177
TIL that RestlessOS, fork of GrapheneOS, can run GOS on non-pixel phone - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum
(discuss.grapheneos.org)
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
177 points (96.3% liked)
DeGoogle Yourself
16991 readers
667 users here now
A community for those that would like to get away from Google.
Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!
Rules
-
Be respectful even in disagreement
-
No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.
-
No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.
Related communities
!privacyguides@lemmy.one !privacy@lemmy.ml !privatelife@lemmy.ml !linuxphones@lemmy.ml !fossdroid@social.fossware.space !fdroid@lemmy.ml
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Looks like they put in a ton of effort to make this compatible with generic devices, but I have to ask, with all the features removed, why choose this over any other ROM?
Sandboxed Google play I guess
Minimalism. Compared to AOSP, Google components and pings removed. Compared to other privacy GSI ROMs, no weird, quirky, or flashy functions or themes the author decided to bake in.
they don't need to outright remove that. I know that at least some fairphone models are capable of that, because another ROM makes use of it. it seems it was more important to have a much broader compatibility quickly, without testing what features do really need to be removed for what devices. there are probably other removed features too where tbis applies
but this is not all that graphene gives, I believe this does not make it worthless. they have other unique features too like sandboxed google play and the possibility to manage sensor access for apps separately, and more.
Still better than nothing? And more privacy centric options out there are better as it gives people a way to figure out how it can fit into their life vs the all private where nothing works and you need to know tech to get around or nothing private but at least things work, world people are in.
Why are a multitude of poor options better than a few good options?
There's this weird mix of free market capitalism and FOSS philosophy that says more and shallower forks = better ecosystem.
Not commenting on this OS specifically, but just questioning your blase assertions that more options is better. Maybe it would be have been better to invest more time into an existing project.
Edit: Great arguments for this OS all around, I'm just saying please DO make an argument instead of just assuming that ANY diversity is good.
There are a few issues with there being... a single ideal privacy option line of devices (the Pixels):
Having more vendor choice drastically lowers these negatives. And I can't really think of any negatives for the other side than increased dev time and operating costs.
Having the privacy features trickle down to other devices is great since some already landed in AOSP.
However, the trickle down is slow (and often a myth). And some protection is better than no protection.
Is anything other than a Pixel a poor option?
They may be suboptimal but... Some hardening is definitely better than no hardening any day of the week.
What actively blocking "okay" or even "good" options when "the perfect" one exists should be plainly obvious.
Privacy-consciousness will never spread. Which also has negative effects on the privacy-conscious. Namely point 3 of my little list.
Wasn't GOS working with other company to have a second brand that could use GOS? These dudes are nkt stupid and i think they too realuse that relying only on pixels is risky business. I read somewhere that, its not about GOS, the phone or whatever but its about what you need to have so that you can call it a secure phone. The GOS folks have done their homework and concluded that only pixels have what is needed. Whay intreagues me is that the biggest surveilance machine out there built the most secure hardware. Why did they do it?
Yup. Motorola should be coming out with a GOS-compatible phone in a year or so. There was a bit of buzz because of local age verification requirements, which GOS dev said fuck you to, but I don't think thatś enough to derail the project since I don't think Motorola ever planned to ship GOS, just make it compatible for users and IT depts to install it---which so far does not violate any laws.
They are. It's a step in the right direction and I absolutely welcome it.
However, it's way overdue in my book, and the harm is im the waiting. It's much better to strike while the iron's still hot and avoid these issues. As is not waiting on improving accessibility.
I'm also intrigued by the fact Google makes such custom devices for the market. I think I came across some explanations lurking (and sometimes popping my head out and commenting) here on Lemmy (and on Reddit before the API apocalypse), but I don't really have anywhere to point you in your search other than Libredirect+Reddit since searching Lemmy has always proven an uncatchable golden goose to me.
because you see it wrong. it is not poor just because it is not shiny polished perfect. it is still an improvement over the factory rom, and if the maintainer is trustworthy then it's an improvement over lineage os too.
How is one unknown maintainer of a project that adds nothing to the one it forked from, better than many well-known LineageOS maintainers?
it adds nothing? maybe it only adds wider compatibility to upstream, but it makes upstream's unique features available to owners of other phones than upstream's short device list
Re-read my comment?
People make do with what they have.
It would be ideal if everyone had access to the "best" options, so a single approach makes sense, but we don't live in an ideal world.