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Comment by carpenecopinum | Hacker News Reader

I mean, GrapheneOS hits at least 2/3 of your demands pretty well. The Play services are "regular" apps with permissions that you can take away. For contacts and files you get "scopes", i.e. you decide what the app can see, while the app is left to believe that it can see everything there is.

That said, I think the marketing of GrapheneOS could be better. Every introduction of GrapheneOS I've seen paints the image of Graphene being "Absolute security, no compromises", whereas in reality GrapheneOS is the most "Things need to work, no compromises. Then make the rest as safe as possible" custom ROM that I've used thus far (in particular regarding them allowing you to install Google Play, rather than using MicroG).

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I would certainly be using GrapheneOS if only I could get one to run on something else than a Pixel.

I have a perfectly good phone whose bootloader can be unlocked and I can install LineageOS or other AOSP installations there but all I'm aware of and I've researched come short on the sandboxing and permissions. I'd be willing to use GrapheneOS without support for specific security hardware (if only they supported that configuration) just for the features mentioned but Pixel phones are just too expensive. I've always been more than happy with a decent low-tier phone and I don't see a technical reason to change that. Nothing wrong with my phone.

Pixel A's are quite affordable. GrapheneOS is open source so if there was a need, people could get it to run on insecure devices that aren't Pixels. Expecting that to be done by GrapheneOS developers who care about security just seems weird.

> Pixel A's are quite affordable

There's first-world, upper-middle-class affordable (~$500) and then there's global affordable (<$250).

I got a Pixel 7 secondhand (but good condition) for the equivalent of about $270. It would have been less but I needed 256 gb of storage.

I usually buy refurbs similarly like I buy 2 year old cars.

Currently I can get brand new Pixel 8a on ebay for £250 or similar, and refurbs from "flawless" to mint" conditions for half of it.

Still good enough.

> I would certainly be using GrapheneOS if only I could get one to run on something else than a Pixel.

But the whole idea of GrapheneOS is the reason why it (currently) only runs on Pixels. On other phones you can run anything based on LineageOS...

I don't want GrapheneOS to compromise on that: if I didn't care about it, I would use any other alternative. To me it's a bit like saying "I would be using Linux if it was a lot more like Windows" (that's something I often understand when Windows users explain what it would take for them to use Linux). But I, as a Linux user, really don't want Linux to look a lot more like Windows.

FTFA: it will run on upcoming Motorola devices as well.

Yes, that's why I was reading this thread :)

Doesn't help with the current situation though but I hope the partnering between Motorola and GrapheneOS is still up and going in a few years when I'll next have to replace my phone.

I'm personally happy with LineageOS on OnePlus stuff, but have you considered getting a Pixel that's 2 gens or so old from eBay? I find old flagships drop in price pretty quick and are often a better deal than a new low-end phone.

Mock Location exists but our Location Scopes feature will largely replace it for non-development use. Camera, Microphone and other scopes features will be provided too. We haven't fully fleshed out what the ones for other permission groups such as Phone will look like yet but it's planned.

Would there be any means of preventing apps from seeing one's phone number, IMEI etc.?

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