I've been looking at it. Ironically, you needed a Google Pixel to run it last I checked, right?

Yes that is ironic. As someone else said, Google made the best de-Google-able phone. But from what I gather they chose it because of the specific hardware features and they need to restrict what they support to keep the project manageable and maintainable.

I bought mine outright and wiped the Pixel version of Android and am pretty happy. To be clear, I wasn't trying to avoid giving Google money ... I just wanted a phone and operating system that I felt like I had control of, without having a ton of bloatware and spyware pre-installed by the vendor etc.

And a recent one that is. Almost as funny as having to buy a macbook to run linux.....

Yup - Google made the best de-googleable phone.

They did and I bought a used pixel6 just to switch to graphene. The problem is that the next pixel will likely be much more difficult to do this with because google is going to not not be evil.

The Pixel 7 is also supported by Graphene OS.

I meant the next one to come out. The 7 was already out when I got my 6.

I trust Google's incentives to have secure hardware as much as I trust them to have disrespectful software (privacy).

> you needed a Google Pixel to run it

That's correct. It's my understanding that this is for two reasons:

1) google opened api/support for verified boot on the pixels (so you can tell if a border agent hacked your grapheneos phone, for example)

2) it's easier to support fewer phone models (given they are not a large team)

I bought a refurbished pixel 3a last year for a little over $100 and have been thrilled with my grapheneos experience. I don't run google play, but it is my understanding this can be done in a sandbox (allowing for more privacy than usual).

This doesn’t change anything about the comment that you’re replying to.

Really?! You mean that my offering additional information and context didn't magically alter the very nature of time itself, thus causing the characters that they typed to change representation in Hacker News' database? You don't say! (do I need a /s indicator?)

And what value, exactly, does your comment add to the conversation?

It seems like it does.

> paying Samsung for staying on Android with Google Search

> google still owns android

> Personally I use GrapheneOS in order to "de-Google"

It doesn't matter that Google owns Android if Samsung can make their own fork of Android that doesn't use Google stuff by default. Is there something that would prevent Samsung from creating their own app store?

Samsung already has their own app store (Galaxy Store) alongside the Play Store. Have only used it personally to download/update Samsung specific apps however.

Look how well Huawei smartphones are selling in the west (not well at all). And that's not because of lack of trying, I've been on a team where everybody agreed that supporting their phones had zero upside outside of the cash Huawei offered for a port of our apps and we did it, because they paid so well. And those were laughably unattractive apps (think yellow pages), I can't even start to imagine what they must have spent in other directions.

Huawei was selling well in the west until the US Gov't blocked them.

https://www.economist.com/business/2022/10/25/ren-zhengfei-h...

Because they used to have Google's play store and other services. Parent commenter's point is that a manufacturer having the open source parts of Android isn't necessarily worth much on its own.

> Personally I use GrapheneOS in order to "de-Google" without switching to the Apple ecosystem. No Google Play (you can install it but I choose not to), FOSS apps only.

This is only valid for power users. Normal users would probably never accept a phone without Google Play Services running on it, with Amazon's devices being the exception (and don't ask me why, because I don't get it.)

> Amazon's devices being the exception (and don't ask me why, because I don't get it.)

IMO, narrow use cases and cheapness.

My impression is people buy a Fire Tablet because:

* They want to read/browse the web/use a few basic social media apps

* They want something for their kid

Fire Tablets are never a primary device, so it's okay to have trade-offs.

Of course this is true, that is why it's a real threat when a company like Samsung, with the resources and money to make these things convenient/unnoticeable to normal users is a real problem to Google

> Personally I use GrapheneOS in order to "de-Google" without switching to the Apple ecosystem.

GrapheneOS only supports Google devices like the Pixel though. It's the only reason I'm considering buying one.

Google have done a great job over the last ten years of making Android pretty unusable without Google's proprietary software on it. Don't have Google Play Services (Proprietary) then no access to push notifications, maps APIs etc etc. Yes, Vanilla Android works, but it's rough as guts. And who'd want to buy a phone where push messages for Facebook/Instagram etc don't work? Very few people.