Approximately 1 in 25 Pixel users run GrapheneOS

I'm not sure if that'd be what it'd look like.. distributions are hardly ever that heterogeneous.

I'd bet all the GrapheneOS users would get together in their own corner and nerd out about their customizations.

For the record: 1 in 25 is 4% ...the image gives (intentionally?) the illusion of the proportion being higher.

Do you want to just do the minimum?

LTT did not make that joke though? He also copied it.

That is in fact the reference

Who cares about toxic LTT?

The number of recent updates, it seems. Which is probbaly an OK metric.

I'm on, I think, my 3rd Pixel. All of them were chosen because of the possibility of putting a third-party firmware on them, but my current one is the first I've actually done it to.

I bought my mom a pixel and installed graphene on it and gave her. She is by no means a power user. Never underestimate the will of nerds to go a step further :)

I'm sure it's a mix, but I would expect fewer people that have GrapheneOS because they have a Pixel than have a Pixel because they are the only devices supported by GrapheneOS.

Considering that they sell Pixels at normal stores, unlike the Nexus devices that came before them. It shouldn't be any wonder that there's a lot of normal people using them. Especially when only google was offering long software support for Android phones.

I mean, I still buy (used) Pixels even after knowing Google is evil, because they're still the least-bad option because of things like Graphene OS.

Also, re: "unlikely to pivot to Linux phones:" that's not because of any sort of "large investment in Android;" it's because Linux phones either suck or are expensive (or maybe both). I say that as a desktop Linux user exclusively for almost a decade and owner of a Pinephone. I want to be using a Linux phone, but they just aren't there yet.

I wonder how accurate it is. I have run Graphene off and on over the years but keep going back to stock.

hmmm, I'd consider Apple and Google to be roughly equal in terms of general overall evilness these days

they both donate to support fascism and genocide, remove anti-fascism apps and anti-surveillance apps from their stores upon government request (even when not legally required), spy on their users, etc

and their software/products seems to be in the final phase of enshittification

the fact that GrapheneOS exists and works on Google hardware at all seems like a plus in Google's column, however it's only necessary because default Android/Chrome are not allowed to go so far as to protect users from surveillance capitalism (so it's a plus only necessary because of a negative)

unless there's a specific measure where Google does significantly worse?

The reason I got GrapheneOS over other alternatives to Android was because I thought it had something like 1% of the overall smartphone market (source: wikipedia).

Both of my banking apps (Wells Fargo and Amex) work just fine for me. Amex doesn't remember my phone and needs 2fa every login, but that's fine with me.

1 in 4% is a very odd way of saying 25

Come on now, it's actually 0,333... in 8,333...

Said 0.1% of people

Pixels cost around the same as any other phone from Samsung, Oneplus, or whatever.

Give them away? Not really, Samsung S series are the same pricing as pixels here where I live. The pixel a is different of course, it's more like a Samsung FE.

A lot of it is "on paper" as you say.

For example, iPhone uses NVMe SSD storage. The best Android phones use UFS, which is cheaper, and, "on paper," slower. But there are other bottlenecks to consider, and in real world performance, UFS is at least as good.

I can only speculate as to why Apple uses the part that costs more and is only better in theory, but my best guess is that the iPhone is intended to be used for far longer than they're marketed. Like Apple marketing would have you believe you need to upgrade every year or two, but Apple engineering would allow you to easily use an iPhone for five years, if you could resist the temptation of marketing. And it's honestly not really that much different with Android. I have a 2019 Galaxy S10 that still runs relatively well. Could use a new battery, it doesn't last long when it's powered on, but it still runs well in the time it has.

You are right.

I suppose I am a little bit frustrated with the fact that there are 4,9 billion smartphone users and yet 0,5% chance of having a non-US integrated phone. If someone had said that will be the future in 2007, I think most everybody would have thought it preposterous.

At the same time, I run Graphene with no Google services or apps and it's fantastic. The only thing vs a rom with microg, is you need to be able to depend on unified push or background listening for push notifications. Imo this is actually more de-googled than connecting to Google services with an open source client (which still results in your phone having a constant connection to Google). Graphene also provides options to connect to proxies or alternative services for things like location services, DNS, internet connectivity checks (which can also just be turned off), etc.

So you get privacy from individuals while signing up to a company provenly offering back doors to government. It makes sense in the way that govenrment is not going to empty your bank account for sure. But I would call that safety and not privacy.

Thanks for the clarification!

Somehow I am not surprised that the only phone able to use software not made by google is a phone made by google. Or, of course, you can buy iPhone and comply with NSA that way.

I am going to take a lucky guess and say this is by design and not by accident.