Is Mulch a viable Vanadium alternative?

Themble

I would like to know if Mulch would be a good alternative for non-GOS users who don't have the possibility to use Vanadium?

matchboxbananasynergy

I would say so. I believe that Mulch uses most of the Vanadium patches, so it can be a good choice and alternative if you want something close to Vanadium when not using GrapheneOS.

[deleted]

matchboxbananasynergy I'm not on GrapheneOS yet and I want to use Mulch until then but I must get it from F-Droid which I don't like, I think you know this topic already about the Issues. And I don't know if I just should get Cromite instead because there APK is on Github...But in the same time GrapheneOS and I think a Mod has mentioned a few times the bad points about Cromite. And I agree but I'm stuck between what to do...What could you recommend me? Maybe you can guide me.

matchboxbananasynergy

[deleted] I would recommend Mulch, specifically from the Divest OS repo, not the main F-Droid repo, because Mulch specifically very frequently has delayed updates on the main repo, whereas in DivestOS' own repo, you should get updates as they come out.

wuseman

[deleted] And I don't know if I just should get Cromite instead because there APK is on Github...But in the same time GrapheneOS and I think a Mod has mentioned a few times the bad points about Cromite. And I agree but I'm stuck between what to do...What could you recommend me? Maybe you can guide me.

Cromite has fewer security features, but has an adblocker
Mulch has more security features, but has no adblock whatsoever.

Both can be downloaded from their repos. Whether or not you think DNS-level adblocking is good enough is up to you, but I consider Mulch unusable until it allows me to block ads.

Hb1hf

[deleted] I want to use Mulch until then but I must get it from F-Droid which I don't like

If you don't want to use fdroid, you can use NeoStore or Droidify clients. I'm not sure if they solve all the issues with the original F-Droid client.

If you still don't want to do it, you can use Obtanium.
Click add, then search for Mulch. In the following screen, select F-Droid third party repo and use DivestOS repo's URL: https://divestos.org/apks/official/fdroid/repo

[deleted]

matchboxbananasynergy Okay thank you. But as I know: Mulch is only on the Divest Repo, it is not on main F-Droid Repo. Maybe it was before like that? Or do you mean that the Website APK is more delayed?

duck1

[deleted] You're right, only Mull (Gecko-based) is available on the main F-Droid repo and in case you were going to use Mull (Don't), it would have been better to get it from the Divest OS repo rather than the main F-Droid repo due to the reasons @matchboxbananasynergy mentioned.

For Mulch, use the F-Droid Basic client (Official client, Targets SDK 34, has less attack surface compared to main client due to less features) with the DivestOS repo.

bayesian

No just stick with Vanadium. I don't know why people keep always coming back to this: Vanadium vs Foo.

Foo WILL NEVER BE MORE SECURE THAN VANADIUM. The focus of GrapheneOS is security.

[deleted]

bayesian I said a few posts before that I'm not on GrapheneOS yet, so how should I use it then? :D

[deleted]

duck1 I did it exactly in this way, how you explained. Thank you so much!

[deleted]

wuseman I understand your Points and I decided to stick with Mulch.

locusan

Speaking of adblocker in Mulch, it's basically ready, but for unknown reason doesn't load properly.

[deleted]

locusan Oh wow I did not know that! Where did you found this out? (I would love to know more about that) and do you think will this Issue be fixed with not loading properly? I also heard that it will get Content Blocker too?

locusan

[deleted] Yeah, by adblocker I mean content blocker, here's message form dev: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/mulch-android-browser/14461/11
I think it's still not solved.

[deleted]

locusan Oh I get it. Yes, I think so too. I found this now, from not long ago: https://forum.f-droid.org/t/divestos-long-term-device-support-with-enhanced-privacy-and-security/10105/1186

duck1

@[deleted] I got an email about your post asking about DivestOS sticking to the normal F-Droid client and what I think about it. I think you deleted your post but I'll answer anyway:

I don't think it's a big deal because the F-Droid developers themselves said that the Basic client is basically just a testing ground for their SDK increases and for testing compatibility with all of F-Droid's features. They intend to have the normal client target the latest SDK and still be compatible with all of F-Droid's features and when that happens, the Basic client will probably be depreciated. So in the long term, it is not a big deal.

[deleted]

duck1 So would it then be not better to stick with the F-Droid Version without Basic if that gonna be happen anyways?

duck1

[deleted] Well it hasn't happened yet and the old client is still targeting an outdated SDK which is not the greatest for security. So just use Basic. There is nothing stopping people on DivestOS from using basic either.

duck1

Hb1hf Wouldn't recommend any of these options.

Hb1hf If you don't want to use fdroid, you can use NeoStore or Droidify clients. I'm not sure if they solve all the issues with the original F-Droid client.

These clients lack mirror support which puts unnecessary load on F-Droid's main server. Unless mirrors are supported you should not use a third-party client. Additionally it is another party you need to trust.

Hb1hf If you still don't want to do it, you can use Obtanium.

Obtanium is a web scraper and doesn't verify any F-Droid metadata. It would be better to use a client for this.

[deleted]

Hb1hf I use F-Droid Basic now. Oh okay.

No I think the Mulch Developer said that Obtainium would make more load.

[deleted]

duck1 That's all true. Thank you, I will do that. My Device will get DivestOS soon, where there is F-Droid installed. Should I even then get F-Droid Basic and use that? (But I don't know if I can opt out F-Droid while installing)