They’ve signed with an OEM (still secret atm, but the best guess seems to be Motorola?) who will produce the first flagship GrapheneOS device sometime this or next year iirc. Supposed to be revealing the manufacturer next month. That’ll at least take some of the Google dependency by having to use Pixels.
Couldn’t agree more Especially when the Pine Phone Pro is improving every year since its has came out and with Posh shell and Waydroid nothing will stop Linux from succeeding in the modern era
Bare‑metal (native Linux kernel + native drivers)
pros:
True Linux kernel
Long‑term maintainability
No Android blobs in userspace
Cleaner architecture
cons:
Driver support is the biggest pain point
Modems, cameras, GPUs, sensors often require reverse‑engineering
Power management is worse
Hardware acceleration may be incomplete
Fewer devices are viable
You can put this on an old pine phone, or a pixel 3 or a fairephone 4/5
You can buy a preconfigured puresim librem 5
Battery life is pretty rough. You can find lots of youtubes recounting their attempts at daily driving both PostmarketOS, Puresim and UBPorts on bare metal
Halium‑based (Linux userspace on top of Android hardware abstraction)
pros:
Excellent hardware support (camera, modem, GPU, sensors)
Better battery life
Runs on many more devices
More stable than bare‑metal
cons:
Controversial in the community
Relies on Android blobs
Not “pure Linux”
Kernel is usually Android‑based, not mainline
Long‑term maintainability depends on Android vendor support
You can buy preworking models from Volla or you can put it on a Fury Phone
there are a number of options for used phones if you want to install it yousel.
IMO, If you want a daily driver with working cameras and good battery life, Halium is usually the practical choice.
You also have to beware of usage in some places, looks like most of the carriers in Australia will refsue to active VoiceOverLTE even though the phones support it.
Linux phones look more and more attractive
Graphene OS
As far as I know, it is still reliant on the whims of Google through shenanigans with AOSP, and of course having to use a Pixel.
Linux offers a more solid and independent foundation, and while it is less polished yet, to me it’s the only real way out in the long run.
Still, GrapheneOS is a big step in the right direction - hope it wouldn’t come across as me being against the project.
They’ve signed with an OEM (still secret atm, but the best guess seems to be Motorola?) who will produce the first flagship GrapheneOS device sometime this or next year iirc. Supposed to be revealing the manufacturer next month. That’ll at least take some of the Google dependency by having to use Pixels.
Oh hello.
Yep, heard a bit about it. Didn’t include here because it’s still a big WIP.
Yup, if enough people switch to graphene big G will fuck them over. Exiting entirely is the only long term solution.
No, linux
Couldn’t agree more Especially when the Pine Phone Pro is improving every year since its has came out and with Posh shell and Waydroid nothing will stop Linux from succeeding in the modern era
sadly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PinePhone_Pro
Aw shucks now that’s something you don’t see often on the internet
So what can I buy now?
I’ve been following this for a while.
You have two main branches to follow
Bare‑metal (native Linux kernel + native drivers) pros:
cons:
You can put this on an old pine phone, or a pixel 3 or a fairephone 4/5 You can buy a preconfigured puresim librem 5 Battery life is pretty rough. You can find lots of youtubes recounting their attempts at daily driving both PostmarketOS, Puresim and UBPorts on bare metal
Halium‑based (Linux userspace on top of Android hardware abstraction)
pros:
cons:
You can buy preworking models from Volla or you can put it on a Fury Phone there are a number of options for used phones if you want to install it yousel.
IMO, If you want a daily driver with working cameras and good battery life, Halium is usually the practical choice.
You also have to beware of usage in some places, looks like most of the carriers in Australia will refsue to active VoiceOverLTE even though the phones support it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_phones#Devices_with_formal_support
My tears, maybe I can afford to eat today.