Hacker News Reader

Comment by mort96 | Hacker News Reader

Running a custom ROM locks you out of almost all decent phone hardware on the market since most have locked bootloaders, and it locks you out of a ton of apps people rely on such as banking and money transfer apps. You must recognise that it's not a practical solution for most people.

View on HN

Graphene mitigates the locked bootloader issue by only supporting one line of phones (Pixel), which have unlocked bootloaders.

A large amount of work has been put into making Graphene specifically work with banking apps. Mine does, for instance.

Are Calyx or Lineage worth a look? It’s a tough choice between the 3.

I've used Lineage. I'd say it's worth a look, yes. I got a Pixel for Graphene, though.

I've happily used LineageOS without gapps for years across several OnePlus devices. If I ever need a new phone I check their supported devices list to pick, and the stock ROM on my new device gets overwritten the day it arrives. Currently using a OnePlus 8T. When I move on from this device as my primary someday, I may put postmarketOS on it to extend its usefulness.

Don't forget Anom. (A cautionary tale.) https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/146/

> Running a custom ROM locks you out of almost all decent phone hardware on the market since most have locked bootloaders

GrapheneOS only works on Pixel devices. Pixel devices are fine. We have reached a point where just about every mid-tier device is fine, really. I run my devices until they are FUBAR or can't be updated due to EOL. EOL for Android (and GrapheneOS) is ~7 years from the release date now.

> it locks you out of a ton of apps people rely on such as banking and money transfer apps.

These can be installed and isolated using work or user profiles in GrapheneOS. Also as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42538853 points out, a lot of work has been put into making Graphene work with banking apps[1].

> You must recognise that it's not a practical solution for most people.

Of course I do. We can act on two levels. We (as a society) can work for regulation and we (computery people) can take direct action by developing and using software and hardware that works in the user's interest. One does not exclude the other.

[1] https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...

You don't need tons of choice, but sufficient availability of a decent enough choice. The google piexel line supported by grapheneos is one.

My budget didn't allow me to buy a brand new one but I could buy a second hand pixel 6a for 200€.

Having said that you can also use an older phone with /e/os or lineageos and avoid apps that tracks you by limiting to android apps without telemetry available on f-droid.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com