DeGoogle Yourself

Thanks for the answer! Sadly pixel devices have no SD card, and it is a quite important feature for me

thanks for the answer!

Debloating a stock OS isn’t recommended since those apps will come back anyway should the system update

really? at every OS update they will be brought back? there is no way to prevent that?

Leaving your bootloader unlocked and rooting your phone as well is detrimental to Android security. Please don’t do that.

my option #2 was to unlock the bootloader only to debloat and to flash privileged apps like fdroid, and then lock it again. Would this still be dangerous?

I am dismayed at the current scenario of basically nothing but the pixels being supported for rooting (not the fault of the community). Also a bit saddened by how easily everyone has accepted it.

Serious question, what the the community not accepting it look like?

A used pixel takes the brunt off of the moral compromise.

Fairphone is not supported by GrapheneOS, here's a detailed explanation as to why

If you have the money

here's the problem XD I'm willing to pay around 350€, 400 at most, and the fairphone 4 starts from over 500€

Murena is a weird company. I tried to purchase a cellphone directly from them a few months ago, and they have this weird system on their website that forces you to create a full-blown cloud account with them - complete with email, calendar, file transfer and all - before being able to order anything. And in fact, even after creating the account, I couldn't even figure out how to order with my brand-spanking new murena.io email.

After fiddling with this for a while, and mostly reflecting on the fact that this company that knows absolutely nothing about me just gave me an email address and a bunch of storage for free at the click of a button, I decided this was all a little too sketchy for my taste and gave up on the whole idea. That's not how I expect to place an order with a normal company: I expect to have a cart and do a secure pay, not go through this kind of account creating rigmarole.

So, I'm not saying Murena is a bad company. I'm saying be careful with them, because the purchasing process is highly unusual with them.

I got a Fairphone 4 from them. Works great! Totally degoogled by default.

A while ago I got a Motorola cellphone on on the Lineage compatibility list. I installed LineageOS and that was a pain to set up, but I got it working well. A few months later there was a Lineage update that bricked the phone.

Another alternative is iodeOS. They also sell pre-installed Fairphones and support a few more devices (not as many as eOS) https://iode.tech/de/installation-iodeos/#1611161940311-4fb3b2cf-4d60|sc-tabs-1700424213961

microG also doesn’t avoid Google as it is still running proprietary Google code

What proprietary code?

has more privacy/security weaknesses

Source?

thanks for the answer! I would gladly do this if only pixel phones had an SD card... Sadly they don't, and I really need it, so no pixel for me :(

https://grapheneos.org has a lot of info. Make sure to buy a phone with an unlocked bootloader. All carriers lock it so buy it used and make sure that its unlocked or buy it directly from Google. You can install all google apps through Aurora store, a Play Store fronrend. You can also install sandboxed Google Play services so your Play Store apps can run and have functionning notifications, as they usualy rely on Play services. Yes you can sideload apps like normal android. Its AOSP without the google stuff. Some videos/channels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5xjsE4mU4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igSUmfKTXqU https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrG6IID2FX7-GxyKtavRhEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1KZWjZVnAw

The stores I have on my GrapheneOS pixel 7a: F-Droid + droidify, Aurora store, and the Google Play store as well for some official apps I cannot do without. Between these, there isn't an app that I couldn't find or install.

I bought my pixel second hand, to not put more money in Google's pocket, and to avoid any carrier locking. Not sure how that will impact the installation, but it might. Best to investigate that matter.

I have to mention: I still cannot believe how easy that installation was. I rooted my previous phone and put lineageOS on it, which was such a tedious procedure back in the day, I really dreaded installing GrapheneOS. But that web interface, detecting everything and guiding me along was pure heaven. I hope that'll become the default for any custom installs.

I'd really like to hear from some people that have actually done this about what to do and what their experience is with grapheneos. I'm leery of spending hundreds of dollars on a phone that may or may not work as I want.

I've done this, here's my takeaways:

On the install:

• The install guide is long and detailed, and it felt important to take my time and do every step exactly as it says.
• In spite of the length of the guide, I was done with my install in about 45 minutes. I spent about 30 of those minutes sipping coffee and reading on my Kindle while my phone applied updates automatically. -By the time the install finished, my feeling was "that was it? I feel like I clicked like 4 links and it did everything."

On owning it:

• My $300 GrapheneOS Pixel 6 is substantially more responsive than my previous $1000 phone. I migrated to a 3 year old phone and if feels like a big upgrade.
• My camera opens quickly, snaps pictures quickly, and is ready to snap another picture, quickly. This shouldn't be a big deal, but some of your with $1000 Android phones know what I'm talking about. I'll die on the "this should never have been hard in the first place" hill. But in the meantime, the responsive camera is the most important quality of life upgrade I got from GrapheneOS.
• Installing apps from Aurora, with it's privacy insights, was very eye-opening for me. I mention this mainly for context on my next point.
• App compatibility has not been an issue for me; but I quit using certain really invasive apps when I saw their tracking details in Aurora store. (Cough - Paramount Plus - cough)
• I've heard bank apps can be a challenge, but mine works perfectly. I now love GrapheneOS enough that I am realizing I will move my money if that changes.

I'm a GrapheneOS user. You can use whichever store you like. Sideloading works too if you want to get stuff directly from GitHub, for example.

If you use esim, probably better to activate before flashing GrapheneOS. Otherwise, doesn't matter imo.

I'd suggest you take a look at the discussion forum. You can ask questions there or just browse and you can probably learn a lot about GrapheneOS there. Also the homepage has tons of info, of course.