There have been very very bad experiences with Daniel Mikay, the former (?) lead dev of GrapheneOS.
GrapheneOS is an awesome project. It doesnt suit everyone, as it only focuses on security, doesnt add many LineageOS features, ships no Appstore preinstalled and pretty much promotes hunting down your APKs from Git* releases, doesnt work with microG, …
But its a really valuable piece of software, extremely critical for the opensource community, as its really the only degoogled and secure Android there is.
Now I am close to ditching it… again… as I am pissed off by “the community”, or more these/this weird anonymous people/individual identifying as “GrapheneOS” on their self-controlled Matrix server.
Background
Not wanna cry here, but giving the scenery:
I went into their room and discussed a bit. Points where pretty much:
- Android is a deviation of Linux with its own Kernel and way different release numbers
- it sucks being dependend on a big Corp for their Android Desktop, as there simply is on Custom ROM creating a different one
- Linux is awesome, as it is so free. Android immutable model could totally work with more customizability like desktops, and still be secure.
What happened? I got perma-banned for “doubling down on spreading misinformation”.
Prior I went into a Private chat with this “GrapheneOS” person, and asked what exactly where the points where I spreaded misinformation. They said “Android is Linux. You have no idea what you are talking about but think you do. You cant spread misinformation in our community anymore.”
After these messages and still no explanations, they left the private chat and blocked be from rejoining.
Wow. This is what a self-run server can also look like it seems.
Well, I guess I will be switching to Calyx or DivestOS soon, if I have no community to discuss in.
I would be happy if some critical voices could join the server and do some constructive discussions. Right now its a forced echo chamber.
PS: If that was you Daniel, please just take a pause. You did some great work but personally you act extremely toxic. This is not how to talk to people.
Allowing behavior like this to continue unopposed is just enabling the problem though
Allowing is a strong term. Some random internet user has a beef with another random internet user on a private matrix chat.
Who’s going to disallow that? It’s not like graphene OS the organization came to Lemmy and started arguing with people. They’re not posting a manifesto to Mastodon.
So saying we’re not going to let people have private conversations unopposed on their own hardware on their own servers, is a really strong position.
Makes me not want to use it