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Comment by user2722 | Hacker News Reader

GOS => security, usability

LOS => most security, most usability, breadth of support

LineageOS definitely doesn't have most of the privacy and security of GrapheneOS. It lags significantly behind the standard Android Open Source Project (AOSP) updates which means not having all the standard patches and protections. Many of the patches aren't backported to older releases. It also doesn't use all the standard security features. LineageOS doesn't reduce privacy and security nearly as much as many of the operating systems based on it, but it's not as good as a production build of current AOSP on an up-to-date device. GrapheneOS makes massive improvements to the privacy and security of AOSP including providing many important protections missing in AOSP such as Contact Scopes, Storage Scopes and secure paste. It also fixes many privacy and security vulnerabilities not yet addressed in AOSP. They're not at all in the same space for privacy and security.

Linage can hide as much as graphene. Graphene just throwing silly features at you that are basically useless. If you wanna hide from tech companies Lineage works perfectly. If you wanna hide for from government agencies get a flip phone. Only thing grapehene can currently do over lineage is get you an easy felony.

LineageOS doesn't keep up with very important standard privacy/security patches and protections. This post is a clear example where it took until October 2026 to ship crucial privacy/security patches and protections from June 2026.

GrapheneOS greatly improves upon the increasingly inadequate privacy and security provided by Android. It fixes many privacy and security vulnerabilities along with adding important missing privacy and security protections.

Traditional cell phones lack any form of secure communication and are entirely dependent on cellular. Those lack basic updates and security protections in practice too. Those are the opposite of a more private and secure device. A smartphone with GrapheneOS or iOS is far more private and secure than any traditional desktop/laptop computer at a hardware, firmware and software level.

There's nothing illegal about using GrapheneOS.

Actually LineageOS has less usability due to AOSP bugs, no GMS, unlocked boot loader, etc. The weak security is cost of wide support.

i'm fine with that "less security" as my threat model does not include crossing the US border.

You're conflating local data extraction with security vulnerabilities remotely exploitable via WhatsApp or RCE du jour. Don't.

It has drastically lower privacy and security. That includes apps getting far more data, VPN leaks, many serious privacy and security vulnerabilities being unpatched for many more months or years and not having greatly improved exploit protections mainly protected against apps and remote attacks. Protecting against data extraction is a small part of where security matters and there's much more to privacy than protecting against security vulnerabilities.

Could you explain how the ability to unlock a bootloader makes a device less usable?

I think they are referring to that LineageOS by and large (there are probably exceptions) does not have support for relocking the bootloader. Some apps refuse to work with an unlocked bootloader (but there are ways around it).

GrapheneOS has even less usability on my Oneplus 7T Pro, in fact it has none

It's quite the other way around. GrapheneOS is definitely more secure and private, see https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm, and also more usable, because Sandboxed Google Play has better app compatibility than microG.

GrapheneOS is significantly more private, secure, and usable than LineageOS.

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