2w ago

Will Pixel 8/9/10 be supported for long term? A question on the future of GrapheneOS.

I read about Google's decision of not releasing the firmware source code going forward. Is it still the case? If it is, should one purchase any Pixel 8/9/10 series in hope of keeping it for a long time?

I am planning to purchase a new Pixel 9 (used ones are not an option unfortunately) during the Black Friday or something. It will be a substantial amount but I am hoping it will be justified with amortisation.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I cannot find a clear cut answer in the forums.

14 comments

I'm using a pixel 7 pro. I'm feeling absolutely no reason to upgrade.
- I'm on a 5, and will be until this hardware fails.
It will. Graphene said in a mastodon post that they will continue to support existing devices including pixel 10.
Keep in mind that they are currently working with a "major OEM" (details to come I'm sure) on their own device and predict that it'll be ready in a year or two, so if you feel like you can survive that long with your current phone it could be worth to try. If not, then yes current devices are still and will still be supported
- The future “graphene phones” might also be the hardware linux mobile distros need to start maturing
- Any intelligent guesses as to who the OEM might be?
  
  In the original thread they didn't seem too interested in working with most manufacturers. The only name I saw that they were interested in was framework, which is what I'm hoping for. And I think it makes some amount of sense that it's someone not currently in the phone market, after all the reason that pixels are the only supported devices is because literally nobody else meets their standards
- That is very good to hear! Hopefully Google doesn't manage to enforce some deeper software control in the meantime. They could easily engineer something that would allow them to require google stuff nested into apps at a deeper level
I can't find their post (I imagine it's somewhere on their mastodon) but I think they said that the released source code was basically a 'nice to have' and shouldn't affect their future support.
Their FAQ still implies everything's OK, hopefully it stays that way.

14 comments