this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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Got a pixel? Check out calyxos, it's a free system upgrade that rips out anything google but allows almost everything to work, even the play store and all your usual games and bank apps.
Calyxos.org
E: nevermind. It was great while it lasted.
If you have a Pixel, then GrapheneOS is the sensible choice. Not least because it currently only works with Pixels anyway.
I absolutely do not want to run Google binaries on the phone, graphene doesn't support microG and instead want you to run Google's binaries on your phone, sheet sandboxed.
I hate that idea.
Literally dead for now.... Had chaos with leadership
Soon of a bitch 😓
Well, that was fun.
What moron is willingly still purchasing pixels? Might as well put a livefeed camera for Google HQ in your home lol
If you tear out the parts that talk to Google, then the phone hardware isn't spying on you. It's just hardware.
The critical piece tying your phone to Google every 3 minutes is called "play services".
Calyxos was an OS for the pixel hardware that replaced play services with a FOSS library (called microG) which tricked regular apps into thinking they were talking to and getting responses from Google, when it was actually all happening on your phone.
I bought a Pixel 9 with the sole intention of putting Graphene on it. I wasn't massively down with giving Google money, but my provider offered it to me for £30, then £30 a month on contract. Can't argue with that.
I really hope one day these alternatives will run on non-Google devices. I really don't want to give them money.