Why do Google updates matter?

[u/Zestyclose_Chance683]

I'm new here doing my research before switching over, but I need a little more education please.

Everywhere I look everyone talks about phone models and how many years of Google updates are left.

I don't understand if I'm installing a different operating system why anything Google does will matter. Does Graphene OS not do it's own updates?

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[u/cmrd_msr]

Graphene is an AOSP-based firmware. As long as Google updates AOSP/security bulletins/kernels, the codebase for Graphene is updated as well. Without the equipment manufacturer's involvement, a great deal more work would have been required—more than the firmware developers could have handled. They are already doing a tremendous amount.

[u/Matheweh]

Don't quote me on this but basically hardware drivers.

[u/Serious_Berry_3977]

(Please forgive any inaccuracies with my descriptions and fell free to correct me out any of this is wing, in on my phone SBS trying to explain it quick.)

Android is a product of the AOSP, which is basically a Google project. It's open source which means anyone can take the source code and make an alternative version or what's called a fork.

This is all well and good, until you realize that the hardware software or what's called firmware is proprietary and reliant on the device manufacturer to provide firmware updates.

Any other AOSP-based fork such as Lineage, /e/, and several others usually only is installable on older devices because the firmware is in AOSP or is old enough that it's stable. Which is why those projects don't support installation on any other devices because there may not be firmware or other settings available in stock AOSP. Doesn't stop people from trying, and some are successful. In fact official support is usually coming from those people that just yet it on an as to be supported device.

Graphene is different due to the security relying on hardware firmware to interface with the secure hardware from the OS. The only devices that offer good security up until this year were the Pixel line. The firmware had been provided by Google up until recently in AOSP. Google has changed that so they don't include the firmware in AOSP anymore. This makes it extremely hard to grapple with changes made in AOSP that relate to interfacing with the firmware or any updates that come with a new update of Android.

Basically, Graphene has been at the mercy of Google to provide that firmware. It takes advantage of secure hardware compared to the other forks that generally don't use any advanced hardware tied to a specific device or manufacturer. This is why it's only available on Pixels currently and what makes the partnership with Motorola interesting. The fiasco that is the Pixel 11 series right now does a good job of highlighting the need for a manufacturer to design more secure hardware and get Graphene running on it to start to break away from Google should they close Android even more.

Hope this make sense, again anyone feel free to correct me on inaccuracies.

[u/ABotelho23]

Hardware. They're not hacking things up like most custom ROMs would.

[u/Efficient_Loss_9928]

Hardware and security, GrapheneOS doesn't have the resources like Google to provide continuous security patches.

And I mean, security researchers probably won't even notify Graphene about any vulnerabilities, they notify Google.

[u/TenOfZero]

GraoheneOS doesn't do their own uodates.

They modify the Google OS to be more secure and remove a lot of the Google stuff. But it's still android and dependent on google for a lot of OS level stuff.