I read somewhere that the owners have ties to russia, but the most important thing is that they’re marketing very aggressively through posts that slander GraphenOS.
I would really appreciate it if you could give some references - any at all - to back this claim.
All I have seen is GrapheneOS folks (or probably just a certain individual affiliated with the GrapheneOS org) accusing them of doing this.
As for Jolla, this is about the timeline:
2014 Russia attacks Crimea, temporarily occupies it
2016 Jolla grants Sailfish license to a private Open Mobile Platform LLC in Russia
2018 Rostelecom (state-owned Russian company) buys Open Mobile Platform
2020 Sailfish license to Rostelecom ends
2021 Jolla ceases all business in Russia -- at this point Rostelecom owns 32% of Jolla either directly or via subsidiaries
2022 Russia attacks rest of Ukraine in February
2022 Jolla starts dislodging from Russian ownership. Negotations with russian owners unsuccessful.
2023 Jollyboys Oy is formed, business restructuring of Jolla starts to move assets there
2024 Jolla files for bankruptcy to get finally rid of rest of the problematic ownership
So the current company around the new Jolla phone is technically a new company and has none of the previous baggage, but retains most of the non-russian owners and staff of Jolla.
The time between 2014-2022 was of course kind of problematic, but that was the reality in Europe. We still widely and naively gave Russia the benefit of the doubt back then. It seems to me that after Russia started the war in 2022, Jolla started immediately moving away from there.
Sources:
https://www.is.fi/taloussanomat/art-2000010451277.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolla
https://suomimobiili.fi/jollyboys-oy-ostaa-sailfish-os-kaytt...
FWIW, as someone who is not in the phone OS development world at all but has been reviewing phones with alternative OSes for about the last 4 years...
My impression is that everyone else in the phone-OS and deGoogled-Android world hates the GrapheneOS folks, and it's mutual. They seem to be borderline impossible to work with, very arrogant and protectionist, and the project's own support lifetime is "when Google no longer supports your phone, we don't either."
Personally, I'd choose something else. Anything else, in fact.
I don't think that is true. Team members regularly speak positively of iPhone security. E.g.:
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/113874795519341571
They also do not post much on LineageOS and when they do it usually articulates the difference between both (with LineageOS focusing more on customizability, while being much less secure).
I think the strongest disagreement is with /e/OS, which is not surprising, because their founder goes around to various widely-viewed/read media insinuating that security hardening/GrapheneOS is only for pedophiles and spies.
They seem to be borderline impossible to work with, very arrogant and protectionist,
As a user, they seem to be responsive to bug reports and actively helping out people in their forums. Not sure what else I need.
and the project's own support lifetime is "when Google no longer supports your phone, we don't either."
But that makes sense, right? One of the main foci of GrapheneOS is security. If Google stops supporting a Pixel model, there will be no more updates of firmware bundles, etc. Most firmware has monthly CVEs, pretending that it doesn't would go counter one of the main goals of GrapheneOS. If you want to maintain such a phone as an insecure device after Google's update period, there are other options you could switch to.
I am also not sure how much this matters. Even Pixel budget devices (a-series) have 7 years of security updates now. It's not only one of the longest in the industry, it's probably beyond how long 95% of the population uses a phone.
I know the people behind SailfishOS, they’re not like, friends or anything: just ex-Nokia developers who got fucked by Microsoft (like I did, btw, which is how I know of them).
I feel like the big tech smartphone duopoly would have a reason to spread such rubbish, but its so patently obvious that I doubt they are so stupid.
"It acquired new investors in 2016, among them the Russian company Votron. In March 2018 they were joined by Rostelecom (which is state owned) as investor, which took over Votron and OMP."
Note that was after 2014 russian invasion into Ukraine.
It sought to disengage from any Russian ownership from early 2022, entered corporate restructuring at the Pirkanmaa District Court, and on 24 November 2023 the court approved a programme obligating a complete sale of the business.
In May 2024 the original Jolla company filed for bankruptcy, its activities having been taken over in 2023 by the Jollyboys company established by Jolla’s former management.
The current entity is owned by the management team, with no Russian stake. So as of now, the “Russian-owned” framing is substantially outdated.