Opinion Platform

Silenced No More

Views on CalyxOS

Summary

Recommendation: Good to go!

March 30, 2024; Updates September 21, 2024

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 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.

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

Pros:

• 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.
• 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). 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.
• 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 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.

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