Ask Lemmygrad

There is a toot I recently read that I liked about changing ecosystems: https://infosec.exchange/@david_chisnall/116696597934617319

Almost 25 years ago, I wrote a blog post with the title ‘jumping ship slowly’ about leaving Windows (XP was awful, it was mind boggling to me that Vista managed to make people nostalgic for XP). My advice remains the same:

Don’t try switching OS first. The OS is the most easily replaceable bit in the stack. Switch applications first. Most ‘Linux’ apps are cross platform. They’ll run on Windows, and the few that don’t will run in WSL2. You can switch out apps one at a time, and take the time to get comfortable with the alternatives.

Once you’re comfortable not using any Windows-only apps, changing the OS but using all of the same applications is very easy to do. Changing OS and application stack at the same time is an enormous obstacle.

I believe this is also why a lot of corporate and government Linux migrations fail: they try to change everything at the same time and that’s too steep a learning curve.

Until someone starts mass producing a phone based on open source software (China?), I'm not sure anyone can totally free themselves of Apple and Google. The Harmony ecosystem from Huawei is exchanging one corporate system for another, though it has the advantage of being built from the ground up for use across all devices, from servers to PCs to cars to air conditioners. I don't think a major move to rid ourselves of Apple and Google's enshitification will happen from the US, but outside of it. We're already seeing that happen to Windoze.

GrapheneOS is definitely great. It doesn't support faceID however. I don't know how much you need it for other apps, but if you just need it for security, it's a completely unreliable technology. A password/pin is much stronger. With faceID, someone can unlock your phone with a simple photo, or even while you sleep. I've seen police use faceID to unlock people's phones when the people deny to unlock it for them, by just pointing it at their faces.

Apple's faceID is actually a bit more secure, because iPhones have extra sensors to recognize when the phone is being fooled by a photo. Google-based faceID is just based on the camera, so very easy to fool.

On the other hand, GrapheneOS has much better permission settings, which can provide much stricter or looser control on individual apps, which is a much more significant security feature than Apple or Google OS.

If none of this is practical for you, then you basically have no choice but to go Android. Although technically you could have a device for your banking needs on Android, and a device for personal use on Graphene. I've also heard it's possible to turn some android phones into dual booting devices (running both OS and switching between then 2 by restarting the phone), but I've never seen it done.

You don't have to stick to Google's Android OS though. There's CalyxOS which is open source and free (for the most part). It's still Google-based, but it gives you the possibility to get rid of the most serious Google spyware/adware, and has better security options. No FaceID here either.

LineageOS is also a pretty good alternative to Graphene, but I hear it's less functional (but more user-friendly to install). Still, you can set it up to connect to Google services, which would enable you to run any Android app probably. By default gets rid of all of Google's spyware/adware. Also no faceID.

A pricier (and perhaps riskier) option is to get a Fairphone device, which is a completely de-googled phone, fully repairable, and its OS is compatible with almost any Android app (and also able to run iOS apps). The only catch is that your service provider might not actually work with that phone for some reason. I've heard this is a particular problem in the US. I don't understand why this problem exists.

For your laptop, I'd recommend Arch Linux if you are a beginner. It's got a similar UI to the standard OS (Windows, Mac), it has extra features to enhance usability for people not familiar with Linux systems, and it's got great support for running Android apps natively on your PC. However, it doesn't come in 1 package. You will need to get the base OS, and then you install add-ons to it, depending on your needs. So it will take some time to research and then set up.

If you want an all-in-one package and don't mind about flexibility then Ubuntu is the way to go for beginners. It's real easy to learn and use, and it has similar features to Arch (but just takes a bit more effort to set up anything not natively built in). If your work involves coding and you know your way around Linux, then I'd recommend a more advanced build, like Red Hat.