I just wanted to give my praise to everyone involved in GOS, and folks on this forum that contribute their viewpoints. GOS is exactly what I've been wanting for nearly 10 years, and I'm really happy with it.

My overall experience with it has been excellent, it feels like I could have bought a phone like this at any retail store. I'm glad I installed it myself and that installation was easy, but I mean in terms of quality.

Here are some things I love about it:

  • Google services removed by default, can be sandboxed if needed
  • Turning off Bluetooth and Wifi actually turn them off. Important since other devices can leak your location if everyone is scanning each other all the time and a tiny portion of them share location.
  • Scopes. This is an amazing idea, I think of it like high quality spoofing. I'm really excited to see how it could expand. I'd love Location Scopes for example.
  • Hardened subsystems
  • Strengthened user profiles
  • Strict permissions policy by default, including disabling network permissions upon installation
  • Per connection id randomization
  • Vanadium

I haven't run into any serious issues so far. The biggest one has been when switching user profiles about 1/4 of the time, the pin screen that pops up immediately will sometimes disappear while I enter the pin, exiting me to the lock screen. It's as if not everything was loaded in the new profile at first, and once it does, it starts me at the lock screen. But it's a pretty minor bug.

And the gallery app is a bit buggy (and ugly), I haven't gotten around to deciding on a replacement yet. I wish Vanadium's fingerprint helped me blend in just a little more, but that can be subjective. Better battery life would be nice to have.

That's basically it. These are just nitpicks, I basically have zero things to complain about.

I learned about GOS a few years ago, but it seemed not quite mature enough for me to make the jump from an iPhone. I'm grateful that's no longer true.

    sonicbackdrop I would be interested in hearing more about your experiences v’s iOS, if you have anything extra to share! Good, bad or ugly!

      User2288 I've already read at least 2 of those, this forum is such a good resource!

      mmmm For context, I've switched back and forth between Android and iOS for years. Before this I was on iOS since if I'm going to give my data to big tech, at least Apple has good security and good privacy against everyone else. The downside of course is they know much about me, so I've been hoping a better solution would come along.

      I ended up using slightly more privacy oriented apps over time and leaving location off all the time, but it still really bothered me that both stock OSes are very leaky with wireless connections, in order to build and maintain their hidden mesh networks.

      I love going beyond just seeing how my data is being used on the App Store and now having more control over permissions. I actually wish I had one more layer of control on the app info page, I wish about 10 or so more permissions were exposed (ex: break down Nearby Devices into Bluetooth and other sub-permissions, same with Sensors).

      The Gallery is definitely the worst app, it tarnishes the reputation of GOS imo. Its just barely functional enough to limp along.

      The keyboard is probably the biggest change in terms of day to day quality of life. The iOS keyboard is excellent, its a high bar. I'm not sure if the hitboxes of the keys change over time, but it has always felt like I have to relearn typing every time I switch.

      The glitchiest aspect of this so far has been user profiles. Its hard to tell what settings will switch or stay the same jumping back and forth, and the PIN entry bug I mentioned before is minor but consistently annoying.

      I've taken this opportunity during the switch to adopt some more protective practices, including researching and using tools that harden my phone as much as my laptop.

      GOS makes that easy. I just feel safer and have more peace of mind about smartphone computing now, which I'm very grateful for.

        Simple Mobile Tools Gallery is what almost everyone would recommend (including myself) to replace gallery.

          sonicbackdrop thanks! Useful info. My biggest issue is that in order to get similar apps I would need to use the Google play store. I have never used that so I will suddenly be switching all of this type of data from Apples store to Google’s, which seems counter intuitive to my privacy threat model (avoid creepy ads, and big tech tracking, predominantly Google historically).

          For now, I’m keeping my iPhone for work purposes, and to use any ‘official’ apps I need. GOS will be my private phone which I won’t have a sim for but will connect via my iPhone hotspot. I will only use floss apps on it.

          Dumdum Alright, I don't use simple mobile tools but is good to know.

          Dumdum Yes I've been waiting and looking at alternatives in the meantime. It's very close!

          Eirikr70 Thanks for the recommendation

          Appreciate the convo everyone

          I've found that Aves is a very decent and open-source replacement for the Gallery app.

          Dumdum Wow, I had no idea.
          I just finished installing a slew of SMT apps to replace default GOS ones that I didnt like, but had no idea there was a fork.

          Thanks for letting me know!! Really happy to see that there is going to be ongoing maintenance to these apps. I wasn't initially happy about using apps that aren't getting any updates.

          Dumdum How do you download and install the FossifyOrg apps? Nothing on the release page.