• 0 Posts
  • 19 Comments
Joined 10 months ago
Cake day: January 1st, 2024
  • IcyPenguin@beehaw.orgtoFree and Open Source Software@beehaw.org•Help with a simple and private phone
    0·
    10 months ago

    Don’t root your GrapheneOS system. This site offers a great summary why it’s bad. Root and Magisk are huge increases in attack surface and microG isn’t recommended either, as it requires root for basic functionality. GrapheneOS has created Sandboxed Google Play services, which takes the official Google Play services binary and runs them in the normal Android application sandbox. This is more private and secure than both the implementation on the Stock OS and microG. Most banking apps work on GrapheneOS with Sandboxed Google Play services, no need for root. In fact, root decreases your chances of getting banking apps to work, because a rooted device can’t pass Google Play device integrity checks (previously known as SafetyNet).

  • IcyPenguin@beehaw.orgtoFree and Open Source Software@beehaw.org•Help with a simple and private phone
    0·
    10 months ago

    Great to see people care about their privacy, especially on their mobile devices, as these are often the worst in regards to privacy. GrapheneOS is definitely the best choice, other options are not worth considering. I absolutely recommend against the Librem 5 (or any Linux phone), as these are not really usable, lack essentially every important app and have far worse security than Android or GrapheneOS. There’s a great article about Linux phones: https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/linux-phones.html

    If you want to use GrapheneOS, get a Pixel 6 or newer, because the older models don’t get security updates anymore. The Pixel 6 will be supported until 2026, the 6a until 2027, you can check out the full list out on this site: https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime

    GrapheneOS doesn’t ship any unnecessary bloatware by default, it only comes with stock AOSP applications and no Google services at all. You can install Sandboxed Google Play services from the GrapheneOS Apps repository. For all the other things you need, I recommend searching on F-Droid. It’s a repository of FOSS Android apps that don’t spy on you.

    I would really love to keep it as a utility: phone, text, camera, GPS, web browser, notes, email, music player. Im think of switching to local NextCloud backup system as well.

    For your use cases I recommend the following apps:

    • Simple Dialer

    • Simple Messenger

    • GrapheneOS includes their own ‘Secure Camera’ app, but it can’t make use of the post processing in the Google Pixel. You can install the normal Google Camera app from the Play Store through Aurora Store (an anonymous way to download apps from Google Play) and revoke it’s network permission in the settings. The network toggle is a feature unique to GrapheneOS.

    • For maps and navigation I recommend the following solutions: OsmAnd, Organic Maps and Magic Earth. Magic Earth isn’t open source, but they have a good privacy policy and at least in my experience it’s better than the other solutions.

    • GrapheneOS ships with the Vanadium browser, which is a hardened version of Chromium. Vanadium is also used in the WebView API, which other apps use to display web content. If you don’t like to a Chromium-based browser, I recommend Mull which is hardened Firefox.

    • For Notes, I really like Notesnook. It’s open-source, available on F-Droid and if you use their cloud sync feature, it’s end to end encrypted. You can also use it locally and revoke it’s network access, so it never connects to the internet, if that’s what you prefer. Standard Notes is another option. It also encrypts you notes database locally. There’s also Simple Notes, which has less features and it’s fully offline.

    • K-9 Mail is probably the best FOSS email client. There’s also FairEmail, but the user interface isn’t great.

    • Retro Music is an amazing, good looking open source music app. Simple Music is an alternative.

    • The Nextcloud app is also available on F-Droid.

    • If you’re into self hosting, I recommend Immich for syncing photos.

    If you find these apps useful, consider donating to their developers. They deserve a tip for making all of this great software available to everyone.

    Hope you find this useful.