these features to protect your money and your interest also establish a profile of you. When you use your smartphone as an actually smart phone, you canât avoid it being linked to you personally without going to extremes that really override any of the value of having such a device.
All installing Graphene would do for me, and honestly probably 99.9% of the people out there is give a false sense of privacy. A good threat model has to take into account human behavior. If both devices are on me 24/7 Iâd rahter live like the world is watching on an iphone, than think I have an ounce of privacy on a device that approximates my location to 50ft or so all day everyday and pretend I wonât bleed out massive amounts of data.
No, Privacy Guides recommends best options that are private and iOS isnât private thatâs why itâs not recommended, not because Privacy Guides is on the very serious end of the spectrum or is only useful to high threat models.
Then perhaps you should edit the relevant parts out of the knowledge base eh?
Iâll push for privacy for whatever people can get where ever they can get it. I view âextreme privacyâ much like I view guns, best used infrequently, with as much skill as possible, and the realistic view that the greater my usage of it, the more likely I am to make an error.
If you have a phone on you 24/7 like many do, your are going to establish location data. Even with the GPS turned off, your location can easily be triangulated. The fact that you likely have a life outside of being secretive online which is likely why you have a smartphone to begin with, will effectively repeatedly put holes into your threat modeling whats worse is you canât even take a reasonable inventory because of this. I know my iphone is compromised in terms of being linked to me, no question about it. Iâll never forget that picking it up. When push comes to shove and you really need prviacy are you going to reasonably believe your daily driver is securely detached from you? I woulndât put my money on it, but thatâ sme.
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Yes. Just by reading the response above, I can see that there is also a lack of education on this matter.
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This thread seems to be falling into platform wars again⊠like the other thread that mentioned iOS last weekâŠ
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Is it worth paying extra for an iPhone? Even the cheapest iPhone is very expensiveâŠ
A pixel 6a is very reasonably priced. ~$250 USD new, and installing GOS is simple and easy. Very usable day-to-day. GOS over stock at the cost of android pay and android auto. Never had any other issues with it.
An iPhone SE is also fairly reasonable IMO. Itâ secure platform with additional quality of life features beyond GOS. Apple will have your data, but Iâd rather Apple have my data than Google if Iâm running stock Android over GOS. Iâve converted everything to USB-C so a non-USB C port is a non-starter for me personally. As another poster mentioned, it also seems fairly difficult to migrate away from Apple should you choose to in the future. I think thatâs worth considering. You may or may not consider Apple may be âsecure and privateâ today, but companies change.
I personally wonât consider a non-Pixel android phone, especially if âcheapâ. Just introduces another 3rd party into the mix. The 6a is functional and has GOS support.
Same OP, same instigator. @PrivacysGhost has fair points on why a user might decide to use iOS, especially over stock Android. Though does seem to have some misconceptions about GOS. (banking comment). Privacy Guides position here is well reasoned.
1 Like