I have practically *zero* issues on GrapheneOS - what are your core issues? Mine just works pretty much as well as stock Android.
Have you tried the Google Play compatibility layer? I've been testing that and highly recommend it if you want a more seamless experience.
I am running this thing... Is this it?
Major annoyances are:
- Chromecast doesn't work
- Camera sucks
- can't use gPay (very good sats back app needs it)
- phone feels kinda bricked and crashy
- notifications seem to only work 70% of the time
I think something with your setup is borked, that is not at all my experience (though I don't care about gpay support and know that's currently missing (but WIP!)).
We need to get sideofburritos on nostr. Heās on Twitter, makes great grapheneOS/privacy and btc/xmr content and guides on YouTube. His Twitter says heās mostly on mastodon :(.
Simplify your setup:
- Always on VPN
- Google Play compat
- Use the Google Play store as much as possible (more secure, but of course FOSS tradeoffs)
- Use Google Camera w/ network disabled
- Use Google Keyboard w/ network disabled
Whittle down from there if you don't need all that functionality. That still provides excellent privacy and security if you limit apps.
Google play store versus Aurora? Isnāt Aurora the same basically but theyāre using different throwaway Google accounts for you?
Google Play.
I'd only use Aurora if I couldn't use Google Play properly, like with CalyxOS.
Care to explain? This goes counter to privacy guided and advice Iāve seen up to this point
Also #[2]ā DMād you a few questions a bit ago about your last podcast appearance, did you see those?
If you trust google with security of apps (I do, it's something they're very good at) it's a much more secure way of getting apps than anything else.
The only draw back (and it is a drawback!) is that you have to be signed in to use it, but can just do a burner account.
Aurora could easily be compromised and serve malicious apps, and there are potential concerns with the fake "anon" account being compromised as well.
F-Droid is solid and I use it for a few things, but obviously tons of things aren't on F-Droid because the actual publishing policies and setup is a nightmare.
Sometimes the community tends to focus so heavily on privacy they forget the importance of security
Exactly, there is a good balance that has to be hit IMO as vulnerabilities and open doors to malicious app installation could be more harmful than anything else in many scenarios, especially if you have any reason at all to be targeted.
So it basically comes down to the initial downloading of an app right? If thatās signed correctly with the developerās keys, then it canāt be replaced with a malicious version later no matter the āapp storeā you use right? (Excluding f-droid b/c of wonky signing policies)
So for most users Google Play is the right answer, but there are tradeoffs to consider.
Obtainium seems to be a powerful option here if youāre comfortable finding the source location yourself (only risk remaining is that the dev keys themselves are compromised which also would risk the other app stores?). This seems most like a desktop, download software from source, but with a nice consolidated updater.
Idk for me it feels like getting most software through Obtainium would be ideal and fallback to Google Play for apps that arenāt listed anywhere else. Iād only do this with a fully anonymous Google account tho (is this even possible anymore?)
Would be cool to have nostr used for software, publishing hashes of each release.
So for #[5]ā somehow youād post hashes of each Envoy release to nostr (one note+replies?) and Obtainium could have a ānostr hash verifiedā section when you add an app so it will additionally check a specific nostr note/thread for the most recently posted hash signed by #[6]ā npub, must match hash of APK update before installing.
So both dev keys and nostr keys would have to compromised to trick Obtainium then. Any obvious pitfalls here? #[4]
I install in the play store and see which one in Droidify/Aurora-droid/f-droid says its installed to know which is the official. Many use the exact same versions as the play store. I can then update with droidify going forwards.
Thanks I'll give that a shot, zapped ā”ā”
Please message with questions or concerns! Happy to help, have been a happy user for over a year now, and going on 3y w/ Calyx/Graphene
