Intro
This post is inspired by a post titled “Android to iPhone, whats it like? (Update)” by @CleoTheWizard@beehaw.org.
I grew up with an iPad and desktop computers and my family members also had Apple products. When I had the chance to purchase my first phone I did lots of research, I looked up the best smartphones at the time, I saw videos from Marques Brownlee, EverythingApplePro, Unbox Therapy, etc. It was a tough decision between Samsung S7 but I ended up getting the iPhone 7. Apple was all the rage at school, I got hooked into the ecosystem, even bought the first Airpods, used iMessage, and all the other Apple stuff. Their UI is very polished. I was even an iOS beta tester all 4 years I had it.
iPhone Experience
2 years ago, my iPhone 7 started to have severe battery issues and so I decided it was time to upgrade. I also did research on my phone choices at the time too. This time it was between the iPhone 13 and Samsung S22. I did a bunch of research on this one too, much like my previous phone and ended up choosing the iPhone 13. I preordered the phone right when it opened but then I changed my mind, I wanted a different color, so I canceled it but the color was gone. So, I ordered the Samsung S22. However, when I was doing my research, I got into privacy and security and the r/degoogle subreddit. So I saw these solutions like CalyxOS and GrapheneOS. I then cancelled that Samsung S22 order. I was amazed, I saw how private and secure these solutions were without even having to touch Google or Apple. Stuff like the Aurora Store and Fdroid sounded like really cool stuff. I cancelled my Samsung S22 order and bought a used Pixel 5, because I didn’t want to directly support Google.
CalyxOS on Android Experience
I started off with CalyxOS because GrapheneOS sounded really hardcore and hard to use. The experience was amazing. I really liked Netguard and the firewalls for the apps. I used ProtonVPN, ProtonMail, Bitwarden, Signal. My ecosystem of Foss, privacy, and security was complete. However, after a year or so of using the OS, it started getting buggy. My distinctly remember that my volume would magically keep on raising to the max volume, it was a terrible bug. I would watch videos or listen to music and it will shoot up to 100% like someone was holding the power button. I tried to look up answers on this issue and couldn’t find any solutions so I decided to try out GrapheneOS.
GrapheneOS on Android Experience
I figured I heard a lot about this amazing project and so I should get on it before my device is no longer supported. I think I’m about a year into using GrapheneOS and I can say that it is amazing. It felt like a more refined deGoogled OS. I felt like CalyxOS was more like a few devs coming together and throwing some security tools and hardening it a bit but GrapheneOS has a much larger and dedicated team and truly making it the most private and secure Android operating system. With the compartmentalizing of Google Play Services or whatever it’s called. I even found out that when using Location, they have their own SUPL and PSDS proxy servers. Instead of using Netguard, GrapheneOS has network permission toggles much like for mic and cam access. It’s truly the best phone OS I have ever used. People can safely use Google Play Store like nothing happened and all the information is segregated and protected. It’s been pretty stable and I couldn’t be happier.
TLDR and Recommendations
That being said, iOS has its strength and weaknesses. Apple being very locked down and hard to break and mess up, Android being less refined and even more so the more you branch out away from Google. Would I change what I did? Not really, all of this helped me gain experience and evolve as a person. Would I recommend it to other people? I recommend GrapheneOS, if you are tech savvy and want to mess with phones a bit. The argument is fairly similar between the argument between Windows and Linux. Do you want to use something better and free you’ll need to play around with or use something locked and just works at the cost of freedom, privacy, and security?
The official websites can probably explain it better than me:
Thanks for the write up. :) Does GrapheneOS provide root / su access in the default installation? (no magisk required)
Not in the default installation. From everything I can find, while you can root GrapheneOS, you shouldn’t. Source
Oh, interesting! I guess the main reason I use root nowadays is for AdAway, the system wide ad blocker that uses the iptables firewall. Would this functionality still be possible in GrapheneOS without root?
I would look at something like TrackerControl, which is very customizable and runs as a “VPN” that simply filters out ads. This should achieve the same thing, especially in combination with either Brave browser or a Firefox-based browser with uBlock Origin.
The only issue I have with those services that run as ad/tracking filters (ie DDG) is that I prefer to run an always on VPN, and since Android will only run a single VPN connection with no support for nested VPN services, it creates a limited scenario in that I would have to run a nested VPN setup on my home server and connect to that. At least with root, I can run AdAway in the background and have my VPN connection simultaneously. I understand the idea of not enabling root for security purposes.
I have the same issue. What I do is use a VPN with a custom DNS (Only some providers allow this, and documentation is often unclear or inaccurate as to whether they do). Using NextDNS, I have ull control over my DNS, while also using a VPN. This setup + uBlock Origin has been flawless for me so far, and I have a similar setup on my PC.
Rooting presents a huge security vulnerability. As an OS designed for security and privacy, I don’t think it would allow rooting. Though, what I do is run protonvpn with its malware+ads blocklist and it is fine. My browsers already have ublock origin with even more blocklists so I don’t have any real reason to root it.