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GrapheneOS accuses Google of gatekeeping Android 17 features and security fixes
(www.androidauthority.com)
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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2026
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Shaming Google will only work for so long. Grapheme is is doomed to fail as long as it has a complete dependence on Google's whims.
Have they announced the pivot to a non-android platform? Being security-mind it is frankly bizarre they have long ignored the Google dependency as a huge risk for the project.
What a silly thing to say.
I'm absolutely certain that no contributors, and extraordinarily few users, are ignoring the risks implied by the google dependency.
A pixel with Graphene is the best option for a daily driver for as long as it's viable. I expect that's everyone's understanding of the project.
I don't really see how this project can "pivot to a non-android platform", as I imagine none of their codebase can be transferred.
Sooner or later the project will become non-viable and we will all switch to whatever the best option is at that time.
Or everybody who isn't Google will have to collaborate on a hard fork of AOSP.
Or some governments will have to finally break out of their oligarchic regulatory capture and step in with antitrust law.
Along with the Google Play dependencies and Android SDK that everything is tied to. Or we could use an OS that already exists and doesn't have any of that bullshit called "Linux".
called postmarketOS
Biggest hope would be the French government to do stuff to help out Murena
Idk if i am missing someting, but what Plattform other than Android is suitable? Linux is just not there yet and people want a phone they can use easily, which graphene is and Linux is just not there yet i think
That's exactly my point, there's none and GrapheneOS are not working to create a suitable one yet.
The time to start working on plan B is yesterday
Likely plan B is fork AOSP and crossport security fixes, such features as Google deigns to put in AOSP and so forth. They can do that at any time they choose, may as well wring as much work out of the big G as possible, later is better. Remember their focus is security, it just happens to benefit privacy as well.
Here's hoping they can hang on long enough that there's a viable hardened Linux phone to take the role.
OniroOS could be a good base.
I will never understand this argument. Why in gods name would it be better for them to switch to a completely different OS like Linux and essentially have to destroy the entire ecosystem and start from scratch vs just hard forking current AOSP and maintaining it themselves?
Maintaining an entire OS doesn't sound like a sustainable amount of effort. Linux already has an ecosystem surrounding it that's not about to get crushed by a single corporation. The biggest issue is hardware support and security takes a lot more effort which goes against their main goal. Hopefully the rise of ARM laptops will help with the first point.
I agree, but to be fair, the current way involves completely obscured binary blobs for nearly every part of the hardware. Which is the main lock-in to be had on Android devices.
Even the pixel under GOS is using the proprietary device tree. There's no getting away from that unless you can RE the hardware and write your own drivers, which is impossibly hard for anything relatively current.
him no big brain why use many ideas and words?
i mean, i think there would be a lot of merit in maintaining a minimal linux platform that's basically just an android VM, that way it's basically infinitely easier to port to new devices and sandboxing becomes quite ironclad.
AOSP is the most secure base. GrapheneOS focus is to be the most secure OS. Not to be the best open source mobile OS or even to be FLOSS.
Notice how they're complaining only about things that could improve security, not general usablity fixes.
Oniro OS is pretty secure.
They don't particularly like Linux as a platform from a security standpoint:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594106
But somehow Android, which is based on Linux, somehow checks those points for them...
The hipocrisy is too big to ignore and it's true, with that mindset of just wanting and waiting for someone else to do the hard work for them to just add patches here and there... they're doomed to fail.
I don't think you understand how different Android and Linux distributions truly are.
Linux alone refers to the kernel. There are custom AOSP kernels based on the Linux LTS versions with a few extra patches but that is basically all that connects Linux to Android.
But absolutely everything in userland is wholly diifferent in Android than with any Linux distribution out there.
And you can't just replicate what Android did on top of the Linux kernel without Google amounts of resources. Which GrapheneOS does not have in the slightest.
But they're both things that drive on the same road, using wheels and engines and steering wheels and seats and doors!
Yes, and one is a car and one is a semi truck. (I'm not saying either is close to those things, the point is how different Android and Linux are)
Yeah but I think that's just changed with ai.
The increased hardware prices and pr spam make it worse.
WHAT?????
Look I'm coding with ai every day.
Can we please stop pretending it don't increase productivity 100x
Android uses the Linux kernel but is not a GNU Linux distro if you need a distinction.
Maybe they need to look at haiku. :-p
How the fuck will words
Make any real difference
This is joke - please clap
Comedy is hard
Sometimes a joke just won't work
Clap clap clap clap cap
wait, is that a threat? Are you threatening to cap my ass?
:)
Typing, too, is hard
Not a threat, but a fuckup
Haha, no cap fam
No cap fr chat
We do be bussin out here
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