I dont want to start a fight or anything like that, I have to decide between these 2 and cant figure out which is the best and why, mostly because if you ask on X they just start swearing to each other without giving any real explanation, can anyone help a person who want to embrace privacy and anonimity?
I use calyx on a spare phone, graphene on my regular. Graphene is better security wise, and better privacy wise.
If your device can run graphene is go for it.
Graphene for example are using a sandbox Google play that’s not have any special privileges. Which you can choose to use or not. Or use in a separate profile. Calyx comes with microg from the start. Which still uses proprietary stuff. Just the hardened malloc and other stuff under the hood on graphene makes it a better option
Amazing battery life , comparing a new install of calyx and graphene it’s a ton of difference. Calyx looks bloated in comparison with graphene. There’s basically like 5 apps on a new graphene install. Just running microg takes a lot of stuff to run.
If you have a pixel I recommend graphene and if not I recommend calyx. Graphene has some lower-level security primitives and their sandboxing between profiles is very good. I recommend not installing Google Play Services on your main profile (ideally in none but you might not have that luxury).
Security and privacy require diving into the topic, though. You can still easily do non-secure, non-anonymous things in either case. Sometimes people even seem to do riskier things when they think their privacy tools are there, and end up being less private and secure as a result of not knowing how the threats work.
There are 3 important factors that drove me to CalyxOS rather than GrapheneOS:
1/ There’s no way in HELL I’m buying a Pixel phone and giving my money to Google for the privilege of not being tracked by Google. That’s really too rich for me.
2/ I want a repairable device.
Therefore I bought a FairPhone 4 (repairable and not Google), and only CalyxOS supports it - of those two that is.
And finally 3/ The GrapheneOS community is toxic. Although in fairness, now that the Chief Toxic Officer is gone, maybe it’s gotten better. At any rate, the Calyx community is completely peaceful and exemplary compared to Graphene.
This may not matter to you, but it seems to me like a sane thing to do not to trust software made by someone who talks that much shit.
Also, privacy fruendly esim activation anyone? (Am aware of privacy issues with sim)
Well, if you want to activate an esim on any other Android rom, you need to use Google services and have an internet connection. DivestOS is the first rom to implement an open source version of eUICC, which is used for activation, called OpeneUICC. It also does not need an internet connection, so nobody knows that the esim is installed on your device. That is, until you actually use it, of course. This is in line with DivestOS actively trying to “deblob” (remove binary, closed source parts of) Android.
The second part, about why sim is not very private, well it has a unique identifier and the technology was specifically designed to pinpoint your location, as this helps keep a good connection.
Also, why did my comment get downvoted?
While I am agreeing somewhat, and I haven’t been active in the community much. The few encounters I had was in the matrix chat . Yea toxic af . Checked in too see now , scrolled a bit but quite civil atm.
I repair pixel phones as an hobby / side gig and yea not comparable withe fairphone, but still repairable , better than a lot of others but depends on models.
I buy second hand in bulk and repair whats needed. Bonus of no trail to Google as well.
1/ I know Pixels are technically the best. That’s not the issue. My issue is: I am not giving my money to Google, and certainly not for the purpose of escaping the Orwellian dystopia they’re building around us. It’s not a technical problem, but a question of principle.
I know some people argue that buying Pixel phones specifically to install a deGoogled OS sends Google the message that people are willing to pay for the privilege of preserving their privacy, and the more people buy Pixel phones for that purpose, the louder the message and the more likely Google will finally listen and convert at least part of their business model away from corporate surveillance.
But you know what? That’s bullshit. Google will never stop violating people’s privacy and monetizing people’s data. They just take your Pixel phone money and laugh all the way to the bank at how naive you are.
I will NEVER give Google a single dollar. Full stop. It’s not even an option. I’ll take the additional risk of using a non-Pixel phone - which, for my threat model, it completely insignificant anyway.
2/ I’ll pay whatever it takes to escape Google, and also give the throwaway economy the middle finger. As a well-to-do first-worlder with plenty of disposable and grown up children who have left the house, I have the means to buy overpriced equipment that’s compatible with my worldview.
3/ I don’t care about drama regardless of where it comes from. Quite frankly, I don’t even want to know: I’ve read enough about and around what was going on with DM to just give the whole thing a pass. Besides, like I said, the man seems crazy enough that it basically invalidates any trust I might have in his code, and it’s precisely the type of application for which I desperately need trust. I don’t trust DM nor his code, and that’s not even a community issue.
I have neither the time nor the desire to review MD’s code. I need a working cellphone OS that I can place a reasonable amount of trust in. The Calyx Institute looks 100% legit, run by normal, rational people who aren’t off their goddamn minds, and I trust what they do a lot more than GrapheneOS because a lot of GrapheneOS was put together by a nutjob.