Opinion Platform

Silenced No More

Views on CalyxOS

Summary

Recommendation:
Downgraded to "Wait and See" August 2, 2025.

March 30, 2024; Updates September 21, 2024, August 2, 2025

TL;DR:Not perfect, but what is? A lot just works without muss or fuss, and without too much Google or other third parties by default. The [former] President and founder of Calyx Institute apparently likes using proprietary apps (see page top quote). I don't. As long as the supporting add-ons like microG are optional, it is a minor difference of opinion. I'm not going to cover the history of Nicholas Merrill and the National Security Letter. Suffice to say, I feel the people leading and working on CalyxOS are trustworthy.

Update August 2, 2025: In surprising news (archive), Calyx Institute announced departures of Nicholas Merrill, the president and founder of Calyx Institute, and Chirayu Desai, the CalyxOS Tech Lead; 4 to 6 months estimated delay in producing future updates; and withdrawal of install files.

No explanation of what led to these changes was given. My guess is personal stresses related to Google's removal of "device trees" with Android 16 (archive) AOSP releases didn't help.

Obviously, it's time to move to LineageOS for at least 4 to 6 months, and wait and see what happens with CalyxOS.

Disclaimer: I am a CalyxOS user, and a Calyx Institute supporter with button, sticker, and T-shirt to advertise it.

Pros:

• [Until sudden departure of the Institute President and CalyxOS Tech Lead, and suspension of updates, was] One of the most professional alternative Android ROMs operating systems, backed by a professional, registered non-profit organization, the Calyx Institute.
• Optional whether to install microG during OS installation.
• Only supports newer phones, including Google Pixels and Fairphones. Recently added support for 3 budget Motorola phones. Update September 21, 2024: Support for a limited number of devices avoids overloading available resources, and may discourage using less secure, end of life (EOL) devices, which is a problem for some other projects such as DivestOS.
• [Until suspension in late July 2025, with predicted delay of 4 to 6 months] Frequent updates - sometimes monthly, sometimes more often if needed. Uses incremental updates for smaller downloads. Sensibly includes webview updates with OS updates, reducing complexity and frequency of updates, compared with other OS that require using additional F-Droid repositories for webview updates. Updated to Android 14 around October 2024, which was about 4 months before LineageOS (Archive.org), and at least 5 months and still counting, before DivestOS (Archive.org). [Updated to Android 15 in late 2024.] Some places say CalyxOS has been slow to update, but that seems to be focusing on a few days slower webview updates, or that one time years ago when they were slower updating something. [Unfortunately, thanks partly to Google changing AOSP releases, another delay, for Android 16, is happening again in August through TBD 2025.]
• Organized, hierarchical, with a legitimate oversight Board. You could say professional, with paid developers, and multiple fundraising methods.
• CalyxOS developers are also involved with other projects. For example, Michael Bestas (mikeioannina) and [formerly] Chirayu Desai (cdesai, cde) on the CalyxOS team also support LineageOS. Hans-Christoph Steiner (eighthave) is a leader of F-Droid. In addition to making a living as contractors or employees, they seem to really be supporters of Free or open source software and cooperation between projects.
• They don't particularly de-Google or extensively de-blob, so most things "just work". Has a reasonable selection of default apps. During OS install has a long list of apps to choose from, or they can be installed later.
• No history of brigading and abusing Wikipedia or other forums or communication channels, as far as I know. In my limited observations, they usually try to reduce bickering and increase cooperation and understanding.
• Community: Never had much need to explore; things usually "just work". When they don't, they usually get fixed quickly. Uses Mastodon, but was more active on proprietary Twitter and Reddit last time I checked.
• Uses self-hosted Gerrit code review, but also uses proprietary GitLab, and Microsoft's GitHub.
• Drops support of old OS versions and old devices when it makes sense.
• Has clear non-profit business status. Annual reports may be published on their website, and annual IRS filings are also available there, or from the IRS website.
• Does not remove website history from archives to hide the truth.
• As far as I know, does not collect user or device analytics.
• Welcomes collaboration. Funds and produces open source apps, including Seedvault backup. Gives microgrants to support other projects. Runs Tor, VPN, and other services, which are made available for no cost.

Cons:

• There was an issue with the default Gallery app no longer displaying new screenshots, so I replaced it with another. (Resolved).
• Supports optionally installing proprietary Google apps, if that's your thing.
• microG support encourages using proprietary apps, but some people like this.
• Uses proprietary Microsoft's GitHub, and also GitLab.
• Frequent updates - sometimes more than one a month, requiring large - 10s to 100s of MB to Gigabytes - downloads. The OS updater app cannot be set to manual checks in settings, but it can be disabled and re-enabled.
• Some developers also work for other projects like LineageOS or F-Droid, and it's not clear where their primary allegiances fall, but maybe that's a good thing.
• Nicholas Merrill and others are active on social media like Twitter. Some posts are political and unrelated to CalyxOS. This risks possible divisions and backlash against non-political projects such as CalyxOS, for reasons unrelated to the project.
• Community: Uses Matrix, and proprietary Twitter and Reddit.
• Added September 21, 2024: Does not support as many devices as some other alternative Android OS like LineageOS. However, the focus on a limited number of devices is not all bad. Support for a limited number of devices avoids overloading available resources, and may discourage using less secure, end of life (EOL) devices, which is a problem for some other projects such as DivestOS. Added August 2, 2025: The limited number of devices may have been too many after all. Where Graphene supports only newer Pixels and was able to update to Android 16 relatively quickly (with bugs, naturally), CalyxOS was unable to transition to Android 16 in a timely manner, and is predicting nearly half year delay.

Copyright 2024-