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GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches

(grapheneos.social)
751 points akyuu | 2 comments | 06 Dec 25 13:58 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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SubiculumCode ◴[06 Dec 25 17:09 UTC] No.46174850[source]▶
Why was it that in the early PC days, IBM was unable to keep a lid on 'IBM compatible', allowing for the PC interoperability explosion, yet today, almost every phone has closed drivers, closed and locked bootloaders, and almost complete corporate control over our devices? Why are there not yet a plethora of phones on the market that allow anyone to install their OS of choice?
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cons0le ◴[06 Dec 25 18:25 UTC] No.46175428[source]▶
You're getting a lot of indirect responses. If you've ever tried to mod your android phone the answer is simple. Its google play services and hardware attestation for things like banking websites.

Its really easy to make a custom rom but hard to do serious "real life" stuff; companies don't want to make it easy. To most regular users, if they cant download apps from the google play store, and they can't use venmo\cashapp, then the OS is dead in the water from day 1

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SubiculumCode ◴[06 Dec 25 18:37 UTC] No.46175523[source]▶
Yeah but lots of phones you can't get ROMs for from a reputable source, and I sure as heck don't have the know how or time to build one, even if possible, which a lot of times is not due to locking down bootloaders, drivers, etc.
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abustamam ◴[07 Dec 25 06:04 UTC] No.46179522[source]▶
Years ago I used to love playing around with roms on my phone on XDA and it worked OK. I don't know what folks use these days. But as recently as a few years ago I merely rooted my phone and I couldn't use a lot of apps, not just banking, but even some games.

It's crazy how locked down the ecosystem is.

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1. toni ◴[07 Dec 25 13:55 UTC] No.46181708[source]▶
There are tools to make your device appear to every app as running in a non-rooted environment. Here[1] is a tutorial on how to bypass Google/Samsung Wallet detections. There are threads for different apps and it will quickly turn into a cat and mouse play when Playstore app itself updates, but as the phone is rooted, someone will continue to find a way to bypass attestations and will post a comment on Reddit or XDA explaining how to do it.

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/1lxbdpw/tutorial_ge...

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2. abustamam ◴[07 Dec 25 23:25 UTC] No.46186460[source]▶
Thanks! I'll look into that next time I decide to root my phone.