I'm looking to get a custom ROM that has good compatibility with my device. Would you recommend /e/? I couldn't find a tutorial on how to install it with Linux but I don't think it should be that hard to figure out.
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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Privacy
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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I don't know about you but if I don't know what a program that I can't inspect the code of does, I'll just assume the worst case scenario. I can't prove it but you also can't prove that it isn't doing something shady, can you? So what if I am using Private Relay? Apple will know what websites I visit or what I do with my phone as long as I use their proprietary operating system and who knows who they'll give it to. And with this, I am saying it again: Apple's operating systems are no exception to this rule.
So you actually inspect the source code of everything you use?
This whole line of reasoning really only works if you have the expertise to understand the code in the first place. Otherwise you are just shifting trust from what the company tells you to what a third party looking at the source tells you. Sometimes that works but its in no way fool proof.
There is open source malware. FOSS /= trustworthy the same as closed source /= not trustworthy.
If you don't trust Apple that fine. Some people won't ever use a Pixel because they don't trust Google. It doesn't change the fact that Google currently makes the most secure, hardware wise, consumer smart phone. The point being this shift in trust is more of a personal choice then a good privacy or security practice. Just as using something like e/os or lineage over iOS is.
No, of course I don't. I am not as paranoid as Richard Stallman, but I am also not as pronoid as the average human to just use proprietary software when there are similarly functioning open source software. With open source software, you can inspect the code and compile the code that you inspected. This is not true for something like iOS.
And of course, FOSS malware also exists (for example the recent xz data compression program). But guess what? You can find if it is really malware or not because you ultimately can inspect the code and compile the code you inspected. That is also why the malware in xz was found out. Who knows what there is in closed source software you can't inspect the code of. Do you perhaps believe in security through obscurity?
Using open source software is always an advantage. Praise for privacy software should be earned through the ability to verify them, and not granted by default.