Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Replicant or LineageOS or ???

[Mike Gerwitz]

On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 15:00:35 +0200, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> With CyanogenMod gone, more and more people are looking at which OS to
> use next.
>
> LineageOS[1] is the most well known successor, but how does it compare
> to Replicant[2] when it comes to security and privacy?

As has already been said, Replicant is a fork of LineageOS, with
non-free stuff removed.  Replicant seems to be the only Android option
if you want a fully free mobile OS.

From a security standpoint, it remains to be seen how frequently
Replicant will update with patches.  I used Replicant 4 for quite some
time which had no patches for the entire time I used it (~1yr), and
hadn't before then either.  This is very dangerous.  Maybe someone can
volunteer to help; I don't know how difficult of a job it is.

All things considered, though, LineageOS is not an option for me, as I
don't want to run non-free software.  I can at least trust that
proprietary software isn't hiding potentially dirty secrets from me
(sans the modem), but I have no choice but to treat my mobile device as
untrusted, and store nothing sensitive on it that I can avoid (I do have
contacts and photos, at least until I can back up and get rid of the
latter).  I'd be more comfortable if I knew enough about the OS to
monitor/audit/harden it (as I do with GNU/Linux), but I don't.

-- 
Mike Gerwitz
Free Software Hacker+Activist | GNU Maintainer & Volunteer
GPG: D6E9 B930 028A 6C38 F43B  2388 FEF6 3574 5E6F 6D05
https://mikegerwitz.com

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