Hacker News Reader

Comment by HumblyTossed | Hacker News Reader

> My guess is that the workaround is that Motorola sells them with Google-certified Android.

Was this ever the deal with Moto? They announced something recently, but it didn't read like Moto would be distributing devices with preinstalled GOS. Just that it would be able to run GOS.

View on HN

The original announcement was vague[0]. Most assumed that Motorola will be releasing a GOS phone[1], but as more information became available it seems that Motorola will release a GOS-compatible phone. At least to start. Both sides are not commenting on if a phone would eventually ship with GOS from the factory AFAIK. But I'm guessing neither wants to commit to anything right now.

[0] https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116159602850585685

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/1rik0np/motorol...

Unless they've recently changed the deal, they'll be selling GOS out of the box. That was the announcement two or so years ago, and so far as I know nothing had changed.

That was not the announcement. This was never stated anywhere. Motorola is making a subset of future devices meet the GrapheneOS hardware security requirements, greenboot and preinstalled options are not confirmed, and may not happen at all for the first few devices.

One obvious challenge with the distribution is: would you want to buy a phone with pre-installed GrapheneOS?

This seems similar to wanting to follow the advice of "only buy bottled water on your trip to India", but the bottle you're buying has the cap removed so they could put a straw in it for your convenience.

GrapheneOS has attempted to cover this, it comes with an Auditor app that can be used from another Android device to check for tampering.

> The Auditor app uses hardware-based security features to validate the identity of a device, along with the authenticity and integrity of the operating system. It ensures the device is running a verified operating system with a locked bootloader and that no tampering has occurred." [0]

I assume that it would be quickly discovered if Motorola were tampering with phones en masse.

[0] https://attestation.app/about

Yes. That would remove the need to flash, which is a roadblock for many. Greenboot support and Auditor would ensure your install of GrapheneOS is genuine.

Well, they designed some handsets (one is announced, maybe there's another one or two) to meet Pixels / GrapheneOS level of hardware security. That alone is BIG.

Then there's expectation GOS might be sold pre-installed as well.

Motorola is at 5% of the world's market share. They fell really deep.

5% of a $500b market? Sign me up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com