[GTALUG] Freedom and Graphene

[Christopher Browne]

On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 18:41, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> It's 2020 and a long time since Shaw bought Wind Mobile and renamed it to
> Freedom. So I wonder if it's worth another look. Prices are as always
> aggressive but questions remain about speed and coverage.
>
> The reason I want a new phone plan is because I'm experimenting with a new
> phone on which I've just installed GrapheneOS; more than just another
> Android ROM, it's touted as being one of the most privacy-focused phones
> one can have. Google-free, of course, beyond what's in AOSP, and two
> different app stores to replace Google Play.
>
> Does anyone here have experience with either Freedom Mobile or GrapheneOS?
> Any answers are much appreciated. If there's interest I'll be happy to talk
> about my experiences with GrapheneOS at a future GTALUG meeting.
>

I have been on Wind/Freedom for a good number of years now; I had made an
abortive attempt quite a while back, and initially gave up, as I grabbed a
SIM card, and did a walkaround at my office, only to discover that the
instant I walked in the front door of the office building, all reception
disappeared.  At that point, apparently the nearby towers were in such a
location that reception was entirely blocked within the building.

A couple of years later, I retried with better success (they had been busy
adding more and better cellular towers in the interim), and have been
pleased enough with them since.  There's sections of the 401 between cities
where one must piggyback onto other carriers, but that's been livable for
my purposes.  Dodgy reception used to be a thing; seems to have improved.

I had never heard of GrapheneOS; interesting that it *only* runs on
recent-ish Google Pixel phones.  As the battery on my OP5 starts to age, I
suspect I'll be looking at a Pixel in the not too distant future, certainly
of interest to hear what's up with alternative phone "firmware" these days,
particularly as it's difficult for them to keep up with hardware
evolution.  CM and LineageOS had history of supporting lots of devices;
Lineage has been hurting in that regard <https://download.lineageos.org/>
They used to support a wide variety of Samsung, but no models later than
about 2017 have been supported, no LG past about 2016, and such.  If
there's reason to expect better from GrapheneOS, that would sure be nice.
(That tells you some of the kinds of questions I'd hope might get answered
;-) )
-- 
When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to the
question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
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