This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I will understand if Graphene decides to skip Pixel 11.
However, what if Pixel 12 doesn't support MTE? And 13 too?
Will they stop the project, then?
They keep talking about the potential future Motorola partnership, but I will only believe it when I see it.
Motorola has officially confirmed it themselves, and the Pixels 8 to 10 will keep being supported even if the 12 and 13 aren't supported.
https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/
I believe it, when I see it, the actual device available for purchase I mean.
Wish they'd focus on phones NOT made by major corporations like Google and Motorola, and instead focus on small companies' phones like Fairphone, Pine64, Purism, Jolla, etc.
They can't. They require extremely up to date firmware and very short update cycles. Only large corporations with huge phone platforms are able to do satisfy that.
Can Graphene OS achieve their privacy targets and principles in different ways that encourage collaboration with non-corporations?
I refuse to believe that GOS can't agree to graduated privacy provisions according to the capabilities of Linux and sustainable/repairable non-corpo companies and their phones.
Well, than you should read what GOS developers have to say about that, they are pretty clear on it. They absolutely do not accept any compromise on that, even if that means being forced to rely on cooperation by big corporations for hardware and firmware. I don't even judge that, it is just merely how it is.
I am judging that.
I want them to keep their principles, and at the same time partner with some Linux group or some other working group representing Open-Source Hardware (OSH) so that one day we don't HAVE to rely on corporations for true privacy with our smartphones.
I can't see how that is possible without compromising on their security requirements. The hardware isn't the problem here, that could be overcome, the extremely rapid firmware updating reqirement is. That needs huge resources, hence they are using so far a device from the huge comoany behind the Android ecosystem. Already Motorola, another huge compaby is stretchung that requirement, as tgey are not sitting at the source of that ecosystem.
Again, I am not defending GrapheneOS' choice, just describing their dilemma
They don't want to, which is fine for their goal of having the absolutely most secure phone possible.
That is mincing words but as long as they don't change their requirements (which they don't want to) they actually can't, without failing those requirements.
Short-sighted goal in my opinion. They could be the leader in privacy for smartphones from the bottom up, including hardware and software.
GOS's work with Motorola might just lead Motorola to be that group as they always have for decades, so my issues might go away anyways.
Just getting arrogant, self-isolating vibes when they have soooo much good will with the tech community on building privacy from the ground up in some of the most important intelligent devices in our lives.
Why can't GOS join a working group with ISO or IEC or IEEE or other groups to create roadmaps and tiers of compliance so that other manufacturers have means and methods of approaching GOS's lofty goals.
Those also don't meet the hardware requirements
But why can't GrapheneOS work with those companies to ACQUIRE the right hardware requirements, rather than leaning on a corporation?
The hardware requirements are public. Those manufacturers have chosen not to implement supported hardware, which is step 0.
There is also a maintenance burden for the GrapheneOS team. The ROM requires kernel patches and driver work that makes supporting additional phones intensive work.
Using a widely-available phone with good performance, decent quality, and long term security support, meant that more people could access it. I still can't buy a Fairphone without going through an overseas middleman, then hoping I have no warranty issues, because they don't sell to Australia. If something goes wrong with my Pixel, the shop I bought it from is minutes away.
So no reason to buy a Pixel at all any more? Midrange performance, poor battery life, middling cameras, AI bloated software, all at flagship prices. Its one saving grace was Graphene support and that's now gone too.
Just in time to move on to Motorola...
I originally bought Pixels because they were the opposite of what they are now. Bloat-free devices (other than Google apps) that just provided the tools I needed to do things, while having excellent hardware security. Now it's basically GeminiOS, and they're solving the problem they created by throwing out security.
Every Pixel event for the past several years has been almost entirely about Gemini. A software feature. Which just goes to show that they have no hardware features.
Bought a Pixel 10 Pro instead of the new 11 Pro.
Worse display, price more expensive, no upside to the older model.
Literally said to myself "Yeah...no. No, thank you" when looking at the specs vs P10Pro
Motorola is unfortunately gonna be in the same boat too when it comes to the prices. And I highly doubt GOS is gonna focus on their cheaper phones because they notoriously have poorer software. So now, it seems GOS is gonna be an exclusive feature. If you want it, your gonna have to pay for it.
I personally don't trust Motorola due to having poor experiences with their budget phones. Its not worth with unless you shell out the money.
If you want it, your gonna have to pay for it.
Older Pixel phones are not that expensive. Why would you need the latest one?
Even though that's true. Phones really shouldnt be expensive. GOS isn't supporting the older phones, I think the oldest you can go now is the pixel 7. Since GOS is stopping for the Pixel 11, Is there any other alternative OS that can be used for pixels? Or where are the other phones that supports GOS?
Google is closing in on their phones. GOS users in a time span of 3-7 years (depending on the pixel they have) would unfortunately have to find an alternative after that lifespan unless GOS starts supporting other phones that isnt breaking the bank. GOS as well is basically closing off their OS market. Which is why I made that comment. If you want the OS now, they're gonna make you pay for it.
Pixel has 7 years of support so you could get Pixel 10 and use with Graphene OS until 2033 but yes, if you need to switch every year to the latest model than you can skip Pixel.
My understanding is that while the older Pixel phones had MTE capability, it was off by default and could only be enabled under the dev settings. Google did not enable it by default because Android depends heavily on vendor board support packages, proprietary SOC drivers, and HAL modules. Google felt that driver code quality from 3rd-parties is not clean enough to enable kernel-level MTE without risking bootloops and spontaneous reboots. Even worse for C++ apps, which often read slightly past their allocated memory blocks.
Instead, Google rewrote critical core Android system daemons using Rust. Like the keystore, Bluetooth stack, DNS resolver, and others. I believe using Rust essentially makes MTE unnecessary.
Also full synchronous MTE mode has high CPU/memory bus penalties (could be 5-10% under heavy memory loads).
Google probably decided that since hardly anyone used MTE anyway on earlier Pixel devices, they could use the space in the chip for other uses.
The point is that the post makes it sound like using a Pixel 11 under Android results in less security than before, but for most people there is no change since they never used MTE anyway.
It's not an on/off kind of thing, MTE is a set of ARM extensions. Either the api to use them is clearly documented or, as in the pixel 11's case, Google started to not document their implementation.
We know this matches their plan to obscure the AOSP code to eventually lock out anyone else from using their base.
GOS is not in a position to reverse-engineer api calls on what was formally documented hardware.
Instead, Google rewrote critical core Android system daemons using Rust. Like the keystore, Bluetooth stack, DNS resolver, and others. I believe using Rust essentially makes MTE unnecessary.
No. Rust being "memory safe" doesn't mean rust apps can't abuse speculation or buffer under/overruns.
The point is that the post makes it sound like using a Pixel 11 under Android results in less security than before, but for most people there is no change since they never used MTE anyway.
Read the BlueSky posts, Google didn't force app devs to opt into MTE, so no one did.
Google probably decided that since hardly anyone used MTE anyway on earlier Pixel devices, they could use the space in the chip for other uses.
"Space in the chips"? Again, see the Bluesky posts.
Google is very clearly shifting over to a completely walled garden, because, same as Apple, it isn't about the hardware performance and capabilities, it's about control.
I think you misunderstand what is being said.
The point is that the post makes it sound like using a Pixel 11 under Android results in less security than before, but for most people there is no change since they never used MTE anyway.
That's not what they're saying. They're saying Graphene without MTE is less secure, which isn't something they want.
Which you can read from their post here
We strongly recommend against buying Pixel 11 devices. Pixel 8, 9 and 10 have much better overall security for GrapheneOS. Pixel 10 is cheaper with similar hardware and MTE. Pixel 11's Titan M3 should improve BFU security for users without a strong passphrase, but losing MTE craters AFU security.
Well, we had a good run. It was nice while it lasted...
Probably for the best. As they said, it frees them up to focus on Motorola devices, a company that's actively working with them.
Honestly, I expect it will become increasingly hard getting a company willing to do something like this. Lately, all of the companies have started heavily enshittifying and I don't know many that still care about their customers. And it's a domino effect - they know you ain't going anywhere, all the others are just as shit. I remember a time where you had a 100 phones officially supported by Lineageos and were cheap. You could get a Xiaomi, Huawei for like a $100 and they would run lineageos almost out of the box. Or a Nexus 5 for a few extra bucks. As soon as they eliminated the competition, they've become closed entirely and are basically spying machines. I don't trust Motorola will be trustworthy in the long term, if they capture any market. Just a few months ago, they were caught hijacking affiliate links on their phones (link). I don't know when the consumer situation will change, but I'm not holding my breath for Motorola. Of course, if they make a good phone running GOS, I might try it if my pixel kicks the bucket.
they are all trying to wall in thier customers in a garden.
GOS supposedly has 200k users. That's 200k Pixel phones sold for the purpose of GOS. A bunch of companies used to buy Blackberries because they had the reputation of being the most secure. It's a viable business model. They'll be sold and marketed as "GrapheneOS compatible".
I really hope so. 200k is peanuts for google, but probably significant for Motorola.
Actually, Motorola has more market share than Pixel.
Though Google mainly cares about the software ecosystem, so they explicitly don't care about Graphene since it's not an outcome they want in the industry anyway.
