Hello
i use Linux for Privacy,security and freedom.
yesterday my phone fell and i have a black spot on the screen but it’s still usable.
since I’m looking quit some time for a replacement, and the Xperia 10V is still not ready;
reading around i saw Grapheneos was a possibility but i don’t know much beyond the basics i read.
do you find it an issue using this OS?
are there any cons?
it seems more secure with better support.
what are your thoughts?
(i only use Firefox,whatsapp and mails.)
GrapheneOS is not just “an OS” - it is an Android distribution. Something like how Brave is a reskinned and tweaked Chrom(e/ium). If that’s what you want; go right ahead - don’t lay it on us to make choices for you.
asking for thoughts and opinions from experienced users,
i didn’t ask what should i do.
I also was tempted by GrapheneOS, given the Xperia 10 V alpha blob debacle. I found the sandboxing approach convincing, but I cannot stand the Pixel phones. I tried them in a local shop, but in my view Pixels are unbelievably ugly devices. Therefore, GrapheneOS was not an option anymore.
I use a Volla Quintus right now, very soon there will be support for dual boot.
An Android system with reduced google (only microG) is for my privacy requurements sufficient.
What I miss the most with (nearly) google-free Android is Lipstick: the UI of SFOS is much more beautiful than anything else in Android world.
Try the Pixel phones in a shop, if the hardware is to your liking, I think GrapheneOS is a valid and nice alternative that gives you the control over googles app rights, or better leave out google completely
Your questions are so vague, you might just as well have.
But this is besides the point.
Comparing an Android distribution and an actually independent OS is comparing apples and oranges. If you don’t care about the distinction, go right ahead, but this is the Sailfish OS Forum, not the degoogled forum. It is like showing up at the Mozilla forum and asking about opinions about Brave. Your usage of Firefox would imply you understand something about not feeding the monoculture, but perhaps you don’t care.
me as many other here need to find a solution quit quickly and make purchases decisions and the direction we’re going.
with no real communications on a timeline or the expectations we should have, we’re left in the dark.
since more experienced users probably already looked into alternatives,I’m asking for their opinion.
would i be glad to use Graphene OS? no, but i need the best working solution currently that is not full Google.
if it bothers you,there are other open threads you can go harass.
Use Apple! Is the best not full Google solution. Isn’t it what you are looking for?!
You can buy Nova phones from Huawei, no google inside, pretty good hardware.
You can flash most Sony’s phones with in-house Sony’s Emma tool and get AOSP on them, no google anymore after that.
But in both cases (Huawei’s Emui or Sony’s AOSP) they moslty fork google’s extensive work, namely Android. So you somewhat join that ecosystem.
Or you can use a system as Sailfish, which works great for many use cases, not all.
Allows you to use pure linux apps side by side with (optionally) android ones.
Xperia 10 III is ready if you need to buy ‘now’.
C2 pretty much as well (order here, made in Europe! Jolla shop )
VI and V maybe kind if ready for daily use in a couple of month (if bugs get cleared).
I’ve managed to stay on SailfishOS for a long time recently but in the past years I used to switch between SFOS and GrapheneOS (GOS) about every six months because something started to annoy me and then I switched and then something started to annoy me there and I’d switch back 
Anyway, interface-wise GrapheneOS is just stock Android which you can either run degoogled (more or less like running Android apps on SFOS) or with sandboxed Google Services in which case almost every app works like it would on “normal” Androids.
(Below the surface the appeal of GOS is that they’ve hardened it.)
So for your use-case, Firefox WhatsApp and mail, there’s not a big difference between either SFOS or GOS.
For privacy and security, it is GrapheneOS running on a Google Pixel device.
As you may already know, Graphene OS is basically Android Open Source Project without any Google services. For details, Features overview | GrapheneOS and check their forum https://discuss.grapheneos.org/
Pixel devices are current devices with up to 7 major Android upgrades from the day the device was launched.
i’ll wait a bit more as long as my current phone can hold, in hope that developers of SFos see the urgency of the community and provide some expectations/approximate date or state their intentions moving forward.
Thanks.
Bought a Pixel 8 and flashed GrapheneOS onto it abt. 2 months ago. It works fine after becoming familiar with it. It has some features, missing in SFOS and no hope that they will ever come in SFOS. But on the other hand, the Pixel has no headphones jack, - edit: no SD-Card slot - and mobile access point is not configurable, some things and apps that work fine on SFOS are not available and/or ugly on GOS.
So I’ll use both in parallel and complementing each other in future.
So my suggestion is: Be happy with GOS, but don’t forget on SFOS, fix the broken screen and enjoy both!
From a developer’s perspective:
You lose the ability to package and distribute standard Linux applications (such as RPMs or Flatpaks), as well as native Silica apps. Instead, you’re limited to the Android packaging system — which Google increasingly controls and may soon restrict further, potentially making free and open distribution more difficult.
From a user’s perspective, you gain access to a much larger app ecosystem and the ability to purchase apps easily. However, you’ll also lose access to some unique, free Sailfish apps — not that most Android users would miss them, but it’s worth noting nonetheless.
I’m not touching topics that has been discussed so much such as privacy, distraction free os, silica itself (it’s a matter of taste if you like it or not).
There are other options, apart from GOS and other Android AOSP (/e/OS, iodeOS, Lineage, etc) though, that are similar to SFOS, and support Waydroid. Although my daily driver is my good old Xperia 10 iii running SFOS (the most reliable and most supported Linux for mobile up to now), I play around with other options as well, just in case…
I’m curious about that droidian, is it in a usable state? does it use deb as packages? Does it work as a daily driver?
I used Droidian and is usable and stable - but not for me, beceause the os doesn’t support dual SIM ;(
Only that thing blocks me to droidian
Interesting! well I’m not considering replacing sailfish with it, I’m more interested on testing games there more than anything, but good to know that one sim works and you can make calls! I just found it is very short on ram… a pitty, anyway is still interesting.
Well, from my experience, it can be used as a daily driver, if you don’t do a lot of tasks with the phone. To get this straight, the information I am about to share come from my experience with Redmi Note 9 Pro, with latest droidian.
So, yes, it is quite usable. Waydroid has a very nice, built-in Settings UI, and is quite stable (I do not use it a lot, just for a couple of tests). It works well as an actual phone, but sometimes you do not get valid information about signal strength. E.g., even if it is connected to provider, it may show “No SIM”, but you can make a call normally.
The main problem for me is that, sometimes, when trying to enter a sub-category in system settings, the phone hangs and requires a restart. And after that, no app can be executed, although the UI responds OK.
In general, the OS is heading the right way though.
