> My dad’s house wasn’t on the map. Neither was my mom’s house. Neither was my friend’s place. Obviously I can’t use apps based on OpenStreetMaps to get me places if the places I want to go aren’t on the map.
What do they mean by not on the map? Is it not showing up in search? Is it the housenumber wasn't there? Is it the street not existing at all? If manually zooming to the place was it showing with the correct street and number?
I'm curious since I've found OSM coverage to be pretty good for things like streets and housenumbers since they are generally based on imported data, no?
Also, you can contribute to osm if a street was missing.
The complaint about having to download the map seems unreasonable too.
It downloads the world map and then the local map and you're done. Generally the local map for an area is like 50 to 100MB from memory.
Perhaps they are in a very remote location with slow internet and no map data, but downloading the lineage ROM would be a lot slower than downloading a single map.
They should learn from Google, and package their maps so they can be streamed to clients piecemeal. I bet they spend more in data egress than compute, and PostGIS is basically made for this.
I specifically use OSM because it is by far the most complete. It has every trail branch on it while Gmaps, Bmaps usually are missing out any trails that aren't car driveable.
Google wallet doesn't work, but you can still use a watch as an alternative. To my knowledge it's the only feature that doesn't function on GrapheneOS.
One thing I wanted to mention after reading the article is that LineageOS has Google servers hard coded into the OS, while GrapheneOS gives you the option of using their servers instead. It also allows you to selectively turn on certain features that require Google code, such as e-sim cards.
LineageOS has their own implementation of gapps, which they have built into their sandbox system. I can choose to install Google services as a sandboxed app rather than a package that I have to flash to the OS at install time, as it is to my understanding you cannot flash gapps to an install that is not clean through implementations like microG.
I unfortunately can’t speak to what they mean by sandboxed Google Play being ‘close to fully functional’ as I haven’t used it yet.
I’ve also been trying to replace notification push servers for msg notifications as those are usually routed through Google services. This article has a short explanation of what I’m referring to: https://medium.com/@KaushalVasava/push-notification-in-andro...
Like others have mentioned, I was also referring to the connectivity checks as well. GrapheneOS maintains some servers to provide the same service which the Google equivalents do, just without actually talking to Google.
I opted for postmarketOS, which doesn't support microG, on an old device. Going Degoogled was my only option for anything remotely maintained, which was a priority.
It's nice to see my old device get some patches, but I'm not sure how much I'll use it since ARMv7 is mostly being phased out.
Overall, using postmarketOS and trying to go completely without Google apps (and without microG) has been interesting. Not sure I could recommend it, but it did force me to discover some very useful (and quite nice) OSS apps.
this comparison looks good, but it claims that there is no opt-out for microG in /e/OS. yet, in the app settings i can simply disable microG completely. is that not sufficient for opt-out?
Perhaps there are some settings that still rely on Google that can’t be disabled, such as push notifications. Most if not all apps from the Google Play store will use their framework to send push notifications to your device. If you get notifications on messaging apps with microG disabled, this could be an indication that your device is still using Google services under the hood
Freedom isn't free and unfortunately the time wasted in trying to maintain a high standard of smartphone privacy is time I will never get back.
That and the social isolation from trying use a phone that can't keep up with the activities and communication preferences of friends makes an iPhone a necessary compromise.
There is nothing free in the Apple ecosystem, neither as n free beer or in free speech. You can't even install an app that isn't approved by Apple on an iphone of ipad
Yeah, but to open an alternative store, you need to pay a hefty sum. Even to publish apps on that alternate store, there will be high fees. Open source projects simply cannot afford that.
Has anyone tried asking Apple? I think an offer like:
1. Apps must be FOSS and reproducibly buildable on the store's servers, like F-Droid.
2. No monetization allowed, not even donation links.
3. The store itself undergoes yearly security review by an accredited third-party firm at its own expense.
4. The store undergoes yearly compliance review for these terms at its own expense.
Would be pretty much all upsides for Apple: non of their services are used; they don't pay infrastructure or human costs for app hosting, review, or developer support; and they don't pay these costs for apps that don't make them money anyway.
Aside from your claims being wrong (in my opinion), do you take into account that for large parts of the world, using iPhone is isolation?
For instance, I ended up in way to many text exchanges with iPhone users who didn't even knew they created multiple of them, replied multiple times directly+to a group chat, spammed status messages unreadable to others and so on.
So my point is, this view comes purely from a person in a market where iPhone is majority.
My point is not about iPhone evangelism per se and want to avoid holy wars. I'm saying it's the best worst choice (the constrained vision). I don't want to engage in hypotheticals based on consumer options of countries I'm unfamiliar with.
The essence of my point is that life is short and I don't value the time spent customising a smartphone in the way suggested by TFA.
> That and the social isolation from trying use a phone that can't keep up with the activities and communication preferences of friends makes an iPhone a necessary compromise.
I am still shocked at how much blue bubbles seem to affect some folk's social lives. Does it really matter that much?
You need to take a cab? You'd like me to book it? No problem...
Oh sorry the apk of Uber I sideloaded needs manually updating. I'll just go to apkwtfbbq.com complete some captchas and install the new apk. I've got enough signal and data for that. No problem! Oh, now I need to flash an updated zip file of the service I use to replace Google on my phone because I'm concerned about corporate surveillance. Oh, the latest version of the zip has a bug in it. Don't worry it will only be another 10 mins...
I don't think it is referring to iMessage (blue bubbles). But to install the messenger du jour on an Android phone with a custom ROM may not be easy or well-supported.
Ah, fair. It is certainly true that not everything just-works on a custom rom; that is a tradeoff of them. Everyone has a different level of tolerance for this kind of thing.
From what I remember, Mobius is based on an outdated version of Syncthing and cannot run in the background, which almost defeats the whole purpose of Syncthing.
When I switched from an iPhone 3GS to Android, it seemed that the trade-off was between control and freedom. These days, the trade-off is between control + ok privacy and not-much-freedom + no privacy.
I also ran custom ROMS for years. It got to be such a pain that I switch back to vanilla Android with throw-away google accounts, and now have come full circle and gone back to an iPhone.
It's a similar story on the desktop - I can't abide where Windows has gone with ads and AI. I have run linux for years (and still do on servers), but need to use software that won't easily run on Linux. So, I have ended up with a MBP.
Apple might be far from perfect, but for me at least, right now they're they best balance between not being actively user-hostile, and not taking a ton of effort to get working.
Using an iPhone is exactly the same as a builtin Android rom, it's all powers to the manufacturer and you are just giving up on privacy and control on your phone.
If you switch because you like the design better than the other one why not but otherwise I don't see much compromise here.
I'm aware that the solutions with better privacy aren't exactly simple yeah.
That is not a deGoogled phone in the sense that Android users refer to. An iPhone doesn't have any of the benefits of a deGoogled phone such as microSD storage, Linux via Termux or alternative app stores.
The microg_installer_revived module isn't necessary anymore if you're using a build from within the last month. The Lineage folks finally implemented signature spoofing for microg, simply downloading it from the official website or f-droid repo works now.
Thanks for the tip! However, I get a signature error after freshly adding their repo and trying to install it. Also their QR codes are broken on the website. Are we talking about microg.org?
How about Play Integrity and Key attestation results? What are the results of test apps (e.g. SPIC - com.henrikherzig.playintegritychecker and io.github.vvb2060.keyattestation) in your setup? I feel like more and more big apps rely on these security features.
Integrity will eventually (soon) switch over to hardware attestation. At that point nothing will pass that isn't stock out of the box, no amount of software hackery will bypass it.
It's still there. Basic, device and strong integrity. Device integrity is what you're referring to and it's still offered by the API but most apps do not use it. And perhaps, they should not.
I would have been curious to read about WhatsApp since it is a widely used app.
Also for youtube I use NewPipe which I find incredibly good (no ads, can manage playlists and audio only).
> Graphene describes itself as “The private and secure mobile operating system with Android app compatibility”. Like yeah no shit you have Android app compatibility. YOU’RE FUCKING ANDROID. For some reason custom roms like to advertise themselves as their own OS that can run android apps. You’re not your own OS you’re just a distro of android. Quit trying to sound more unique than you are.
This is a little unfair.
Graphene does not come with any google apps installed by default (of course android itself is a google product, whether running calx, graphene, or lineage).
It gives you the option to install google apps like the play store, but these are installed like any other app. You can restrict permissions, deny internet access etc.
But they are totally optional.
Also, a nitpick, but these are all android, including lineage os.
I question the logic of excluding Chromium users from reading one's writing about de-googling. Sorry, I'm not switching browsers to receive this particular brilliance.
It's especially strange, given the amount of effort the blog author went to, to add Google apps back to their de-googled phone.
Having started on this path, in my opinion it's a losing battle and a waste of time. Google have thousands of engineers just waiting to patch whatever hack you are using in your "de-googled" phone. Android serves the purposes of its creator.
I've been using sailfish os with android app support + microg for over 5 years.
It work for my daily low usage (browser, music, sometime bank) but missing nfc + bluetooth on andoid vm
> Graphene describes itself as “The private and secure mobile operating system with Android app compatibility”. Like yeah no shit you have Android app compatibility. YOU’RE FUCKING ANDROID.
If I remember an anecdote from the android course, to get the android logo and the right to call an android device, you have to pass the android certification. And according to the teacher, it was a real pain.
I don't have issue with my banking apps (banxo caisse d'epargne) but i think they don't use strict safetynet test
My issue is more oomkillers (with my 3GB ram phone, twice a week i have the android support kill) and geolocalisation is really slow (took 5 to 10 minutes after toggle)
> My dad’s house wasn’t on the map. Neither was my mom’s house. Neither was my friend’s place. Obviously I can’t use apps based on OpenStreetMaps to get me places if the places I want to go aren’t on the map.
What do they mean by not on the map? Is it not showing up in search? Is it the housenumber wasn't there? Is it the street not existing at all? If manually zooming to the place was it showing with the correct street and number?
I'm curious since I've found OSM coverage to be pretty good for things like streets and housenumbers since they are generally based on imported data, no?