I wouldn't characterize myself as "the GOS camp" (I use LineageOS) I just happen to agree with them sometimes, and this is one of those times.
I do imagine this response is to some degree influenced by their beef with /e/ (an OS I don't have a high opinion of either, but for other reasons). It just seems to me that people see "not google" and think it's a good thing, but a gatekeeper determining which OS you are allowed to use with what apps is fundamentally a bad idea even if it's not google.
It’s much more correct to say that Lineage or Graphene are Android than saying that Android is Linux.
Both of these are correct. LineageOS and GrapheneOS are AOSP; AOSP is Linux.
Linux is a kernel. Other components must be added onto Linux to create a complete Linux operating system. Adding stuff onto Linux does not subtract any Linuxness from it. Any Linux OS is "real Linux." Saying that some Linuxes are not real Linux is like saying if you add peanut butter to bread you no longer have "real bread." It is nonsense.
GrapheneOS is critical of this initiative here and I think their criticism has merit. This simply moves the gatekeeper from Google to a handful of OEM's who won't let you use anything other than their blessed OS's.
I think the fact that the maintainer is intimately knowledgeable about the original codebase is enough for it to not be a clean room re-implementation, no? That's what makes it "clean"
You're being downvoted but it's true. The GNU Image Manipulation Program is held back by its inappropriate name. Not only does it have several problematic connotations it is also just not a very flattering term in general. To describe something as gimped is not a compliment.
As techies we're sympathetic to the project and are likely to give funny or inappropriate names a pass, but think about how "normies" would see it, especially in e.g. a business or education context, with knowledge of the derogatory meaning(s) of the word.
It's not really free (libre), merely "free" (gratis). Since that's something that matters to me I won't use it.
I don't believe that is the case. I believe they have their own fork of Gecko that they maintain here.
They stole our brain? Wasn't that a Star Trek episode?
Brain and brain, what is brain 🧠?
The devices will be available in 2027, according to GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS is partenered with a major OEM to release compatible devices in 2027. The OEM will publicly announce this partnership in March 2026.
Ironically though this makes the reverse a bit more defensible (i.e. using an LLM to reverse engineer a proprietary app) because that proprietary app's source code is less likely to be among the publicly available dataset.
But I imagine the corpos aren't going to look fondly on that for obvious reasons.