We're already sharing developers, even one of the directors :P
Only question is: who forks what.
383 karma · joined September 15, 2014
Contact: hn@cdesai.in
Only question is: who forks what.
https://calyxos.org/about/faq/device-support/#update-timefra...
Pixel 6 is right around the corner, however it'll take a few months for us to get it all going (getting the phone, porting Android 12, making changes for Pixel 6)
We do borrow a lot of code from other projects and try to send any fixes / improvements back to them.
We try to provide an OS designed to ensure maximum usability and flexibility, so that you have an array of choices available to ensure your privacy and security.
For example, I really like the way we have microG available - https://calyxos.org/features/microg/
You can choose to disable it (which still has benefits), keep it enabled, or even login a Google Account. There's even a fourth option where you have it enabled but without the notifications / communication with Google servers, where it's still useful for some app compatibility, and things like location providers and exposure notifications.
> 2) What big goals/projects are planned for the future?
Our biggest goal has always been expanding the reach of the project. We want to support cheaper phones which are widely available in the world.
We also have a bunch of features in the works or planned for the future - Panic trigger improvements, built in ad/tracker block (without losing the ability to use a VPN), and more. Most of it is documented as https://gitlab.com/groups/CalyxOS/-/epics
> 3) Where do you see Android as a platform in 5 or 10 years? Any predictions or notable obstacles?
We will be at S now, which means we'll be at Z in 7 years. What happens then?
Kidding aside, I'm always excited by watching the changes Google is doing (some of it is done in the open, through AOSP at https://android-review.googlesource.com/ - you see lots of Rust here nowadays, I need to learn that)
Fuchsia is also going to be interesting, they must have something planned.
> 4) What do you think of mobile Linux distributions?
I have massive respect for them given the work they're doing. I always see at it this way - we're working on Android, and especially on the Pixels - all the hardware is there working for us, so we can focus our efforts on improvements in other areas.
Linux on mobile has to spend a lot of time catching up to just the basics (getting phone calls working for example).
There are pros and cons to both, it entirely depends on your use case to see what fits.
You do miss out on some other pixel-specific features (Hold for Me for example), but camera quality should be unaffected.
We've sent some patches to microG to address them at https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/pull/1483
I'm running it on my device since a few weeks now and it has been quite reliable so far.
* Spotify over Blueooth in a car works.
* WhatsApp works, with notifications
* I'm not sure about FitBit, per https://plexus.techlore.tech/applications/fitbit it might not but things may have changed.
* We include some providers by default and you can install more from F-Droid.
We're continuing to fund work on it, both ourselves and also through applying for external funding.
Full Storage backup support (Files / Photos) was recently added thanks to a grant from NLnet - https://nlnet.nl/project/Seedvault/index.html
https://github.com/seedvault-app/seedvault Contributions welcome!
The concerns usually raised against that are due to the "default" patch included in their repository, which has a specific purpose.
We don't use that, https://calyxos.org/about/tech/microg/ are the precautions we take to try and prevent abuse.
I made it a privileged permission because that's a standard Android thing to gate things (such as reading of IMEI) - My thought process being that if you somehow managed to get around privileged permissions, we have much bigger problems than signature spoofing.
B. CalyxOS is a project of the non-profit Calyx Institute, founded by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Merrill
The code for this was already present in AOSP, Google simply had it disabled / reverted in their builds. We just bring it back like many other Android ROMs.
We're trying to find devices which do, and if not see if the requirements can be relaxed.
The most important part that's missing from many phones is being able to relock the bootloader with a custom OS installed.
It basically does the same thing under the hood.
https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/digital-services/vpn
We also include RiseupVPN, and Orbot (which is Tor as a VPN)
Signal and WhatsApp are choices there since they use phone numbers. How do you make a matrix call to a phone number? :)
When it's locked (which is the entire point of custom verified boot), this is not allowed.
WhatsApp is shown as an option if you have it installed, the option won't show up if you don't.
The rationale being: We didn't exactly ant to promote WhatsApp but still have it present for those who already use it.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ACA837/history/20200203/...
And live airport map: https://it.flightaware.com/live/airport_status_bigmap.rvt?ai...
I hope they make it safely!
"What does LWN stand for, anyway? LWN, initially, was "Linux Weekly News." That name has been deemphasized over time as we have moved beyond just the weekly coverage, and as we have looked at the free software community as a whole. We have yet to come up with a better meaning for LWN, however."