This is a big issue that the fairphone doesn’t have its dtb open yet. It’s not easy to build ROM for it. Despite their core claim of sustainability, without addressing the blobs, it remains just a tad more convenient for green minded people. We need a full Fairphone.
You can still get cameras and screens for the Fairphone 2 from Fairphone. No they’re not making more, but they also have never said “unlimited support forever”.
That the process doesn’t require prying apart glue alone makes it significantly more repairable than any other mainstream phone.
/e/OS is not bad as an alternative. The system wide ad and tracker blocking is nice.
I switched to e/os on a couple of motorolas that supported it and it’s great so far.
The comparisons to GrapheneOS are fair to some degree, but also not. Graphene is meant to be privacy and security hardened, whereas GrapheneOS, while it is more secure than regular android, is more concerned with privacy hardening. The biggest misconception people have seems to be thinking that privacy and security are the same thing; and while that is true on the surface level, security (a la GrapheneOS) goes much deeper.
So while my phone may not be as “hack resistant” as a GrapheneOS, it’s degoogled and very protective of tracking, which is what I’m primarily concerned with. So I’m happy.
Thanks for sharing. For someone who is not so well versed in these technicalities, what does that mean for the user? That you’re more susceptible to fraud and hacking and malware?
From a user’s perspective, when you install an app, you can:
Determine if that app is allowed to access the internet.
If it needs access to your contacts, you can share which of your contacts, it can see (or none at all)
If it needs access to your files, you can determine which files/photos/music it sees (or none at all, but the application still believes it has access to everything)
There are a bunch of other, security features it provides, but from a “normal user” experience, the ability to take control of your data is probably one of the most impactful.
It is possible to do similar things with other CFW, but AFAIK, graphene is the only one to cleanly integrate it as a polished feature of the ROM.
You would choose it for security hardening in general. E.g. it is harder for malware to infect, harder for unauthorized parties to gain access to data when the phone is locked, etc.
I want GrapheneOS more than repairability, personally. I hope the Fairphone + GrapheneOS combination is possible some day…
The Graphene devs explicitly only support Pixels. Sticking with Graphene means continuing to give Google the profits from your hardware.
/e/OS is not bad as an alternative. The system wide ad and tracker blocking is nice.
Google makes way more on services so I don’t think they are making that much off the phones.
This is a big issue that the fairphone doesn’t have its dtb open yet. It’s not easy to build ROM for it. Despite their core claim of sustainability, without addressing the blobs, it remains just a tad more convenient for green minded people. We need a full Fairphone.
And besides that, fairphone is just greenwashing when it comes to repairability, good luck finding parts for previous generations.
You can still get cameras and screens for the Fairphone 2 from Fairphone. No they’re not making more, but they also have never said “unlimited support forever”.
That the process doesn’t require prying apart glue alone makes it significantly more repairable than any other mainstream phone.
I switched to e/os on a couple of motorolas that supported it and it’s great so far.
The comparisons to GrapheneOS are fair to some degree, but also not. Graphene is meant to be privacy and security hardened, whereas GrapheneOS, while it is more secure than regular android, is more concerned with privacy hardening. The biggest misconception people have seems to be thinking that privacy and security are the same thing; and while that is true on the surface level, security (a la GrapheneOS) goes much deeper.
So while my phone may not be as “hack resistant” as a GrapheneOS, it’s degoogled and very protective of tracking, which is what I’m primarily concerned with. So I’m happy.
I just wish I could afford a fairphone in Canada.
I just bought a refurbished (as new) Pixel 9 to use Grapheneos.
Saved ~50% and didn’t pay Google.
Genius! That is exactly how I buy my slaves
Phrasing?
That wasn’t as funny as you thought it would be.
I’m sorry, your what??? 😳
They said “possible someday”, not “possible currently”.
Probably next best thing
What maskes you want Graphene over e/OS? I’m not so familiar with how they feel.
Graphene modifies AOSP for much more security.
E.g.
I dont think e/OS is as security oriented, more privacy oriented
Thanks for sharing. For someone who is not so well versed in these technicalities, what does that mean for the user? That you’re more susceptible to fraud and hacking and malware?
From a user’s perspective, when you install an app, you can:
There are a bunch of other, security features it provides, but from a “normal user” experience, the ability to take control of your data is probably one of the most impactful.
It is possible to do similar things with other CFW, but AFAIK, graphene is the only one to cleanly integrate it as a polished feature of the ROM.
edit: fix formatting
I see, and it can’t be installed on Fairphone?
No, the Graphene developers insist on hardware functionality that is not present on the Fairphone.
No, currently only on Pixels. Plans to support another future platform exist.
A big thing is gOS not using JIT compiling. So, app updates are pretty slow but this kills a lot of malware exploits.
https://grapheneos.org/features#exploit-mitigations
So if I were to choose graphene over eOS it would mainly be to be more protected from malware?
You would choose it for security hardening in general. E.g. it is harder for malware to infect, harder for unauthorized parties to gain access to data when the phone is locked, etc.