cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/45425575

I mean we all know about the sideloading restriction thing. So I wanna explore alternative OSes, just gathering info, not sure if I’ll even end up buying another phone (currently have a Samsung as a main phone, and in North America they are bootloader locked).

Like I know Graphene OS is supposedly more secure, but is it worth paying so much more for a phone? And used phones are kinda sketchy btw, most originate from a carrier so unlockability is in question (I’m not playing the buy/return “lootbox” game lol, so much hassle and its never guaranteed when a seller would even accept a return).

The moto I was looking at apparantly was on CalyxOS’s supported list, but they suspended development for some reason, so Lineage is the only Custom ROM left other than Graphene.

Graphene seems cool, but idk if its really that much better. Getting a pixel is directly giving Google the most money, and I don’t feel so good about that after they closed sourced Pixel device tree codes (or whatever that thing was called that they closed sourced), and then they killed sideloading, feels wrong to be buying a pixel right now. So that leaves me with just Lineage. And I could get a much cheaper phone too going Lineage.

So TLDR: If you were to recommend a phone to someone, which would you recommend? Expensive phone for Graphene, or Cheap phone and just use Lineage? Or something else?

  • guismo@aussie.zoneEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    Regarding play services, Samsung won’t brick my phone like Google did with FRP garbage. Samsung is evil but they have miles to go to reach Google level. Plus I have a firewall which minimizes the issue a little. I’m not happy with it, but I can’t install a custom rom… I’m so unhappy that it’s why I bought the pixel 5 to put graphene on it.

    And yeah, pixel 5 only have older graphene, so it may be the reason why. But the newer pixels are even worse for me, so it’s not an option. Not that I would give a pixel another try anymore.

    The other thing is SD card, which Google always hated because they want to sell cloud garbage.

    Either way I hope to get completely rid of Google influence, and a Linux phone is the answer. I had a sailfish xperia long ago but it didn’t work very well.

    A Linux phone with Samsung hardware and their level of software without evil would be heaven. But that’s just dreaming…