GrapheneOS

[martin007]

I'm not a strong advocate of smartphones.
I don't use one of them now.
They don't offer me anything remarkable.
I think they are a tool of control and espionage.
Not to mention that they are vulnerable to being hacked.

GrapheneOS (formerly Android Hardening or AndroidHardening) is an Android-based, open source, privacy and security-focused mobile operating system.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrapheneOS/
> https://grapheneos.org/

[Burgerman]

Anything google, or apple is owned by an advertising and marketing company. All they want to do is sign you up or into their locked down ecosystem to keep growing their business wih ever more integration, sales, targeted ads, "aps" or services and sales of your data, and vast quantities of endless tracking.

I think "smart" phones are a triumph of marketing over anyone with a brain. They offer nothing that there isnt already much better ways to do the same thing. Without being owned by apple or google. Even microsoft are trying to do the same thing with their latest "consumer" versions of windows. They try endlessely to make you use their browser, to sign "in" to your supposed essential microsoft account... All to track, and market ads and goods and services at you. Each of these all want you tied into as many possible over complex services, mail, etc as they can. Google has around 50 now for e.g. All tied together in an uncomprehensible tangle of accounts and linkages. I have zero to do with any of them. No "cloud" stuff at all.

Which is why I use free everything. Dont have a google acount, microsoft account, apple account or any other one of the big layers accounts. And why I use Windows LTSC and even that is stripped out. Yet I have thevery latest every possible types of software and the newest versions at that. And an AD blocker and a VPN. Nohing has asked me to log in, sign up, buy, or use any crappy ad companies browser, or "edge" or MS search, or anything else for 15 yers. And I have not seen an ad or any nag screen, or a popup box for at least that long either.

Soon theres going to be a windows 11 LTSC. Next year. But the IoT LTSC 10 still has 8 years of support left anyway!

Graphene is useless. It cant actually do much. Other than a phone.
I spent much of today installing and testing half a dozen image editors and movie editors. They typically cant run on a phone anyway.