this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024

0 points (NaN% liked)

DeGoogle Yourself

9664 readers

10 users here now

A community for those that would like to get away from Google.

Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!

Rules

Be respectful even in disagreement
No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.
No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.

Related communities

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

I want to finally degoogle my life and install GrapheneOS (lemmy.today)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

114 comments fedilink hide all child comments

As the title says, I want to finally degoogle (completely) my life. I've found a Pixel 7 8/128 for ~270€ (or pixel 8? ~470€ but no white :c) it's refurbished so google doesn't get a shit from me.

I'm curious to know if:

You can change the default icons color (black and gray-ish in the image) or is based on the wallpaper
The camera app is good. Not going to make professional pics or videos but I still want to use it to take pics and a good quality is important. Tried their camera on a phone and the bottom menu to switch mode (picture/video/night mode/etc) was buggy
Battery life is better/worse than stock Android (if anyone tried that)
How the sandboxed play services work
Anything else that I should know about. Some people say it's good, some it's bad so I'm curious to know.

I'm still looking for a good maps replacement, Organic Map is not the best because it's missing a lot of places where I live. I wish there was a google wallet Foss alternative... I needed it to use my card with the phone (rare but still possible!)

Help a new user to fully leave shitty phone companies

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You may also want to check out Murena. I have a fai-phone 5 with thier E/OS on it, I'm very happy with it, and 100% google-free.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

While it looks good, maybe it's my ignorance but it feels like you're replacing Google with somebody else that will have the same power over you, am i mistaken? I am very much against the "all your eggs in one basket" approach after Google so not sure if replacing it with these people won't be a repeat of the same thing

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

I certianly agree with your concern in principle, but I also think that not all corporations are evil by default. It's important to be sceptical, but in my experience the e/OS is extremely privacy and user focused.

They partner with fairphone, they support some older hardware (etc. Samsung galaxy S7), and they have an installer app and installation intructions complete with the OS files freely available.

You even do not have to use a murena account to use the phone at all. If you perfer, you can get your apps 100% from APKs & F-Droid, and Murena doesn't know you exist.

For me that's enough.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I want to de-google but i don't own a pixel. I gotta wait till i can grab a used one from 2nd hand market.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

You don't need a pixel to degoogle, you can degoogle with lineage OS which supports a lot of phones.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I want to de-google but i don't own a pixel.

Without context that's such a weird sentence.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

i have an android phone.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

No, what I meant it's funny without the context that has already been provided. i.e. If someone didn't know about GrapheneOS, they would find it odd that someone would buy a Google phone to get away from Google.

It's hilarious, you see? Please laugh.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So many people say to isolate google play services in another profile, but I have not seen anything quantifying the amount of attack surface reduction or what benefit this gives in terms of anonymity or security. Google play services includes Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) which is what enables most apps to give timely notifications. There are alternatives like ntfy, but they require some understanding of how to set them up, and tinkering.

Finally, multiple profiles is useful for the most security conscious but for the typical user I do not believe its very useful. One thing I noticed is notifications are not consisently reliable, so setting up a "Facebook" profile does isolate you from the app but then you may miss notifications. You also have to type your password for every profile switch.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Once you're logged in to a profile, and as long as you do not end the session, you can just use biometrics to log back in when switching. Otherwise, yes, you need to enter the pin again.

I don't use cross-profiles notifications mainly because all the profiles that are not the main one just run stuff that I don't need to be notifies about.

Having a profile for pretty much each need is the best feature after storage and contacts scopes:

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

I only use WhatsApp because family (no one cares about privacy) and work so I can make a profile only for that. I might create 1 or 2 profiles and nothing more. Thank you

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

For what it's worth, is there a way to still connect to my vehicle, at least for music? I'm running Sync 3.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Ironic since you have to buy a Google phone to use that OS.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

(Second hand market, bro)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

No wonder, as they're the only phones left (to my knowledge) that don't demand half your soul just to fucking own your own phone. Ii was so damn fed with all the hurdles samsung & co throw in your way, just so you can't even root your damn phone.

Who would buy a flagship gaming-pc without the admin-pwd and without being allowed to change the os? Noone. Except maybe pure gaming-kiddos.

I hate google with all my heart (since they ditched the "don't be evil" - slogan, but what else to buy? Seriously asking... Which other phones allows that AND has at least a decent camera and an oled?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No wonder, as they're the only phones left (to my knowledge) that don't demand half your soul just to fucking own your own phone.

Literally who outside of samsung and Huawei? I guess xiaomi is a bit annoying with the wait time but pretty much all other phones are dead simple.

Oneplus, Nothing phone: literally the same process as on a pixel, no code required to unlock bootloader or anything like that. Just fastboot flashing unlock

Vivo: The exact same thing, just get vivo's binary for fastboot since the unlocl command is different

Motorola, Sony: Just go to the website and you get the unlock code instantly, then just run a fastboot command and you're done

Realme: Download their app, apply for unlock, gets approved within an hour. Unlock with a fastboot command

Xiaomi, poco: Get their app, wait a couple of days for the code, unlock bootloader with fastboot command.

Honor and huawie are a pita, but there is an open source unlocking tool for certain devices which makes it deadsimple.

So there are still plenty of options if the goal is unlocking bootloader and rooting a phone, all of these brands offer phones with oled 120hz screens, with cameras ranging from decent to some of the best on the market depending on the model. There are probably some brends I missed, but you get the point.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Never had a oneplus or nothing, so can't judge at all. But great they're allowing it.

Don't remember sony being cool about it. But also good to know they seem to have changed their stance, i always liked their phones hardware-wise.

But ok, phone market is full of phones, and i gave up on non-pixels a long while ago. Cool to hear they mostly are simpler now.

But besides, being able to unlock bootloader is great (even though root is way more important to me), but if there is no really well working daily-driver-alternative to truly de-google (or at least working googled roms), what's the point to unlock other than making your own rom?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But besides, being able to unlock bootloader is great (even though root is way more important to me)

My bad I thought you were generally up to date with how rooting basically works nowadays. The defacto rooting method today is systemless root using magisk, which works by patching your boot.img. So on 99% of phones today if you can unlock the bootloader, rooting is as simple as installing the magisk, patching the boot img from the app and the flashing itl. You can also just flash magisk from recovery too. That's why I focused on bootloader unlocking in my previous post.

Now I can't claim that every device from these manufacturers works flawlessly with magisk, but most do. And a quick glance at the xda page of the specific model would be an easy way to find out before buying.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I do the magisk way. But yes, you're right of course. Unlocking hence means root. At least since magisk. As said my last experiences with non-pixels is a while ago, but it surely had a reason to go to the devil to un-devil it. And at that point some rooted xiaomi et al wouldn't help anyway.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Perfectly fair take tbh, in terms of security on android phones grapheneOS is as good as it gets and has been for a couple of years. I personally refuse to use pixels due to no sdcard, but more importantly no 3.5mm jack. The slight hiss/hum noise present on every bluetooth headset I've tried (and I've tired my friends bluetooth sennheiser that's like $600) bothers me way too much for w/e reason. I find crdroid for example gets me 90% of the way there with a bit of work through various magisk modules and it's good enough for me. But things have definitely gotten better on nonpixel phones over the years, I'm for example running a poco x3 nfc that was $250 4 years ago when I bought it and I still get monthly security updates through crdroid anf battery life is still great cause it came with a 5300mAh battery.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh yes, the sdcard. How i hated how they just removed it. To me it was super important. Save pictures there, everything personal there and only keep the pure apps on the phone itself. If the phone breaks or the screen, pull out the card and send the phone in. But now? I need to backup everything to the cloud (selfhosted ofc) and instantly wipe it from the device. Absolutely stupid. AFAIK Sony still has them, so I think whenever my pixel breaks (3rd year now) I'll try a non googly one maybe.

Yeah the 3.5mm jack sucks equally, but at least that didn't phase me as much. For that little where i would use headphones with my phone bluetooth does its job, for everything else i prefer my audiophile set at home. But yeah, if you use it more often and are picky, bluetooth just sucks. Would prefer card+jack over any stupid selfie-cam. Thanks crapple for always paving the way of stupidity and samsung bootlicking it. And then everyone else :(

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Absolutely agree with everything you said. For music I absolutely prefer my speaker setup over any headphones or IEMs. But I go running pretty much every day for like an hour and I also walk a lot. So I need music during all that and like I said the slight noise present with bluetooth headphones bothers me an unreasonable amount.

I'll most likely go for a sony phone next too case they're pretty much the only flagship phone offering both an sdcard slot and a 3.5mm jack.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

@Dyskolos @Saizaku I had a couple.of OnePlusses...they were great. Especially the 1st one, the original OnePlus One...$300 worked great.

I did root the 1 and a 6T and recall it being very easy.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

I'm pretty sure the OnePlus 12 could meet all that, haven't looked up rooting but otherwise I'm pretty sure it's easy to do. Also, I'm bringing it up because I just got it and it's the best phone I've ever had in my life by far, no bloatware super fast and easy to use.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Who would buy a flagship gaming-pc without the admin-pwd and without being allowed to change the os?

Is that not exactly what a gaming console is?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hence i said pc. Consoles are exactly the same shit. A reason i never ever owned one or want to. Unless it's easy to jailbreak. Wifey got a switch. I so hate this piece of garbage. Could do so much, but only plays superbly overpriced games.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Right, I just mean the general public really doesn't seem to care about these types of things, unfortunately, and sale of things like consoles and other proprietary systems is an indicator of that.

Everyone's been ~~brainwashed~~ conditioned to think that having no control of their devices is just the way it has to be.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Exactly. It's horrible. I know why they do it, and considering the average user it's probably the best they can't do anything. But making it hard for the pros? That's just bullying. Remembering my last 2nd to last huawei... Having to send a mail with the plead to gimme the unlock-code and to wait 2 weeks. Next huawei they stopped the aweful service. Now the only way was paying a third party. Lol fuck you. With my last samsung i spent a damn day to root it. I want a linux phone...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not modded it, or is it not de “good” batch?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The latter 😒 my first console... Learned the hard way.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I see, so you would have to hardmod it, yea, that is a difficult task…

BTW 3ds, wii and wiiU are fun to mod 😁

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Last time i checked, yes. Not worth the trouble. Would just be one game (zelda) I'd play and then i would suck too hard with the controllers 😁

Can't speak for the other consoles. The only one i personally owned was an atari 2600 😌

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

And?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You can change the default icons color (black and gray-ish in the image) or is based on the wallpaper

Sort of. There's a selectable "highlight color" that sets the vibe for the phone. I enable the feature that makes it pick a prominent color from my current phone background image, and I find it really nice.

The camera app is good. Not going to make professional pics or videos but I still want to use it to take pics and a good quality is important. Tried their camera on a phone and the bottom menu to switch mode (picture/video/night mode/etc) was buggy

The camera app is the least buggy, and fastest to load, that I've had on Android in a long time. The picture quality is fine. The features are pretty standard - nothing fancy.

Battery life is better/worse than stock Android (if anyone tried that)

My battery life on GrapheneOS is waaaay better. I assume this is thanks to GrapheneOS having great defaults for restricting apps from running in the background without explicitly getting my permission.

How the sandboxed play services work

I have more idea than a lot of folks, but I'm not in the headspace to articulate that today, sorry. Fundamentally, it just dumps the "phone home to Google" calls into nowhere, while telling (lying to) the app that the call was a success. Annecdotaly, this works perfectly for 80% of apps I care about, including my bank app.

Anything else that I should know about. Some people say it's good, some it's bad so I'm curious to know.

Profiles were still clumsy last time I used them, and overkill for most users. In my informed non-expert opinion, many folks underestimate how much the default permissions scheme in GrapheneOS protects them without enabling profiles. That said, if I absolutely had to use a work nanny app with extensive permissions, I would enable profiles for that, if I was somehow absolutely unable to buy a dedicated separate phone to install it on. Otherwise, I think profiles cause a lot of folks to give up on running GrapheneOS, in cases where they would have been fine without profiles.

load more comments