They don't know much about it and haven't used it. CalyxOS isn't a hardened OS and isn't at all comparable to GrapheneOS. They recently didn't even ship half the baseline Android security patches for 2 months, let alone providing much better patching and substantially hardening the privacy and security of the OS. Unfortunately, they've chosen to promote it through inaccurate talking points about GrapheneOS and fabricated stories about our developers. They've heavily invested in this. You can see their developers doing it earlier today. You'll see it in every thread about GrapheneOS on this site from people promoting CalyxOS, which again, is a highly insecure non-hardened OS rolling back the Android security model substantially and not shipping full baseline Android patches on time. I don't understand why they come to pick this fight. GrapheneOS provides far better privacy, security and usability (much broader app compatibility).
(First, strcat, thank you so much for your work on GrapheneOS. I should have a little ETH to send to the project in a few weeks, to make this sentiment a bit more concrete.)
Regarding community among people valuing security and privacy...
On my most recent big phone/handheld switch, I tried CalyxOS first, but found that I personally preferred GrapheneOS.
I think CalyxOS also has its merits.
Users of CalyxOS and GrapheneOS are relatively small groups, with overlapping interests, and together are stronger, if the tone is friendly competition and mutual assistance.
I don't think a highly insecure OS not shipping privacy/security updates for months is even a reasonable choice for people who don't care much about privacy and security. Their site presents standard Android privacy/security features as their own and has news posts claiming to ship security updates where half the patches were skipped, so that's not a reliable source of information to use. They've heavily marketed CalyxOS based on false claims about privacy and security not only in CalyxOS but with a substantial focus on misleading people about GrapheneOS. Even as recent as today and yesterday, the leader of the Calyx Institute has been openly spreading misinformation and fabricated stories about GrapheneOS. Yesterday, he was openly doing it in their chat rooms with someone who has publicly, repeatedly called for me to kill myself and posted the usual Calyx claims that I'm "crazy", "delusional", "schizophrenic", "deranged", etc. Do you think this is appropriate behavior?
Check the recent screenshot I posted about a Calyx reseller who works with them (@maxtannahill) and is in several of their private Signal, Matrix and Discord chat rooms. I linked a thread where he openly states his neo-nazi views which he has done repeatedly. He's openly a holocaust denier who supports fascism, wants democracies turned into authoritarian dictatorships and overtly a white supremacist wanting the US as a white homeland. Calyx permits Kiwi Farms server in their room and has had no problem with the abuse targeted towards me. In fact, the leader of the organization has repeatedly participated in it when it happens, encouraging it while also steering it away from being done inside their rooms. These logs have been archived and while the lead CalyxOS developer has gone back and purged a lot of it from the Matrix history, much of it is still there. You can check for yourself what happened yesterday and can confirm the main person attacking me there and in other rooms is a Calyx community member friends with several of them and has openly told me to kill myself.
> Users of CalyxOS and GrapheneOS are relatively small groups, with overlapping interests, and together are stronger, if the tone is friendly competition and mutual assistance.
Calyx developers / leadership have repeatedly engaged in an extreme bullying/harassment campaign targeting me. They've heavily focused on spreading misinformation both about CalyxOS and GrapheneOS to mislead and scam users.
We're never going to work with people who have done these things. No one else should be working with them or tolerating them either, but unfortunately people don't do anything about the massive amount of charlatans and abusers in the privacy/security industries. It's sad. You should never expect that I'm going to tolerate it.
CalyxOS is not a hardened OS. It's also blatantly insecure by not shipping patches fully or on time while misleading users. I'm not sure how it's a competitor with GrapheneOS. Presenting it as a private and secure OS in their marketing doesn't make it one. Engaging in all kinds of abusive and underhanded behavior is not going to turn it into one either.
Commments like this are precisely why the "rivalry" continues to exist.
GrapheneOS handily beats out every other project on security and technical merit -- let the code and project speak for itself, because jumping in to every single convo between end users you can find, doesn't help quell any of it.
From a GrapheneOS user for many years who thanks you for your work and dedication
