I don’t think it’s clear that Motorola will actually sell phones with GrapheneOS. If they do I’m pretty sure they will not offer them in normal stores, next to other Android phones.

This is nonsense. Everyone needs the most secure phone possible,

This is nonsense. GrapheneOS is like 0.00001% of the market. Almost everyone in the world manages to survive just fine “dicking around on an old Android”. Only people that can be targeted by state actors really need GrapheneOS. Most people when forced to choose between unlocking their phones or being denied entry to a country, being stopped from boarding a plane or simply spending some time in jail will quickly unlock the phone and hand it over to police. Having extra secure OS is meaningless to them.

I understand you have some sensitive data on your phone and you would rather be detained than unlock it and that’s fine. Graphene OS is for you. I’m sure you’re already using it on a Pixel device. Motorola will offer you more options but that’s it. Not much will change.

Yeah, it’s just that saying that it “lack hardware security” sounds like Graphene OS requires it to run, not that the devs are choosing not to support it. Not that you clarified it we’re talking about the same thing.

I never said you don’t. I’m saying that if you DO need it you should be running GrapheneOS on a Pixel already. If you can wait a year or two until this phone comes out it’s clearly not a “must have” for you.

I’ve been using Debian SID for for like 50 years now without any issues.

I will be surprised if he finds out about it.

If you’re worried about police getting your data you’re already using GrapheneOS on a Pixel device. This is good news for you because you will have more options when changing phones in the future but not really a game changer in any way.

Yeah, technically it’s possible. Technically they can also hire GrapheneOS guys and make future versions closed source. In the context of this news both things are unlikely though.

Any phone manufacturer can do it and they don’t need any special deals with GrapheneOS for that. GrapheneOS would definitely not support Motorola making some secret changes to the OS before installing it so this news is the complete opposite of such situation.

Check every morning if the cans moved.

Notice they move Wednesday night.

Set alarm for middle of the night (3AM) and check if they moved.

Didn’t move? Next week set alarm for 4.30AM.

Moved? 3.45AM.

Moved…

Shoot the guy trespassing on your property in dark clothes in the middle of the night.

Prevent changes. Locking down software project would mean making it closed sourced. Locking down hardware means preventing software/firmware changes.

Normally there’s a small group of people with expertise doing most of the work. If you poach them and pay them to work full time on the project it will be really hard for the community to compete.

iode has a build in app that let’s you automatically block trackers for each app. You can manage internet connection and allow specific trackers separately for each app. I think internet access is a basic Android permission, any ROM can just block internet access for apps. I’ve used iode before, I’m using Graphene OS now. If restoring all the apps wasn’t such a pain in the ass I would go back to iode. It also had a nice ‘long press’ navigation button shortcut feature, pattern unlock for the lockscreen and automated backups to self hosted ownCloud instance. Graphene OS is good but it’s not a game changer.

On reflection can FOSS even be bought

Yes, you can pay developers to stop publishing new changes. Basically hire the people developing it and stop releasing the code. Community can try to still develop it independently.

I think most people here don’t really understand what’s going on here. Graphene OS is an Android mod with some extra security features designed to run on a hardened hardware. The main goal of Graphene OS is to protect users from some very specific attacks like some devices police uses to unlock phones or some targeted hacks by state actors. Unless you’re worried you may be targeted by such an attack and have some date you need to protect from them you don’t really need Graphene OS. You can run any of the other deGoogles Android mods on any hardware that supports it. You can already buy phones with pre-installed /e/ of iode ROMs. Many other phones support Lineage OS. Also, let’s keep in mind that GrapheneOS only supports Pixel because they don’t want to allow people to run their OS on hardware they don’t think is secure enough. It’s their choice not to support other phones.

Also, Google still controls AOSP so this does not solve any of the bigger Android issues. Motorola forking AOSP and providing the resourced needed to keep the development going would be amazing news. This is just one phone maker promising to fulfill the security requirements of Graphene OS. It’s basically like Dell offering Ubuntu laptops. Good news but it will not have a big impact on the ecosystem.

That’s not what “lock it down” means.

It’s not that FairPhone can’t run it. It’s that Graphene OS team doesn’t want people to run it on other phones. Their reasoning is that if people run Graphene OS on less secure hardware and get hacked it will damage the brand.

How would Motorola lock it down? They don’t control it in any way.

Who? Grapahen OS? The same way they do now I guess. Nothing changes for the OS. It’s the hardware that needs to fulfill some extra requirements for Graphene OS team to support it.

it could be almost managable to use.

That was my take away last time I tried Sailfish OS. It mostly worked but there were some issues that were just too hard to ignore. For me the problem with a phone is that it’s for short but very frequent interactions. When there’s friction it becomes very annoying very fast. I don’t want it to almost do everything, I need to do very specific things well.