We’re at a stage where the OS itself is spying on the user. It is time to take a smart move.
My Android phones are getting old, and despite having perfect hardware capabilities, social pressure is some times strong enough to make one consider forking a few hundred Euros to buy a modern device.
As a privacy enthusiast and advocate, taking a look at the options in local market really made me feel like a dumbass looking for ways to be bamboozled, as I’m technically getting myself a device packed with the latest and greatest spyware. Spyware that is affiliated with the OS provider (basically Google), the add-on software providers (Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and several others), and the brand manufacturer (e.g. Xiaomi, Oppo, Samsung, etc). And on top of it all, I’ll be paying for it.
To add insult to injury, these devices are sealed (battery unremovable and unreplaceable), cannot be repaired (by me), lack basic features such as a headphone socket, are perfectly designed to be dropped and broken, and their bootloader is locked (either permanently, or requires a permission from the manufacturer to be unlocked).
Note: A bootloader is a tiny program that allows the user to install a new operating system on the device.
This is ridiculous.
All this introduction is to clarify why I eventually decided to stick with my existing old phones. They are very good hardworking devices that allow me to flash them a modern privacy-respecting OS.
And the hunt for an OS begins
Finding a trustworthy and modern OS image tailored for my old phone models is not that easy, but three projects stand out:
- Lineage: It’s a base system, deGoogled, clean, and simple. Only draw back is that it lacks some security features that would make the system guards significantly harder to breach.
- Graphene: Built from fortified Lineage, Graphene is the most secure and versatile system, but it’s designed for Google Pixel devices only. And to the Pixels I have no reach in my region, unfortunately.
- /e/: This system is also built on top of Lineage, and promises plenty of sexy features. Yet there is as much arguing and gossip surrounding its claims and trustworthiness.
For fairness sake, /e/ is very promising and offers practical solutions to some painful points. Kevin Boone has written an excellent impartial post comparing Lineage with /e/ here: https://kevinboone.me/lineageos-eos.html
Kevin’s arguments save you, the reader, a lot of time searching and researching, and points out who would find which OS a best fit for their requirements and threat model. But as for me, without a Pixel and Graphene, my second best option is Lineage. And where a compatible OS image cannot be found for the hardware at hand, /e/ is still light-years better than any stock system.