Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Google Pixel alternatives? (lemmy.giftedmc.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm thinking of getting a second phone to ease off iOS. It has been good for productivity stuff but the closed off nature of the device keeps disrupting my plans. Everything is either expensive or ad ridden. (Except floccus, floccus is awesome)

So far I have read about graphene OS and am quite interested. I really despise google though. Any chance to use another device and put some linux flavor on it? I was playing with the idea of a pinephone but it seems to be nowhere near daily drivable, fairphone is starting at 580 €, volla phone (german) 450 €...

Some people said xiaomi should be rootable. But the amount of different phones is huge. The price range is awesome though. I was thinking sub 300 €/$ would be awesome so tinkering doesnt hurt me financially.

Disclaimer: I dont want to go full hermit mode with no sim and a faraday bag. I respect the opinion but thats not what I'm trying to do. I want to write some small apps for my phone and use it as a computer if needed. Calling, matrix and browser should work flawlessly.

Any ideas or suggestions? :)

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I see two options here really. Either get a pixel phone and install Graphene on it (this allows you to run play services in a sandbox), or get any phone that supports lineage and install everything there and avoid Google.

It depends on whether you need Google services or not. Pixel phones support both operating systems.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for chiming in. I dont need any google services. Most of my stuff is self-hosted by now.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Then a custom rom, like graphene is allows you to de google your phone. Although google have embedded themselves deeply into android, the pixels are quite open about unlocking boot loader etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

thanks for elaborating. I'm not sure which OS i would want to use but definitely not stock android. :D

I'd really like to have a proper linux so that I can use the phone as a computer from time to time. Like impromptu connecting it to a tv and connecting a keyboard or something but I will see about that later. :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

It depends on whether you need Google services or not.

I would get a Pixel with GrapheneOS regardless of if you need Google or not. Graphene does a lot more than just sandbox the Play Store.

https://grapheneos.org/features#grapheneos