[jqpabc123]

Lineage is a useful and important project.

However, be aware that their focus has mostly been on security and not so much on privacy.

What this means is they worry a lot about hackers breaking into your phone but they don't worry much about daddy Google tracking you all over the internet and into the real world.

Also, not sure why this is news now since the last update was in April.

[benlivengood]

Last time I tried LineageOS it only came with whatever Google blobs were necessary for the phone to function, e.g. Fi stuff for Pixel/Nexus models, and that sounded like it was optional if an owner wanted to use a different carrier.

I think the bigger weakness on the security front is the blobby nature of the kernel and firmware for the properietary parts of the SoC. It's certainly better than running out-of-date official Android releases though.

[runjake]

LineageOS comes with the Google Play Framework, which last I checked myself, contained the core components of Google’s telemetry and data collection.

[runjake]

I am wrong, the sub-comments are right. GPF hasn't been installed by default for quite some time now: https://wiki.lineageos.org/gapps

[brnt]

It does not. However, most people install ROMs that have them preinstalled.

[YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo]

GPF is still optional.

[dogma1138]

It is an it’s not, too many apps rely on Google Play services these days for most consumers to have a functional device without it.

[worstenbrood]

You should check out microg lineage builds. Running it on my phone for a few years now without a single google app.

[jqpabc123]

You should check out /e/OS. It's Lineage with microg by default and with all the Google contacts stripped out of the source. Been running it myself for a few years and installing it for friends and family --- without a single Google app.

[opan]

You can also run LineageOS with no gapps or microg just fine. F-Droid has an amazing selection of apps.

[jqpabc123]

Yes, you can do that --- but it won't fully eliminate the privacy issues. Contact with Google servers is hard coded into the Android source in various places. /e/OS strips this out and replaces it.

Also, most people won't forgo a lot of convenience apps/features that depend on Google services. MicroG allows most of these apps to still work without privacy invasion.

[solarkraft]

I use /e/. It's a pretty good experience, a bit above LineageOS for microG.

The major downsides are a bit of a weird launcher, camera app (OpenCamera ... but worse?) and them occasionally pushing their weird services (some account and the absolutely terrible search engine). Those are all easily fixed, though. What stays is a pretty solid version of Android with almost everything working (the best experience I've had with microG), which is a pretty big achievement without Google Services (... and with Android).

You may want to install additional location (NLP) providers, my experience with the pre-installed ones was not very good. I also have occasional issues related to the camera (probably specific to my device).

A fun side-fact is that they use Bromite (great version of Chrome) as the default browser without crediting the author, just calling it "Browser". As a techie I don't like this obfuscation, but for non-techies it must be great.

[timschumi]

> A fun side-fact is that they use Bromite (great version of Chrome) as the default browser without crediting the author, just calling it "Browser". As a techie I don't like this obfuscation, but for non-techies it must be great.

They seem to have that issue with a lot of things.

At one point they were stripping existing copyrights out of the apps that were taken from other projects.

Changing the display name of an app definitely is one of the more innocent things to do, and most developers likely wouldn't even object. As an example, LineageOS uses Etar as the calendar app (with their permission of course), which is named "Calendar" in the app drawer.

[jqpabc123]

The major downsides are a bit of a weird launcher...

i use Discreet Launcher. It's kind of an acquired taste --- very Zen like, simple and functional. Now that I'm hooked, I won't use anything else