Hey dear smart community, I don’t use any Google products or services over 3 years now. Always had android and used fdroid. No apps for banking ( cash lover). Osmand for maps. Extremely happy to find this app for socializing with like minded people. Now I feel time has come to upgrade privacy and security and custom ROM phone. I am considering if getting pixel8 and installing GOS. The only issue is,that I have 0 (ZERO) knowledge about how to do it. I have looked many videos and read on websites how to do it,but I am so afraid that I will not be able. I don’t know if that is right to ask for assistance from people here,but I don’t feel like I am capable of doing so. Plus,I have samsung which I would like to prepare and give my friend to use. Unfortunately, that person in immersed to Google world ( internet banking apps ect). Do you think LineageOS could give more protection and same smooth usage of phone ? I will appreciate any suggestions how to custom ROM phones. Best wishes to all.
I’ve just recently installed GrapheneOS on a new Pixel 8 (as in, refurbished, but for me it was new). It worked quite well. I’ve used to use the CLI installer before, but after looking at the current recommendations on their website, I followed through with the web-based one.
One point of local struggle for me was when I needed to “Flash factory images”. It looked like it’s not going well, I didn’t understand (still don’t) how to read the instruction unambiguously on when I should stop waiting, ended up restarting my phone once needlessly. However, doing the same step again afterwards somehow made the flashing successfully, and the button for the next stage got enabled (“locking the bootloader”). In total, it was inconsequential.
Everything is working super-smooth since. I’ve did a hardware attestation procedure to make sure that my refurbished phone is fine, and it shows up as fine. I’m quite content with how it went. Considering how you describe your phone usage, you would benefit from GOS or another open firmware a lot. You can give it a try, it’s a good firmware! I wish there’d be projects that would be freedom-first, not privacy-first with the same quality level. I digress and it’s subjective at this point. Just give it a try!