[chiglug] Thoughts on Android variants? (In particular, Copperhead OS?)

[Jake Weisz]

Yeah, I'm carrying a Lumia 929 (circa 2014) because it's the most
recent model Windows Phone I can use on Verizon. It's not pretty, it's
not the "latest and greatest", but I get Windows 10 updates on it on
the day of release... usually the same day those updates release for
desktops. No carrier approval, no custom OS management. Just frequent
security updates and a relatively stable platform. As a side perk with
Windows Mobile, it's not a highly targeted platform, so you're less
likely to see vulnerabilities developed for it in the first place.
(Obscurity is not security, but it sure doesn't hurt.)

It's not open source, but then, neither is Android. Many of the apps I
need, even developed by Google's direct competitors, require Google
Play Services to function, so as far as I'm concerned, Android isn't
an open source platform. And at least mine lets me sleep at night.

But what I wouldn't give to see some good truly open options out there.
-Jacob Weisz


On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 3:24 PM, Jim Campbell <jcampbell at gnome.org> wrote:
> Dan, I've been using the full Android OS + Google Services that ships with
> the Nexus 5x. I actually asked Matthew Garrett about his blog post which
> referenced signing whatever ROM he was installing (
> https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/31765.html ) when he gave a talk here about a
> week ago. He said that he's not following that procedure now because of the
> pace of updates, and that (from what I can recall) he's using the regular
> Android version that came with his Nexus device. He mentioned wanting to
> revisit the blog post, though.
>
> One of the points Matthew made was that attackers will now download software
> updates, reverse engineer them to see what has changed, and then use that
> knowledge to craft attacks against unpatched software. So updating your
> computer / phone OS is even more important than ever these days.
>
> It also makes me sad about all of the Android devices out there that are now
> basically insecure, and will never have any hope of being secure. If even
> your best device (i.e., Nexus / Pixel) can go unpatched against a well-known
> vulnerability (Dirty Cow) for about a month, that's not good. I thought this
> article does a good job in explaining many of the background issues around
> Copperhead and Android:
> http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/copperhead-os-fix-android-security/
>
> I'm personally not sure what I'll do with my phone. For right now and for
> the foreseeable future, though, it looks like both iPhone and Windows Phone
> have Android beat on security in the non-hackerdom, regular person / regular
> user circles, though.
>
> Jim
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 9:31 AM Dan Krol <orblivion at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Oh and I forgot my favorite part of OSMAnd - I can download an entire
>> region of *wikipedia articles*. Again the interface for getting to them
>> sucks, but it's cool to have that all offline, especially traveling around.
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Dan Krol <orblivion at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> OSMand, because it's available on F-Droid. At least I used to use it for
>>> navigation; the interface isn't great. But I still use it to walk around,
>>> and it's really nice to be able to download an entire region.
>>>
>>> I heard maps.me had a really good interface (it's commercial) and that
>>> it's (pretty much?) FOSS, and also uses OSM, but it didn't qualify for
>>> F-Droid yet. I think because of a dispute about using their servers (much
>>> like Signal). https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/maps-me/
>>>
>>> On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 7:23 AM, sten <me at sud0.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Nov 7, 2016, 09:15 Dan Krol <orblivion at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Considering it. I'm just scoping things out for my next phone. I would
>>>>> need expensive new hardware to use Copperhead. It'd be nice to find
>>>>> something new and reliable with actual updates that works on my HTC One.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Just on this last point, Copperhead is currently available for the Nexus
>>>> 9, 5X and 6P. There's no download for the Pixel on their download page.
>>>> While more expensive than not buying a new phone, you can find the 5X
>>>> between $200-300 these days.
>>>>
>>>> I'm looking at Copperhead, but I get my work email and calendar from
>>>> GMail (grr) so I need to stick with Google services for now.
>>>>
>>>> <thread hijack>What are folks using for navigation these days when not
>>>> using Google services?</thread hijack>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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