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Comment by fragileone | Hacker News Reader

Android ROMs like GrapheneOS do not spy on you, verifiably.

Verifiably? Are people still swapping ROMs on XDA developers like its 1990? Are folks still having to dump binary blobs from devices to get the things to work with non-stock ROMs? Are some people still relying on jailbreaking tools they have to “just trust”? Does the modem on all these SOCs still run it’s own network facing machine with full RAM access?

Things might be better, but it’s not all roses.

It's non-trivial to unlock, root, and install a custom ROM - unless you are technical, very few people are going to be able to do this.

Also, it's been several years since I used a custom ROM, but I thought rooted devices were not permitted to use the official Google Play Store? (happy to be corrected if I've got this point wrong!)

Rooting and installing a custom ROM are two independent things, you don't need one to have the other.

Rooted devices can use the official Play Store yes, though most people use Aurora Store to access the Play Store because they tend to remove Google Play Services from their phones as well.

A good first step, but that the public won't take. We've seen it with linux on the desktop already.

Moving good sense (good sense, not "good" conclusions - abilities, not partytaking) to the median is the massive endavour.

What is to be preserved as core is to have the alternatives. Note: in some areas they are already fading...

(I have this flash of Mr. Pink first trying a "We are professionals, right?", than shielding himself behind concrete.)

Linux on the desktop is pretty viable now, but yeah, still hard to convince the public without marketing shenanigans.

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