cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34022186
I own 2 bloated proprietary devices and don’t use them for anything important, like banking or dealing with authorities. I also don’t trust the manufactures not selling my data.
Id like to have a working device with no bloatware and completely degoogled. Ironically I’d have to buy something made by google to run GrapheneOS on it. Intended use would be to use as a camera, to run CoMaps on it, pkpass files with foss-wallet, reading epubs, making phone calls and running one aurora app.
I don’t need the device to play games, watch movies, show off or to play loud music, but I’d like a jack port for my headphones (I assume google headphones would cease to work if I degoogle the device, nor would I want to spend more than necessary enriching that data grabber even more.
Is there a pixel device with a jack port?
Are batteries inside pixel devices glued to the frame or can they be easy to change?
My main OS is debian. How easy is to transfer data from GrapheneOS to debian and the other way round?
Overall if you run GrapheneOS on a pixel, how many years running it and what do you think about it?
I’ve been using GrapheneOS for at least 5 years now (still remember the days when their sandboxed Play Store would need a force stop after every app install 💀) and I’m a much heavier user than you (social media, YouTube/podcasts, etc.). At this point I would not use anything else.
You won’t have issues with app compatibility except for certain banking apps and Google Pay, if you choose to install the sandboxed Google Services. If not, you’ll have issues with some apps not sending you push notifications (for example, Discord and Proton Mail) and other apps not working entirely (like Snapchat). Still, the last time I tried going fully de-Googled I remember most apps still working well enough even without Google services. From your post it sounds like you could easily live without it.
Sadly the newer phones have no headphone jack, and you definitely should not go for older ones that don’t recieve security updates. And the Pixels have never had removable batteries (you can check out iFixit for more info on repairability). Any Bluetooth headphones will work. They do have a 3.5mm jack to USB-C adapter but I it never worked for me.
Data transfer between Linux and Android has always been dead simple regardless of the OSes involved. Just plug the phone in and tap a couple of things, the phone’s filesystem will show up on the PC like any USB drive.
My main OS is debian. How easy is to transfer data from GrapheneOS to debian and the other way round?
KDE Connect works great for me
Headphone jack:
Get a USBC adapter
Batteries:
Not easy to change, check out ifixit
Debian <> Pixel data transfer:
USB, or Wireless across any protocol you can imagine.
My experience with GOS:
Contactless payments and some QR code payment methods from banking apps in my country refuse to work with GOS.
Otherwise, I love it. Very easy to install and use. Recommended.
You should probably also consider CalyxOS, which supports most Pixel phones and, for me at least, seems to work with banking apps using microG while removing all of the pre installed Google bloat and providing a firewall.
That said, I haven’t tried GrapheneOS. From what I hear you can lock it down even more and there are more features.
Yea, im on a 6 pro with calyx. Its been my daily driver now for a few years. Apps that use in app purchases work to varying degrees. Up until recently pokemongo didn’t launch as an example. Others won’t load prices or store pages well, but thats to be expected without full google approval.
Some banking apps do work some don’t. Mine stopped working for like 3 weeks then returned to normal.
Everything bluetooth has worked on here just fine. Every day i connect my bluetooth headset and listen to podcasts at work or through bluetooth in my car just fine.