[nmglug] FreedomOS vs LineageOS vs CalyxOS, any thoughts?

[Paul]

FreedomOS and the Freedom phone sound like a big grift to make money off
gullible folks. The only reports of "political sides wanting to protect us
from big tech talking about FreedomOS" I've seen seem to be PR pieces for
the phone itself or else far right-leaning sites stoking fears about "big
tech censorship."

The hardware of the $500 Freedom Phone itself seems to be a budget Chinese
phone available for about 1/4 the price on AliExpress. It also looks like
Android pre-loaded with an American flag background and apps like Parler,
Newsmax and OAN, so you can be racist right out of the gate at first power
up. If anyone can find the source anywhere, I'd be interested in looking at
it, but I'd bet it's just re-skinned LineageOS with some pre-loaded apps
and a skinned Aurora app store. Their goal here is clearly to fleece the
gullible. I wouldn't trust them at all. Making money is their priority, not
user privacy.

I've had good luck de-Googling my phone by installing LineageOS without
Google services (and Cyanogenmod before that). I'll have to dive in and try
CalyxOS sometime as they seem to have a better security model and AOSP is
their upstream, not just a re-skinned LineageOS.

I've been tinkering around a bit with a Pine Phone but I'd still say it's
not ready for prime time. Getting there, though.

On Mon, Jul 19, 2021 at 1:19 PM LeRoy Diener <leroy at choosetherightside.com>
wrote:

> Hi NMGLUG folks,
>
> I've been wanting to have more security and privacy on my phone for a
> while.
> I guess I'm not alone.
> I heard about LineageOS a while back.
> More recently, I heard that CalyxOS is more feasible to get to work. I
> recently bought a Google Pixel 4a with the idea that I might one day put
> CalyxOS on it, and that it will work great.
> Now, I heard about political sides wanting to protect us from big tech
> talking about FreedomOS.
>
> Does anyone have tech insight into the security of these and feasibility
> to use on a phone?
>
> Thanks to all of you,
> LeRoy
> --
> There is something glorious birthing within all of us. (New for 2021)
> I am the Love of God, no matter what.
> LeRoy Diener
> 213-LEROYIZ
> 213-537-6949
> www.leroydiener.com/
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>
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