this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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Daaamn poor GrapheneOS devs...
As someone who uses GrapheneOS but knows very little about the technical side of things, what implications does this have for the OS? I'll actually just not use a smartphone anymore if I'm going to be forced back onto the privacy nightmare that is stock Android.
They will strip out the DRM part, maybe. GrapheneOS, other than even Firefox or any Linux Distro, has many DRM packages installed. Widevine and lots of others.
So it may be that they dont even remove it from the Vanadium Webview. But if they do, Apps may break as the Developers looove the extra control. And then GrapheneOS needs to do annoying work again, to for example have a sandboxed Webview-DRM app that can be enabled per-App.
It means a bunch of work to undo all the things Google is about to do
I'd expect them to support basic integrity. They already do that for apps, so no reason to not expand it. It'd break compatibility.
Since they don't (want) to offer a way to circumvent the basic integrity check right now, I don't see why they would undo the expansion into the webview.
I don't know about graphene, but doesn't some android roms allow to use custom ( more private Webview implementations) instead of default ?
Even on "stock" android (at least the Pixel version) the option is there in the developer settings.
Like, you can switch some, but idk how you install a second one
if you root, you can install open webview module.
currently using mulch webview and updating it in f-droid
Yeah I did that too. Mulch or Vanadium, I would recommend Vanadium. Bromite is dead. Cromite maybe, but really just use Vanadium its the most degoogled and secure one.
But apart from that, the developer options make no sense if there is no way to actually install one without root.
Also, openwebview replaces the installed one, doesnt it?
It does replace system webview.
Both Vanadium and Mulch are powerful. Mulch is Divest os default vebview and is using Vanadium patches. While the Vanadium is Graphene one.
https://gitlab.com/divested-mobile/mulch
https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium
I stick with Mulch, because I added divest repo to Droidify, so I can upgrade webview as soon new update comes out. No need to wait for module update.
Haven't found a good way to easily update Vanadium. On XDA module's thread you can read about it.
https://xdaforums.com/t/magisk-module-webview-open-webview-2-3-1.4496119/
Yeah I know the projects. GrapheneOS hates F-Droid which is annoying, but I am 100% sure its the more secure and complete OS. DivestOS probably has more user-facing features.
I think every Custom ROM should build on top of GrapheneOS, extend the device list (with worse security but only for some threat models) and add better apps.
Here you get the GrapheneOS apps (very few): https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Apps/releases
GrapheneOSses Appstore might be able to update the webview?
Chromium comes with a webview APK, but I couldn't find one for Firefox / gecko
Firefox doesnt provide a webview for some reason.
Its really shitty, because it could be a better standard for webapps on Linux too. But now we have electron, which is basically compatible with firefox as its web technology
Yes, they provide these Webviews, meaning they get a shitload of work probably, to remove that DRM BS. Until random apps (like all those Playstore apps) stop working on non-DRM webview... yay!
Like, there are already services that just work with apps. If these apps dont work anymore, well...