I use GrapheneOS without play services on my daily driver because I despise Google’s forcing play services down Android’s throat. The irony isn’t lost on me that Graphene only works on Google devices, that will hopefully change soon as Graphene works with an OEM to build their own devices. I don’t bother with banking or government apps as they aren’t mandatory where I live, at least not yet. I try to stick to FOSS (or at least source available) apps where possible.
On a secondary device I also run a rooted version of GrapheneOS just for fun. Yes I know it might be viewed as terribly insecure but it’s just a secondary device that I like to play around with, it doesn’t have any important data on it. I find it quite interesting to learn how rooting methods work to bypass the normal security measures in place.
Doing exactly the same. Graphene without play services or play store. Use f-droid, acressent, or obtanium for as much as possible and aurora as a supplement for stuff I can’t get FOSS.
Got lucky that I happened to have a pixel already before deciding to degoogle.
Don’t miss it at all. The only mild inconvenience is there’s no substitute for google pay, but that’s far from a dealbreaker.
Otherwise my experience is frankly better. Less bloat, more control, my battery life has gotten better somehow (not sure why, fewer services running in the background maybe?), and feels good to use and support FOSS projects. Definitely wouldn’t go back to stock.
That’s true on modern Android even with root. The active OS partition can’t be modified while running, and updates install to the inactive slot. If the bootloader is unlocked, malware could theoretically act as an updater and install itself to the inactive slot, but I’m not sure that has been seen in the wild.
It’s theoretically possible to have a locked bootloader and root. That requires a device with a re-lockable bootloader like a Pixel, and a ROM that has root support built in to the signed image.
I use GrapheneOS without play services on my daily driver because I despise Google’s forcing play services down Android’s throat. The irony isn’t lost on me that Graphene only works on Google devices, that will hopefully change soon as Graphene works with an OEM to build their own devices. I don’t bother with banking or government apps as they aren’t mandatory where I live, at least not yet. I try to stick to FOSS (or at least source available) apps where possible.
On a secondary device I also run a rooted version of GrapheneOS just for fun. Yes I know it might be viewed as terribly insecure but it’s just a secondary device that I like to play around with, it doesn’t have any important data on it. I find it quite interesting to learn how rooting methods work to bypass the normal security measures in place.
Doing exactly the same. Graphene without play services or play store. Use f-droid, acressent, or obtanium for as much as possible and aurora as a supplement for stuff I can’t get FOSS.
Got lucky that I happened to have a pixel already before deciding to degoogle.
Don’t miss it at all. The only mild inconvenience is there’s no substitute for google pay, but that’s far from a dealbreaker.
Otherwise my experience is frankly better. Less bloat, more control, my battery life has gotten better somehow (not sure why, fewer services running in the background maybe?), and feels good to use and support FOSS projects. Definitely wouldn’t go back to stock.
What make a rooted phone insecure?
Non rooted phones usually have read-only OS partition so even if malware is present, it can’t affect the OS itself
That’s true on modern Android even with root. The active OS partition can’t be modified while running, and updates install to the inactive slot. If the bootloader is unlocked, malware could theoretically act as an updater and install itself to the inactive slot, but I’m not sure that has been seen in the wild.
It’s theoretically possible to have a locked bootloader and root. That requires a device with a re-lockable bootloader like a Pixel, and a ROM that has root support built in to the signed image.