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Comment by amosbatto

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Comment by amosbatto

> More developers are familiar with Android than the desktop Linux software stack. More work goes into it. Far more apps are written for it, and that includes a very active open source app ecosystem.

The problem is that the Android app ecosystem has a very large number of apps which are based on collecting users' personal information and violating people's privacy, and it is hard for a normal user to avoid all the spyware and malware in Android. In my experience using CyanogenMod/LineageOS and the F-Droid repo since 2015, I inevitably fall back to installing some proprietary apps when using AOSP-derivatives, whereas my PinePhone and Librem 5 USA only have FOSS apps and drivers installed on them. If the goal is to use FOSS as much as possible, you are better off buying a Linux phone in my opinion.

By the way, one of the apps that I helped develop is on F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.ketanolab.nusimi/ ) and I have given workshops on how to install LineageOS on phones, so I speak as someone who tries to promote the use of FOSS on Android phones, but the phone industry does put up a lot of barriers to make it difficult to install AOSP-derivatives.

> GrapheneOS only supports devices with proper security support for all the firmware, drivers, etc. and again there are no closed source kernel drivers. We can support pretty much any mobile device with alternate OS support since any serious one will have AOSP support. Most devices have lackluster security and don't meet our requirements.

The problem is that Google only sells Pixels in a very limited number of countries. Whereas Purism offers free worldwide shipping for the Librem 5, the Pixel 6 is only being sold in 8 countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, UK, USA), so your security requirements exclude over 90% of the world's population from being able to use GrapheneOS. Plus, many people don't want to financially support a company like Google which is based on Surveillance Capitalism.

> We're working with a hardware vendor to get a non-Pixel phone actually meeting reasonable security requirements.

Good to hear. I look forward to seeing it.

> Librem 5 has a bunch of components where they are not shipping updates.

Not true. Purism has promised to provide updates to the proprietary firmware on the Librem 5, and already provides instructions for how to update the firmware on the WiFi/BT and USB controller. See: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...

> It has a bunch of poorly secured and insecurely configured legacy hardware often without proper updates available

What are you talking about? Purism purposely designed the Librem 5 to avoid planned obsolescence, so it looked for component suppliers who support their hardware for a long time. For example, NXP guarantees that that it will provide updates for the i.MX 8M Quad for 15 years (Jan. 2018 - Jan. 2033). See: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...

In contrast, Google only promises to provide 3 years of OS updates and security updates for the Pixel 3/4/5, and 3 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates for the Pixel 6. Qualcomm announced in Dec. 2020 that it will support its Snapdragon processors (which are used in Pixel devices) for 3 years of Android updates and 4 years of security updates.

Linux phones like the Librem 5 and PinePhone use separate components which are supported for many years by the manufacturers, whereas most Android phones (like the Pixels) use integrated mobile system-on-chips which are only manufactured for 1-2 years and only supported for 3-4 years by the manufacturer. Because Linux phones use components with long-term support by the component suppliers, the Librem 5 is the first phone to be sold with the guarantee of lifetime software updates, and PINE64 promised to manufacture the PinePhone for 5 years, which is longer than any other smartphone ever sold.

> components that are not properly isolated via IOMMU,

The Librem 5 doesn't need an IOMMU, because it uses separated components, and it uses serial buses (USB 2.0/3.0, SDIO, I2C and I2S) that don't allow direct memory access, so there is absolute no chance of the WiFi/BT, cellular modem, GNSS and USB controller being able to access the RAM or the SoC's cache. Unlike the Snapdragon processors in Pixels whose hardware is essentially a black box, we can independently verify by looking at the open source schematics that direct memory access is not possible in the Librem 5.

> but there are years and years of tons of important privacy/security work done in a systemic way across hardware/firmware/software which are missing there before worrying about stuff like that.

If you are talking about kernel hardening and running each app in its own sandbox with its own UID, then I would agree that Android/AOSP has more security features than Debian/PureOS, but the problem with your argument is that you are ignoring the fact that a mountain of spyware and malware has been created for the Android platform and users have to be very vigilant to not install any of it. According to AV-TEST, 3.38M pieces of malware and 3.18M potentially unwanted apps (mostly spyware) were created for the Android platform in 2021, whereas it is unlikely that any of that garbage will get into the Debian->PureOS repos to ever effect users of the Librem 5. Linux users rarely install anything from outside their distro's repo, whereas I often find myself installing apps whose code I can't verify when I use AOSP-derivatives because I can't find all the apps that I need in F-Droid.

Yes, Android/AOSP does have a lot more security built into its design than Debian->PureOS, but it is based on a model of letting all sorts of unverifiable and dangerous code run inside it. For more on the Librem 5's security, see: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...

> Marketing something as private/secure and spreading tons of misinformation and outright lies about the mainstream options

Care to provide any evidence to prove that Purism or its employees are "spreading tons of misinformation and outright lies about the mainstream options"?

Replies amosbatto · 2022-03-22
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