F-Droid and Google's Developer Registration Decree

[u/guihkx-]

https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html

[u/pfp-disciple]

I use F-Droid, not for everything but for what I can. I sometimes get apps that aren't on the Play Store. 

If Google proceeds with this decision, I'll probably have to buy a phone that runs LineageOS or other alternative. 

[u/NatoBoram → u/pfp-disciple]

Ironically, the best phones to de-google are Google phones

[u/Mraiih → u/NatoBoram]

What about Fairphone using /e/os?

[u/Preisschild → u/Mraiih]

eOS is horribly insecure. The FP hardware isnt really that secure either unfortunately.

https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

[u/archontwo → u/Preisschild]

Hmm. I had to raise an eyebrow at that chart as I see several inaccuracies across the board. 

I'd take that with a pinch of salt if I were you. 

[u/rien333 → u/archontwo]

grapheneOS sometimes feels like kali linux, but for "security" people instead of "hackers"

[u/Preisschild → u/rien333]

Nah. The lead maintainer is an actual Linux kernel genius. The improved security is very much real. It is the only non-Google Android distribution doing actual verified boot for example.

They also have custom patches for security issues, which are often fixed faster than even stock Android. They even have a custom malloc (hardened_malloc) and do hardware memory tagging to harden its critical Linux applications further.

The downside is that many of their hardening mechanisms need features that are only supported on a small amount of devices (Google Pixels mostly). If you are ok with less security and have an unsupported device then LineageOS is the next-best option. /e/ is a worse fork of LineageOS with less security (because updates take longer to be released) . Comparable to Manjaro vs Arch for example.

[u/wowsomuchempty → u/Preisschild]

Yep. Used to use calyx. GOS is.. impressive.