Android variants

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There are a number of Android alternatives out there, which claim to have “liberated” the Android code base from Google surveillance. In other words, they still are Android, but the built-in snooping that Google uses to track everything you do has been stripped out. Has anyone here used any of them? Since I currently use a cheapie phone that won’t be getting security updates I’m seriously considering getting a more expensive phone that is compatible with one of these alternatives, as they do get security updates. But I’m wondering how to judge which one is the best.

The grand-daddy of them all is the Cyanogen Mod, but that ended and was re-established as Lineage OS:
Lineage OS

Being the oldest community of alternative Android, it might be the largest? But I don’t know. It is also just free. You can download and install it at no charge.

There is also the /e/ foundation: e foundation which claims to offer the same thing, a completely compatible Android OS with the Google snooping removed. Apparently you have to ‘subscribe’ to their services to use it effectively, and that involves getting an account on their servers.

And one more is Copperhead OS, which is apparently only available through their official distribution network. So you have to pay up front somehow. But there are independent distributors who can install it on a phone for you (or you can buy a phone from them directly with it already installed) so you don’t have wot be a corporation and contract for a mass license of some sort.  Copperhead OS

Where could I find an actual comparison and contrast of these and possibly other variants I haven’t heard of?

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Or don’t put any personal information on your phone.
If you need to use it for shopping, email etc, install a non-google app for the purpose.

cheers, Paul

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I believe that every phone vendor who distributes the phone with Android has somehow customised the Android for its own needs. To manually install your own Andorid distribution requires not just good skills, but also appropriate drivers.

Google surveillence (as you called it) is still far safer than surfing XXX websites or clicking links, that you do not recognize.

If you are concerned about security, do not enable “install third party apps” in the settings menu. Use two factor validation for your banking. Set up unlock gesture.

If you need to use it for shopping, email etc, install a non-google app for the purpose.

Whats the bigger threat? Third praty app or Google?
I use my google account for years. Im am logged on several devices and it never let me down. There is just too much fear recently. Im not saying, that google is not somehow collecting data and analyzing it, but I still think, that HE DOES NOT DO IT IN PERSONAL WAY. Its anonymous. Malware and ransomware is personal. And it comes from OUR behavior on the internet, not from Google.

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PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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For example Wikipedia has rough comparsion.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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SueW

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Gnutopian wrote:

Where could I find an actual comparison and contrast of these and possibly other variants I haven’t heard of?

Well there’s an easy simple listing at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_custom_Android_distributions but that’s nowhere near complete. It’s missing at least Mallus, ArrowOS, StatiXOS, RevengeOS, AospExtended, … any number of those, smaller or larger projects (including individuals who just build something) on https://forum.xda-developers.com/ but, well… some are short-lived and/or support just one or two device models.

And then there’s pure AOSP, where you might get a source tree and device-specific build instructions. For example, Sony has a page on doing that for some of their devices at https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/guides/aosp-build-instructions/build-aosp-android-android-11-0-0/

doriel wrote:

To manually install your own Andorid distribution requires not just good skills, but also appropriate drivers.

And the drivers may be available in source form, but not as a prebuilt binary… so yeah.

Gnutopian wrote:

But I’m wondering how to judge which one is the best.

Well, LineageOS is about the most trusted – but support for some specific model might only be available from one of the smaller ones. And even so you’re not guaranteed to get updates, especially not as prebuilt binaries.

I have done that kind of thing for a couple of phone models.

If you can get a build setup working for a given Android base version, it may be sort of manageable to pull updates from AOSP and just keep rolling your own. Not easy but possible.

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Well, I guess no one here has bothered to try any of these. I was hoping for some insight beyond the summaries and blurbs on websites.

It’s really impossible to ‘not put personal information on your phone’. It’s your phone. Unless you never enter a phone number of a contact, you can’t help but have personal information on it. And even if so, it can still report things like your location without you knowing it. The phone companies can already triangulate according to what towers you are connecting to, but private apps (and Google’s own programs) can report this to others besides the phone companies.

Also, many phone manufacturers do not give updates beyond a few months, so major bugs that cause security risks can be permanent lifetime features of the phone.

For these and other reasons I’m still interested in the alternatives, but may just have to install one and learn seat-of-the-pants.

 

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Gnutopian wrote:

Well, I guess no one here has bothered to try any of these. I was hoping for some insight beyond the summaries and blurbs on websites.

I did mention that I have in fact tried some of these. Both prebuilt by someone else and actual homebrew, though not particularly recently.

It’s … tricky. You may need to find or build the exactly correct version for your phone’s specific firmware, as in region-specific at a minimum, or possibly carrier-specific in some cases.

Something like “Samsung Galaxy S3” is actually some 9 or 10 different models internally. International, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, …

Alex5723 wrote:

As OEMs don’t update security and New Android OS you think that a home brew Android OS will update with Google’s monthly security patches ?

If it’s really homebrew, you can pull anything that’s contributed to AOSP base, and then you can build patched binaries and install on your phone…

Samsung only offered updates for the original Galaxy S3 (from 2012) up to Android 4.4 (years ago), LineageOS on that hardware went up to 14 (Android 7.1.2 equivalent), binary builds were still being distributed last year… when I lost interest because the last such phone in the house died, after being dropped one time too many.

S3 “Neo” (2014 models), well, those three variants still seem to be “current” for LineageOS 16 (Android 9.0 equivalent, Samsung only offered up to 4.4.4 on these), so, yes it does get security patches, changelog is up at https://www.lineageoslog.com/16.0 …

My Xcover 2 died even earlier. That one I never found good binary builds for, and rolled my own based on VanirAOSP… which was one of the smaller forks and now apparently quite dead.

Then there was one LG phone, never got the homebuilt version working right, there was something in the region-specific firmware… never got it to actually make a call successfully. Restored factory firmware with some slight tweaks.

Sony is actually fairly good with this on some device models, they have a listing on https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/supported-devices-and-functionality/ … they have build guides and everything. So you can run “pure” AOSP on those models and tweak from there.

Might also be worth considering that many of the applications you might want to run, probably depend on something or other in the Google proprietary libraries that aren’t included in AOSP. Then again you might be able to add stuff back in, see https://github.com/opengapps/opengapps/wiki/Package-Comparison … though the licensing is a bit weird…

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wavy

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Gnutopian wrote:

Also, many phone manufacturers do not give updates beyond a few months, so major bugs that cause security risks can be permanent lifetime features of the phone.

For these and other reasons I’m still interested in the alternatives, but may just have to install one and learn seat-of-the-pants

As OEMs don’t update security and New Android OS you think that a home brew Android OS will update with Google’s monthly security patches ?

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Maybe they don’t update monthly like Google, but yes, most of these variations exist precisely to produce security updates. Lineage OS updates fairly often. Removing the Google surveillance is part of the ‘improved security”…

The selection of hardware supported is a major issue. There is substantial lag between the appearance of a phone from even a popular manufacturer like Samsung and the addition of support for it in one of these variants. Programmers who don’t work for the manufacturers have to start their work after the phone is released. It seems strange that the Google Pixel is probably the one universal phone supported by all or almost all of them, but I guess that one has some security features that very few other Android phones bother with. So that seems likely to be the best phone to go with.

I am also hoping that equivalent functionality of applications I’d like to have will be available on similar ‘alternative’ sites like f-droid.org or http://www.apkmirror.com without having to use Google Play Store.

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Gnutopian wrote:

Lineage OS updates fairly often.

At least the backend does.

But, hobbyist projects and all… builds don’t get run nearly as often, and if your device drops from “current” because the hobbyist maintainer no longer has time or equipment (as in last testing phone of that model died), well…

Gnutopian wrote:

It seems strange that the Google Pixel is probably the one universal phone supported by all or almost all of them, but I guess that one has some security features that very few other Android phones bother with.

… not really.

AOSP is mostly Google’s open-source project still, and supposed to build and work on the reference platform without tweaking. Wouldn’t be surprising if the closest consumer-available thing to reference platform is one of Google’s own models, right?

So yeah. You know it was almost certainly you who broke it when your custom Android-fork fails to work on that model, but on other hardware it might have been Samsung or whoever…

Gnutopian wrote:

I am also hoping that equivalent functionality of applications I’d like to have will be available on similar ‘alternative’ sites like f-droid.org or http://www.apkmirror.com without having to use Google Play Store.

Yes, that’ll be the big one.

Pretty sure F-Droid won’t be carrying WhatsApp or WeChat any time soon, heh… but I see multiple Matrix IM clients. (And there’s a version of Telegram.)

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