Nothing special, just wanted to make a post because I’m extremely proud of myself today. Reddit was the only thing holding me back, and I’m happy to say that I’ve just deleted my 8 year old account. I’m now only using open source apps for my android and desktop OS and it feels amazing!
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Nobody tell them about their firmware.
Graphene OS and Debian - trying my best 🥹
This isn’t an all-or-nothing thing.
For Windows users, it’s already a good progress to switch to Firefox/VLC/LibreOffice/NextCloud from closed source alternatives.
Firefox and VLC were my gateway drugs when I was a teeny pirate discovering the Internet and even computers :)
perfect is the enemy of good
Dashero is doing great work with coreboot. Several latop vendors sell it preinstalled
https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/02/17/privacy-is-not-dead/
(The second mindset)
What about the CPU and RAM?
Great choice! Keep going
But what about your DNA? Have you reversed your specific genome yet?
principal skinner looking down at the camera with eyes narrowed
you can’t be 100% free software (I reject the term Open Source), you’ll always have a device with lots of binary blobs and proprietary firmware. The holy grail of 100% free software is currently unattainable
Me reading the title: “Please give me a copy of your DNA so that I may compile you from source.”
Is android open source?
They USS GrapheneOS which is based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project) both are FOSS
The core of Android is open source and named AOSP for short, it is built on top of the Linux kernel which is also free and open source. However Google have made AOSP not usable by abandonning most of the free app in favor of their own proprietary apps such as Google Messenger, Goole Photos etc… That’s why community project like LineageOS builds their own apps to make them usable instead of the old deprecated ones. Brands like Samsung, OnePlus, etc… are not building from AOSP but rather paying a licence fee to Google so they can use the Google Services that are almost necessary to modern Android.
OP is running GrapheneOS which is a Free and Open Source Operating System based on AOSP.
Cool thanks, I’ll look into grapheneOS more. I’m curious if it’s recommended for activists as some phones are easier to break into than others by police or national security.
GrapheneOS is a harden Android that gives you more control over your phone and its data. It’s not the only FOSS variant based on AOSP and works only on Google’s Pixel hardware as of today for security reasons. I’ve been running it for years now and I honestly like it very much.
Graphene is absolutely the best choice for that exact situation, please do look into it more. It is far ahead of anything else for enabling you to stay safe. You do still have to make sure to set it up correctly, which takes some careful reading, but the instructions are out there.
So I know there’s lists out there about which OSes can easily be broken into and which are safer, and those usually only mention IOS and Andriod. This would make me wary of trying different OSes because there’s less info on how safe they are. I don’t know anything though I hate technology but I’m forced to learn for privacy and at very early stage of that.
Who wrote these lists?
This one is a good “list” https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/distributions/
The police in my country use a device to break into phones and sometimes there’s a leak of which phones and OSes have the loopholes that the device takes advantage of. Idk if I’m explaining it well sorry. But the situation changes frequently because sometimes new loopholes are found and sometimes google or apple fix the bug that causes the loophole. Those lists only mention android and iOS versions thus with another OS you wouldn’t know if it has a similar bug or not.
It is recommended for activists, but it really can be for anyone. It is basically just Android and your grandmother could daily drive it about as well as any other Android OS. It’s solid, security hardened, gives extra security toggles, and extends device longevity past being made ewaste by EOL. I was hesitant at first to use it, especially given its cult-ish community, but it really has “just worked”.
