this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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Privacy
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It's a middleground between a regular stock spyware ROM and a degoogled one with pretty good security thanks to lockable bootloader.
P. S. I can hear the drama coming unfortunately. This ROM's devs have haters.
I've seen that you basically have two choice (more but not very relevant) GrapheneOS for security and /e/OS for privacy. Thoughts on it?
DivestOS is the most thoroughly degoogled of the android ROMs (it removes the most proprietary binary blobs). DivestOS is also decently security hardened, better security hardening than any other Android ROM other than GrapheneOS. But since it removes more of these proprietary blobs, it further reduces the attack surface of the ROM. Both GOS and DivestOS are good options. As commented by another user, /e/OS falls behind on security updates often, which is quite bad for a security or privacy focused OS.
/e/OS is not for privacy but more for anonymization. It has a built in VPN and a ton of spoofing stuff afaik. It's closer to Qubes if you ask me. And I heard it had proprietary software so ehh it's made to make you look like the most average internet user so you can search anonymously. I don't have enough information about this ROM but I wouldn't use it on my main device.
Why you wouldn't use it on main device?
Convenience, proprietary software and because it's not completely degoogled. I use LineageOS on my device and I'm happy with it. I can use Qubes or a VPN if I want an anonymous search.
LineageOS is more degoogled than others like eOS?
Like the other reply said, Lineage doesn't do a whole lot in terms of degoogling. I quite enjoy DivestOS, it's a project that takes Lineage as a base and strips out as much Google and proprietary code as possible.
In fact, it's so Google-free that neither sandboxed Play Services nor MicroG are officially supported, though the latter can still be installed and used just fine, though with a few drawbacks.
Same as Lineage, it runs on more devices, but certain features like bootloader relocking depend on the phone.
Microg has drawbacks?
Edit: sorry that's a question. What are they?
Some stuff won't work such as android auto
LineageOS actually seems to be getting less degoogled recently. They're adding stuff for better Google apps support (that can be installed manually). But I believe it's as degoogled as reasonable custom ROMs get. Not much advanced privacy/anonymization features though and no stuff like Play Integrity support obviously. It's a ROM for these who don't need gapps at all. And if you do, just buy a second hand device with the stock ROM and put your banking apps there. Play Integrity doesn't work well on any custom ROMs now anyways.
EDIT: also EOS is EndeavourOS that is a Linux distro.
E often falls behind on patch levels, see the page here https://divestos.org/pages/patch_history
There's a lot of false information in your statements, GrapheneOS is not spyware, and it does a better job at degoogling than any other ROM mentioned in this thread, the only one that comes close is DivestOS, and no eOS is NOT like Qubes...
GOS wanted to reduce the attack surface as much as possible so they removed all the unecessary Bloat, it doesn't even ship with wallpapers !!
This list is not exhaustive and covers a tiny bit of the differences between these custom ROMs but it's a good place to start
https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
What I meant by a "middleground" is that GOS has gapps, even though they are sandboxed. There is no way it can be more degoogled than LOS or any other fully vanilla ROM that's actually degoogled.
That's also not accurate, GOS comes fully degoogled, and doesn't include any GAPPS or Google Play services, you have to install them yourself if you want compatibility with Google Apps or some banking apps
That's just false, even LOS isn't fully degoogled and it still connects to Google in the background for necessary connectivity checks ( e.g. DNS ) and Esim activation for example
Oh ok then. If it has a vanilla version then it is degoogled and can be more degoogled than LOS. What I meant was if GOS was microg only, it couldn't be as degoogled as LOS because LOS is vanilla. Still it's a shame that LOS can't find a better supporter than Google.
This is about to change since LOS are about to include MicroG by default in future releases.. Or so I heard from some Mastodon users who shared screenshots about an LOS update that installed MicroG
GOS is private and secure more than any other ROM, but once you install the Unprivileged play store you lose some of that privacy while retaining security, MicroG is private but not as secure
Wdym?
Should I bet all my savings this isn't gonna happen? Just don't trust unverified rumors and never ever spread them as the truth.
ROMs without network support.
I believe LOS uses Google stuff because they get money for doing it, especially for making it the default search engine in the default browser.
How did you know it's not the truth...because I implied it wasn't.. and I don't see it as something that couldn't happen, people asked for MicroG support for years..
I'm not a huge fan of trolling
I can tell you no Open source ROM gets funds by Google, unless if it's a program... For example GOS received many rewards for discovering vulnerabilities in AOSP
Sorry but this sounds like you're defending yourself because you know you spread rumors or maybe even complete misinformation.
There was no trolling. You said it's the best ROM for security. I told you of a better one. Saying "best ROM for security" was more of an act of trolling than my response.
Idk. I heard that Lineage receives money from Google so I said that but, in contrary to you, I didn't say that I'm sure of it. I just said "I believe it's the case".
Alright then, it's been fun chatting with you