Like the title says. I’ve been reading recommendations about this OS, so i went to look on their homepage, but you can only install it on Pixel phones, which are from google, right? In other words, to get rid of google products, you still have to spend your money on google? Am i missing something? I thought there were other custom roms where you can choose whether or not to add to add google products? Please be gentle, i’m a noob when it comes to custom roms. I have had CyanogenMod on a phone many years ago, but someone helped me do it. And i’m really not current with changes in recent custom roms.
GrapheneOS doesn’t only support Pixel phones because the bootloader can be relocked using a custom ROM (my phone does that) but rather because it is the best phone for security. That much is true. But more importantly, it’s the standard Android implementation and the GrapheneOS team only has so much bandwidth to add support for various phones.
However, there’s no way in hell I’m giving Google a single cent. Also, I wanted something that could be repaired, and Pixel phones ain’t it.
So I went for a Fairphone 4 with CalyxOS. I’m glad I did: the phone is just what I need in terms of repairability (not in terms of price, but that’s kind of expected when you buy from a small outfit in Europe) and CalyxOS is a wonderful deGoogled OS for a variety of reasons. Installing it on the Fairphone went as smooth as butter. And yes, the bootloader is relocked :)
One more thing re buying a Pixel phone second hand: it IS equivalent to giving money to Google. You don’t give more money to Google, but you partially reimburse the original owner. In other words, you buy back part of their original purchase. In other words, you replace part of their money in Google’s coffers by yours.
And if you use a Pixel Phone, you promote the use of Google hardware. I don’t want to promote any Google product.
Not to mention of course, the irony of giving Google money for the privilege of escaping the Google surveillance. That’s too rich for me. I’d rather have a little less security with a non-Google phone.
Very interesting comment, thank you so much for your thoughts! The Fairphone is interesting, i’ve been reading about it now and then, and i will definitely check out CalyxOS. How do you like the Fairphone? I wouldn’t need it for resource heavy apps, but i would like to be able to make some decent pictures with it (big bonus for macro option). Again, much appreciated!
I’m not a gamer or a heavy social media user. So I don’t know if the FairPhone 4 is a good choice for that, if that’s your thing. Probably not from what I’ve read.
It’s plenty good enough for my needs though. It feels like a good mid-level cellphone from 3 years ago - with the price of a top-tier cellphone of today though :)
I like the Fairphone 4. It has one annoying bug that the Fairphone folks are taking an inordinate amount of time fixing: random screen dimming when the phone gets hot in the sun. Other than that, it’s been absolutely flawless for me. Hopefully the screen dimming issue will soon get resolved.
Bonus: the Fairphone 4 supports charging control, and CalyxOS has the option enabled. That makes it the only phone I know that supports this apart from Pixel phones!
As to your question re pictures: I’m not much of a photograph, but I’ve read the cameras are nothing to write home about. They take very decent pictures for me though. Maybe I’m easily pleased… If you install Open Camera to replace the crummy stock Android camera app, it has a button to select the wide angle camera or the regular camera. The latter can focus onto stuff maybe an inch away. Not sure if that’s enough for you. I can shoot a sample photo if you want.
I appreciate all you have written here but I have to differ with you about buying a pixel second hand. The transaction is over, someone else will buy the phone or it will go into a landfill. The latter is an awful outcome and I think we all should oppose that. If someone else buys it, Google still gets none of that cash. True, you could argue it’s “promoting” Google. But we all make sacrifices. For many, the budgetary constraint is a big one.
Well, I stand by what I said about second-hand purchasers ultimately effectively giving money to the company that makes whatever product they buy second hand. It’s just plain logic: if you buy something from Acme Inc. for $100, Acme has $100 of your money and you have their product. If you resell that product to your neighbor for $100 (assuming no depreciation), you get your $100 back and you don’t own the product anymore, but your neighbor is now in your initial situation. Whose money do you think now lines Acme’s pockets?
If you care very much about not giving Google any money like I do, the only way to achieve to own a Pixel phone is to steal it. But I ain’t no thief, so… no.
I agree with you on the budget constraint though: I’ll admit I have enough disposable to blow extra money on a Fairphone 4 that has the specs of a Google phone that’s $300 to $400 cheaper: it’s not cheap but I can afford it, and not touching a Google product with a 10-ft pole is that important to me. If you can’t afford it though, it’s still better to swallow your pride and get a Google phone so you can install a deGoogled OS and at least deny Google the monetization of your private data than not doing that.
I mean, for your logic to hold up at all, it requires ignoring a very real fact. A second hand phone was already purchased. That transaction was done already, and there exists no world in which if you don’t buy the second hand phone the seller will think “omg no one will buy this, guess I have to switch from Google forever”. Another person will absolutely buy it. But even if not, then it gets wasted, and I think the environmental impact being ignored here is a pretty crass move also. I’m not willing to sacrifice environmental concerns to send a message to Google. Honestly they absolutely know how many phones are running stock android so that number decreasing would “send the message” just the same without a phone potentially ending up in a landfill.