Afternoon, y’all! It’s been a week since I took the plunge into Graphene OS. I wanted to present my thoughts as a free flowing dialogue and hopefully encourage others to delve into the joy that is GOS.
So, I started using the web-based installer. I have Debian 13 and Chromium, so I didn’t need any extra steps. Unlocking the bootloader was a blast of nostalgia to me. Brought me right back to the days of bouncing between AOKP and CyanMod. The installation process was honestly easier than anything I could have imagined. I booted up into GOS and locked everything back up and I was ready to go.
Beforehand, I had backed up all my app settings, and since I was already using FOSS apps it was relatively painless. I spent the next couple hours installing everything and importing settings. I’m using the fossify apps in place of the standard AOSP apps GOS provides. I have no idea if this will fuck me over, but I’m willing to find out. I ended up losing some SMS messages as the backup file corrupted, but I’m not that brokenhearted about it. But I went to bed at about 02.00 happy with my new phone.
Throughout my daily use, I noticed something peculiar. I was using my phone less and less. Inherently, becoming less reliant over time. It forced me to use my computer increasingly for things such as banking and social media.
Quick side note: I had Instagram installed and sandboxed, but it was killing my battery, so now I just use the website, which is actually kinda nice.
But the thing that stood out to me most was, I was using the phone for it’s intended purpose; telecommunications. I chatted with people, answered some e-mails, did some daily games, browsed Lemmy a bit. But my screen time was significantly less. I read more, I’m more intentional about tasks and hobbies. It seems I had signicantly more damage to my brain from doomscrolling, than I had previously thought.
Overall, it made me feel like my phone, was my phone. I’ve not worried a bit about my privacy, I’ve been able to live in ease and a lot happier. I also use cash and interact with people more and more, because there’s more personal connection in transactions and interactions now. (Why do so many businesses have an app?) I highly recommend it. The joy, the freedom 🇺🇲🦅🍔🛣️🛢️🏈, and the comfort is something I’ll never give back. GOS for life, now.
Thank for reading my, probably, incongruent thoughts about GOS. I appreciate this community and the folks around Lemmy for helping and encouraging me. This place has been a nice reprieve from the waking nightmare of the current state of the world. I’m sorry if I didn’t get to your comment on my previous post. I didn’t expect it to blow up the way it did. I really appreciate it and I’m gonna hang around and see if I can also help and encourage folks.
Peace and cheers, with all my love.
GOS is quite cool! I do miss some features of the first party pixel OS, but certainly not enough to go back. Most of my gripes have to do with other apps’ dependence on Google services rather than GOS itself.
After working out the kinks of getting all my apps set up and working (my mobile carrier being the hardest since they require their stupid app) it’s been quite seamless.
Some stuff still needs work, for example I found that work profiles are really janky (since the work profile apps expect Google Play Services in the work sandbox, and get really confused when it isn’t there).
I use sandboxed Play Services with the minimum permissions to make it work, mainly because most apps just crap out or have no notifications without it, which is annoying.
I have noticed a weird bug with screenshots - it pops up the mini version of your screenshot in the corner, but if I don’t use the back gesture fast enough it will become stuck on screen until I take another screenshot (even if I tap on it to open the editing view).
My wireless provider also required their app, so dumb 🙄