Android

No different to any previous Fairphone, or indeed the majority of Android phones on the market from any manufacturer other than Google. Fairphone is in an unfortunate situation in a way, because its devices have (in recent history) been more open than that of any other manufacturer other than Google, which means there is a thriving custom ROM scene that includes privacy-focused competitors to GrapheneOS, yet its devices have also never met the requirements for the GrapheneOS team and so routinely get "slammed" by its developers who have to respond to requests/questions every time a new Fairphone releases. Clickbait Android "news" sites then run these developer replies taken from social media or forums as "news" and people who don't bother to read beyond the headline/don't know anything about the topic (AKA the majority) come away with the completely misguided impression that Fairphone is not just "not as private and secure as a Pixel with GrapheneOS" but is actually "bAd fOr pRiVaCy aNd sEcUriTy" compared to all devices on the market. Devices from most manufacturers lag well behind Pixel update times, most don't even maintain a monthly update schedule, yet you will never see negative news articles about how these other devices are insecure/lacking in privacy. Only Fairphone gets hit with this comparison because only Fairphone has even attempted to compete in that space.

As a non-native speaker, I had no idea what this headline is supposed to say. Here is what it is about:

The team behind the GrapheneOS platform has criticized the Fairphone Gen 6 for apparent security issues.

Real title: Graphene OS teams criticizes fairphone for the low quality support of /e/os

Same old broken record as with previous Fairphones.

Their holier-than-thou attitude towards security backed them into the corner of being virtually unable to run GrapheneOS on any platform other than Google's own Pixel phones, and now Google is pulling the rug from under them.

The GrapheneOS people were tedious when Micay was there, and they haven't really changed.

gOS threat model is "everything everywhere all at once" - nation state actors et al - and from that standpoint, yeah, eOS and lOS and whoever else is lacking.

but the vast majority of users have a threat model that can be boiled down to two things:

1. a lost/stolen device doesn't compromise me - the fucker can't get at my stuff and/or impersonate me, and
2. free from apple's/google's reign - I control what stuff runs on my phone

both easily accomplished with lineageOS and derivatives running on a $50 phone. if you truly want to spend four digits annually on Newest & Best, you do you, I'm good.

Same old story, GrapheneOS's self-rightousness has caused them grief before (plenty of times actually), and this is just another example of it. Compare and contrast with something like CalyxOS, or even just Vanilla LineageOS, and it's night and day for being able to support more devices and be less reliant on Google. And I say that as a guy who loves his Pixel 6 Pro with CalyxOS.

GOS is a great idea, and I'm glad it exists, but ultimately they are their own worst enemies about a lot of things. Micay obviously wasn't the whole issue there either (though he certainly bears a lot of responsibility for what made Graphene and its community so toxic for several years too...).

So what do people run on their fairphone? Graphene has been the only non mainstream commercial mobile os I've heard of even on lemmy.

Not necessarily agree with the tone of the headline, but happy they are finally taken into consideration when talking security.

Honestly I'm with the GrapheneOS team on this one pixels (A series mostly) are relatively cheap and you can easily find them second hand for even a cheaper price so I don't think you gonna save anything by the repairable Fairphone and on top of all this they lag behind security updates too just more reason to avoid them. Ofcourse that's just my opinion

I used e/OS for a very short time a few years ago then learned about some of their security practices. This isn't a new problem with that version of Android.