We have a partial port of GrapheneOS to the Pixel 11 series after a week of work on it. We're unable to complete the port due to lack of support for ARM hardware memory tagging in software, firmware and near certainly hardware. It appears Google cut an important security feature to save money.
This was the problem I had with custom firmware back when I modded Android phones — you never knew if the custom firmware developers/packagers were even going to support your phone until after you bought it.
One phone was widely supported? So you buy the next one and no one wants to support it for whatever reason. One developer says “if you buy me one I will develop for it” thinking no one actually will, and when the community actually does so, he flips it on Swappa and you never hear from him again. Shit like that.
But if you’ll pay iPhone 17 Pro prices for an iPhone 11 powered phone that comes with personal data collection out the wazoo, you’ll probably pony up for the more expensive Motorola phone coming out that they’ve (tentatively?) committed to.
Motorola CFW support was spotty in the past, when they were an American company. Now they are part of Lenovo (? Not sure if they still are) so maybe they do things differently now. They always had decent hardware, and their Android forks were very minimal later on (in their independent time; before they were further from AOSP) and ran pretty good for the most part. But they did not like to update their phones. Motorola phones often shipped with the Android version they would EOL on. Motorola used to be a piss-poor choice for modding back then.
I expect better from them now, but I don’t predict it.
Also, I realise the issue is with Pixel, not Graphene. Still, I would be upset if I bought a Pixel 11 planning to de-Google it.
Motorola has been under Lenovo for over a decade now, and still is, as a clarification.
The new thing is that for whatever reason, Motorola themselves has explicitly declared that some as-yet specified 2027 flagship model will officially support Graphene (though you have to load it yourself). This goes beyond just letting the community figure it out if it happens to be workable.
Now as to whether they follow through on that, hard to say. Lenovo broadly sometimes makes announcements and then backs out without explanation.
It’s been a decade since I switched to iPhone for my daily driver. I still have an Android phone as backup. I had an HTC last, and a Samsung before that, so yeah, my Motorola was before that. My wife had one more recently. Actually, she had the same one I did, then used two more for some reason (habit?). They were all pretty shit phones. All before the acquisition.
I know a guy who worked for Lenovo. Said they treated him good. As for Motorola, they kinda stopped doing phones after so many shit ones. I’m kinda glad they’re back, but I wouldn’t trust them, myself. As an iPhone guy who still likes Android, I’d mainly be looking at Samsung (it’s what I have now, it’s an old S10 that still rocks), though the Nothing 6+ or 6S or whatever it’s called, in green, is VERY tempting — if I needed a phone now, it’s what I would get. Even over another iPhone.
Simple solution: wait until they announce support before buying a new phone. Short of your current one breaking or no longer updating, you don’t need a new phone right now, you can wait.
If you do need one right now because of one of those reasons, sucks, but just buy the most recent one that is currently supported (the 10) or buy one that will EOL sooner than you’d like (maybe an 8 or 9, used/cheap) while you wait for the new one (the 11).
This was the problem I had with custom firmware back when I modded Android phones — you never knew if the custom firmware developers/packagers were even going to support your phone until after you bought it.
One phone was widely supported? So you buy the next one and no one wants to support it for whatever reason. One developer says “if you buy me one I will develop for it” thinking no one actually will, and when the community actually does so, he flips it on Swappa and you never hear from him again. Shit like that.
But if you’ll pay iPhone 17 Pro prices for an iPhone 11 powered phone that comes with personal data collection out the wazoo, you’ll probably pony up for the more expensive Motorola phone coming out that they’ve (tentatively?) committed to.
Why on Earth would you buy a new phone BEFORE checking cfw support if that’s an important feature for you?
I think GOS is established enough it can pull through. Won’t be easy at all though.
I do hope Motorola can give some good official support as a manufacturer.
Motorola CFW support was spotty in the past, when they were an American company. Now they are part of Lenovo (? Not sure if they still are) so maybe they do things differently now. They always had decent hardware, and their Android forks were very minimal later on (in their independent time; before they were further from AOSP) and ran pretty good for the most part. But they did not like to update their phones. Motorola phones often shipped with the Android version they would EOL on. Motorola used to be a piss-poor choice for modding back then.
I expect better from them now, but I don’t predict it.
Also, I realise the issue is with Pixel, not Graphene. Still, I would be upset if I bought a Pixel 11 planning to de-Google it.
Motorola has been under Lenovo for over a decade now, and still is, as a clarification.
The new thing is that for whatever reason, Motorola themselves has explicitly declared that some as-yet specified 2027 flagship model will officially support Graphene (though you have to load it yourself). This goes beyond just letting the community figure it out if it happens to be workable.
Now as to whether they follow through on that, hard to say. Lenovo broadly sometimes makes announcements and then backs out without explanation.
interesting how much would the flagship cost.
It’s been a decade since I switched to iPhone for my daily driver. I still have an Android phone as backup. I had an HTC last, and a Samsung before that, so yeah, my Motorola was before that. My wife had one more recently. Actually, she had the same one I did, then used two more for some reason (habit?). They were all pretty shit phones. All before the acquisition.
I know a guy who worked for Lenovo. Said they treated him good. As for Motorola, they kinda stopped doing phones after so many shit ones. I’m kinda glad they’re back, but I wouldn’t trust them, myself. As an iPhone guy who still likes Android, I’d mainly be looking at Samsung (it’s what I have now, it’s an old S10 that still rocks), though the Nothing 6+ or 6S or whatever it’s called, in green, is VERY tempting — if I needed a phone now, it’s what I would get. Even over another iPhone.
Simple solution: wait until they announce support before buying a new phone. Short of your current one breaking or no longer updating, you don’t need a new phone right now, you can wait.
If you do need one right now because of one of those reasons, sucks, but just buy the most recent one that is currently supported (the 10) or buy one that will EOL sooner than you’d like (maybe an 8 or 9, used/cheap) while you wait for the new one (the 11).
Hopefully the resale price on the 11 tanks (it won’t) then.