Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Alternative phone OS (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 3 days ago by mmattq@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Hi. I know the most privacy-oriented (and best-working) phone OS is GrapheneOS, but I was wondering about other, less well-known ones, such as VollaOS (modified Android), Sailfish OS or Ubuntu Touch. Are they private? Do they work? Can I run Android applications on them (VollaOS and SailfishOS) without too much effort? I like using Linux, but I rely on many Android apps, such as navigation, mobile banking, the Garmin app, and many others. Do you have any experience with these operating systems?

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[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Check /e/OS by Murena. It's closer to Volla IMHO because they sell the phone with the deGoogled Android. In fact I was initially going to buy from Volla because I wanted something deGoogled and European but I wasn't sure it would be a good fit for me. I thought for 800€ it was too risky for me. Consequently I tried the way cheaper option (~360€) from France rather than Germany. To be fair it's also a lower-end phone but like I said, less risky for me if it was not to work out.

If you already have a phone though that is compatible with GrapheneOS and want to tinker, it's probably not for you. If you want to "just" buy a working phone with an OS that isn't tied to Google services then it might be a good option.

I bought one few months ago (cf my post history, you can see what worked, what didn't, and the countless arguments I had with people criticizing Murena and /e/OS) and basically I'm happy with it. It's not perfect but for my use case, it's a good compromise. The phone I picked does come with limitations (e.g. no eSIM) but I found work around (e.g. JMP adapter) and one of my biggest concern, namely mobile banking due to not using a Google Android, is no problem for now, it just worked.

Finally (as you can again see from my post history) I do have the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro. I ordered them since they were out because I'm quite eager about Linux phones. I use Linux every day, from my desktop, including for gaming in VR, to my handled (SteamDeck) to eInk to home servers ... so why not on mobile yet? Unfortunately it's still quite experimental (camera support, battery management, BT for music or podcast, etc) so it's not up to my expectations yet.