Andromxda

On the Fediverse: Mastodon

Outside the Fediverse: Instagram

I used to use Reddit pretty actively, but I haven't logged into my account since June 2023. I also used Twitter occasionally, but completely stopped when Elon the dickhead took it over. But I was already aware of the Fediverse and had a Mastodon account before the Elon takeover. I somehow never discovered Lemmy before the Reddit API crisis, even though I was actively looking for federated Reddit alternatives around the same time I started caring about privacy, digital freedom and using more open source software and decentralized services.

which kind of kills half the point of using GrapheneOS in the first place

Absolutely not. Google Play services are much less invasive on GrapheneOS compared to other ROMs or the stock OS, since they run in the normal Android app sandbox, just like any other app you install. You can control all permissions, and uninstall them at any time. They do not get any special privileges, as it would be the case when running stock Android. You can also confine Play services in a separate user profile or in a work profile through an app like Shelter (user profiles offer better isolation).

If you’re not (e.g. you install via Aurora), then it’s incredibly unlikely your bank will work.

As I said, it highly depends on your specific bank. My bank in Germany works totally fine on GrapheneOS without Play Services. YMMV. That's why I linked to that list.

You can use this list to check if you're bank's app is compatible

I wouldn't give such a general statement. It really depends on your bank. There's a very handy list at https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/

As far as I know you can power down a Pixel at any stage by holding the power button for over a minute. Had to do this a couple of times when I flashed a bad ROM and got stuck in a bootloop.

It still uses the TPM by default, instead of requireing a passphrase to be typed in on boot to unlock the keys. This still makes it an insecure mess.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=wTl4vEednkQ

https://github.com/stacksmashing/pico-tpmsniffer

https://github.com/stacksmashing/LPCClocklessAnalyzer

Microsoft NEVER cares about your security. They just do the absolute bare minimum for compliance with stupid standards, and then advertise it as some crazy security improvement. Corporations lie to you all the time. If you want some actual security, you need to start using FOSS software. Most importantly a FOSS, Linux-based OS, and set it up with LUKS passphrase-based encryption.

If you have a Pixel, just put GrapheneOS on it and you won’t ever have to deal with Google’s proprietary bullshit again

What makes you think so? Is there something I completely missed? From my experience in FOSS I'd say 95-98% of software actually works in favor of the user. With proprietary software it might be 5-15% at best. Can you name any examples that prove your claims?

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There are other good (open-source) options like Flow Launcher (GitHub)

The proprietary drivers got much better, they're really usable without any noticeable issues. There's also an effort to get solid open-source drivers, but these don't work with older cards yet.

PowerToys Run > Start Menu

To my surprise, I even recently discovered that PowerToys is open-source, even though it's made by Microsoft. It really drastically improves the terrible Windows experience. Thankfully I don't have to use Windows at all anymore, but if I had to, PowerToys would be the first thing I'd install.

On Linux (KDE) I enjoy using KRunner