GrapheneOS

I've had an iPhone since I was 12 years old. I grew up loving it. Its interface felt clean and each new phone Apple released seemed even better than the last. Over time, however, this changed. Now owning an iPhone 14, I've found several greviances. Not all of them are specific to the iPhone, and some of them could likely be avoided if I were more careful with tuning the settings of the phone.

• AI features piss me off. I don't want them. Copilot in VSCode can stay, but that's about it.
• I can't sideload apps easily.
• The core features only work well with other Apple products. I don't own any other Apple products, nor do I want to. My truck doesn't even have CarPlay.
• My phone is packed with obnoxious bloat and notifications pulling my attention.
• Every app now wants all my data. I don't know what they're really doing with it or what's going on in the background.
• I'm starting to notice more and more software bugs. The experience doesn't feel premium anymore.

It's time for something new.

Enter GrapheneOS

I don't remember what introduced me to alternative mobile operating systems, but I discovered GrapheneOS a couple weeks before PewDiePie mentioned it in his Degoogling video. It looked ideal, so I ordered myself a Google Pixel 9.

Installation and setup

My dumb ass did not read throught the docs, so I ended up purchasing a Pixel from Verizon that was OEM locked. Thankfully Verizon took the phone back for a small fee. After buying a Pixel straight from Google, unlocking the bootloader and flashing the OS was braindead easy. The web installer worked flawlessly and the operating system is void of any mandatory setup process. Although I would like to eventually disconnect myself from Google, I used the Play Store to install most of my apps. I intend to experiment with a slow migration later, when I have the home server infrastructure set up to support it. Over time, I'll build this GitHub repo with my favorite replacements.

Verizon is trash

Now my new phone is all set up ready to go - except Verizon won't seem to let me switch the eSim from my iPhone to the Pixel. After removing it from the iPhone, I can't even add it back. So now I have two paper weights sitting on my desk until a SIM card arrives in the mail on Thursday. Thanks Verizon.