Hi everyone. I've always been interested in checking this OS out, and finally have some disposable income to spend on some experimentation.
Cheapest phone i can find on the supported devices list is pixel 4a, but it says its end-of-life. Not sure what that means, but can i still install it if i were to buy it?
Its not recommended that you install GoS on that phone today. Advancements in hardware have almost made it obsolete. It is recommended to purchase a P8 or newer models, for security reasons.
bryndenoftyr GrapheneOS on the 4a is now quite old and missing many features, so it would not be a good way to see what GrapheneOS is like. Plus, because firmware support is long expired, every 4a, no matter which OS it is running, is quite insecure.
The cheapest device that genuinely runs GrapheneOS now is probably a 6a, and the cheapest recommended device is probably a 7a.
bryndenoftyr Technically, you can: https://grapheneos.org/releases#sunfish
de0u Depends on the use case. Will work well as an unbloated smartphone with nothing-to-hide contents.
No, it shouldn't be used for anything at all anymore, it is completely insecure and likely trivial to be compromised at this point. Please don't recommend using EOL devices, for whatever purpose.
pxlkng I mean no disrespect, but the technical possibility.
dc32f0cfe84def651e0e Will work well as an unbloated smartphone with nothing-to-hide contents.
Even if the device itself has "nothing to hide", if it has access to networks then it could be compromised and used as a platform to attack other devices, either by participating in a DDoS network or by allowing lateral movement through an in-home network.
If such a device didn't have any network credentials, so it genuinely couldn't use any networks, and it were being used as a 100%-offline e-book reader, or as an alarm clock, or as an offline GPS map for a bicycle, that might not pose a threat. But providing a device that is subject to remote code execution attacks with network credentials is not clearly prudent.
