[jech]

LineageOS is just fine if you have a well-supported device. If you need to run proprietary apps, you'll need MicroG (which runs just fine as a user application) and the Aurora store.

Unfortunately, now that CalyxOS has died, the other choices are all forks of LineageOS (Iodé, /e/). The long-term hope is for a non-Google Linux system with all of Android running in a sandbox (something like Waydroid), but that's not ready for everyday use yet.

[strcat]

LineageOS, iodé and /e/ are in a much different space than GrapheneOS. They greatly reduce the privacy and security of the Android Open Source Project rather than greatly improving it. They do not provide current privacy/security patches or keep all of the standard protections intact, let alone providing similar privacy and security enhancements to GrapheneOS.

https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm is a high quality third party overview comparing them with a focus on privacy and security.

CalyxOS was not a hardened OS either, it just didn't roll back privacy and security quite as much as LineageOS.

> The long-term hope is for a non-Google Linux system with all of Android running in a sandbox (something like Waydroid), but that's not ready for everyday use yet.

GrapheneOS is a non-Google Linux distribution. Google heavily contributes to the Linux kernel and is responsible for a massive portion of the security work upstream. The same goes for LLVM, GCC and many other projects. If you have an issue with using lots Google code including as the biggest driver of security in these projects, you're going to need to avoid Linux too.

Waydroid uses an ancient Android releases and largely disables the privacy and security model. Android apps running in Waydroid are much less sandboxed than in the standard Android app sandbox. It's not a sandbox for running Android but rather a partially working way to run an insecure fork of Android on top of a less private and secure non-Android distribution at a huge cost to privacy and security. It's not a good approach and moving to a much less private and secure OS is not progress in those areas.

[jech]

> LineageOS, iodé and /e/ are in a much different space than GrapheneOS.

They have different priorities, granted.

> They greatly reduce the privacy and security of the Android Open Source Project

That's going to depend on your threat model. Many people don't feel that having an unlocked bootloader is a significant threat.

> GrapheneOS is a non-Google Linux distribution. [...] If you have an issue with using lots Google code [...]

https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1964561043906048183

Even you seem to agree that we're relying too much on Google's goodwill.

[tholdem]

If you are fine running an OS with horrible security and privacy, then LineageOS and it's forks are fine. If you want the best privacy and security, then GrapheneOS is the best option.

[slashtab]

stop spreading misinformation