Mastodawn

richarddebruin Jul 5, 2025

@sandradejong leuk project, maar je had eigenlijk voor #grpaheneos moeten kiezen. En dus een Pixel toestel via Marktplaats moet kopen. iOS waar je nu op zit is veiliger dan /e/OS. Waarom? Zie hier: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

Comparison of Android-based Operating Systems

ThePfromtheO Jul 6, 2025

@richarddebruin @sandradejong
#GrapheneOS is safer, but it's also less #userFriendly than #eOS, AFAIK. Plus #eOS looks a little more like #iOS.

Gurleen K Jul 8, 2025

@ThePfromtheO @richarddebruin @sandradejong GrapheneOS is very user-friendly. If you need to turn on Google Play Services, it is easily done by just pressing the install button on the built-in app store provided by Graphene.

@gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong
OK, but why did people say it's not, then?

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong Groups who feel threatened by GrapheneOS misinform people about it to justify why people should use an OS unable to keep up with basic privacy/security patches, not providing driver/firmware security patches and not keep basic parts of the privacy/security model intact. The vast majority of tech media sites publish poorly researched and AI generated articles. They're not trying GrapheneOS but rather describing it based on what others say.

@GrapheneOS @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong
“They're not trying GrapheneOS but rather describing it based on what others say.”

I understand this, but #GrapheneOS's homepage is also a factor that influences their opinions, as I said here:
https://social.vivaldi.net/@ThePfromtheO/114823736413376203

Also this: https://mastodon.nl/@sandradejong/114823623342107933

ThePfromtheO (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] What I don't understand is that considering the amount of popularity and sponsorship #GrapheneOS is getting, why didn't it put a little effort into making its website more welcoming? Especially for visitors, who might be potential new users and finally supporters.

Vivaldi Social

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong We plan to include videos and more images on our website but the project is focused on substance, not marketing. It has the same aesthetics as Android 16 within the OS. We keep the default system color scheme, background, etc. very minimal. Our default background is a pure black background instead of an advertisement for GrapheneOS. Boot animation is minimal. We put our effort into privacy, security, compatibility, usability and robustness.

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong Videos are extremely hard to keep up-to-date. They'd essentially need to be remade every 4 months or even more often. We want all the information on our site up-to-date.

GrapheneOS has also not been very focused on replacing or overhauling all of the sample AOSP apps until recently since it's easy for people to get their preferred apps and the focus for ones built into the OS is privacy/security in a way that few third party projects do.

GrapheneOS

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong Overhauling or replacing each AOSP sample app is planned so people don't get a bad impression from how outdated some of those look/feel. It's a higher priority than adding images and videos to the website. We could add a bunch of screenshots of features like Contact Scopes and Storage Scopes but it wouldn't serve much purpose. A video tutorial on each user-facing major feature would make sense, but as we said very hard to maintain.

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong We recommend the past few years of videos at https://www.youtube.com/@sideofburritos/videos for well informed, high quality videos about GrapheneOS. Bear in mind that the ones which aren't from the past few months are showing an old major Android version and many changes have also happened to GrapheneOS itself.

Making video content is high effort and it doesn't last. It's easy to edit text when various stuff changes on a weekly basis, not so much a video.

Before you continue to YouTube

@GrapheneOS @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong
I didn't say video necessarily. #eOS has only images, (unless there are also videos somewhere where I didn't see them.
It might seem annoying that I keep comparing #GrapheneOS with #eOS, but this not only my opinion that a welcoming homepage matters. Ask @sandradejong, for example.

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong An iPhone is a far better choice for privacy and security than /e/OS. Going from an iPhone to /e/OS is giving up having strong privacy from apps and services, strong defenses against exploitation and even getting proper privacy/security patches since /e/OS doesn't provide those. It's giving up having encryption which works without setting a very strong passphrase since Fairphone has no secure element. Marketing and tech media is often wrong.

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong Overall, iPhones provide very solid privacy and security along with fantastic usability. /e/OS is not in the same space as us. Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is much more private and secure than /e/OS. The direction they take their AOSP is nearly the complete opposite one. https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm only covers added features and also patch delays (quite important) near the bottom so it doesn't show how privacy and security get reduced.

Comparison of Android-based Operating Systems

@GrapheneOS @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong
"eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm only covers added features and also patch delays (quite important) near the bottom so it doesn't show how privacy and security get reduced."
How do you know that this was the goal?

@ThePfromtheO @gkcan @richarddebruin @sandradejong The author accepts issue reports about inaccuracies and with suggestions on what else it could cover. You can see they maintain a whole bunch of different comparisons there, not only about AOSP-based operating systems. The information is generally very/fully accurate, but they choose the focus and what they want to cover. We agree with the accuracy of the information. If we did it ourselves, what it compares would be significantly different.

Sandra de Jong ⁂Jul 9, 2025

@GrapheneOS My main reason to do this project and try to switch from Iphone to Fairphone with /e/OS (or another OS which looks doable for non-techies) is that I don't want to "be hand in hand" with Big Tech companies. I want organisations (hardware and software) that are nice people who want to make the world a nicer place. And I'm willing to sacrifice some personal stuff there. It is not mainly about me.

(hope I'm making myself clear since English is not my native language)

@ThePfromtheO