First of all, thank you for all your amazing work on Plasma and Plasma Mobile. I am a huge fan of the KDE ecosystem.
I am writing this to open a discussion about a potential new direction or sub-project. Currently, in the mobile privacy and security space, GrapheneOS is the gold standard for Android-based (AOSP) custom ROMs. However, there is a severe lack of strong, privacy-respecting alternatives to it.
While I know KDE’s primary focus for mobile is pure Linux via Plasma Mobile, the reality is that many users still rely on the Android app ecosystem but want to escape Big Tech tracking. I believe KDE’s deep commitment to user privacy, open-source philosophy, and incredible UI/UX design (like KDE Plasma) makes this community the perfect candidate to back or build a true, privacy-focused AOSP Custom ROM alternative to GrapheneOS.
Imagine an AOSP-based ROM hardened for security, completely de-Googled, but featuring KDE’s default apps, KDE Connect out-of-the-box, and a Plasma-inspired Android launcher.
I am not just here to drop an idea; I want to actively help make this happen. I would love to contribute by beta testing the builds, helping with UI/UX design, writing documentation, coding in C++/Java, community management etc.
Is there any existing interest within the community or the Plasma Mobile team to explore an AOSP-based alternative? If a working group or a fork were to be started, how could I best integrate my efforts to help?
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
I would suggest to base this on LineageOS or /e/OS as they support more devices than GrapheneOS and do already have a high privacy-standard. I don’t know what other systems are doing, but /e/OS does block trackers that are built-in in third party apps.
Thanks for the input, Their security and privacy features are honestly a drop in the ocean compared to GrapheneOS.
It’s true that /e/OS does a good job blocking third-party trackers, but true privacy and security go much deeper than just network-level tracker blocking. GrapheneOS is built around massive low-level OS hardening—such as a hardened memory allocator, strict app sandboxing, advanced exploit mitigations, and a mandatory verified boot with a locked bootloader. On the other hand, LineageOS and /e/OS often require running with an unlocked bootloader and actually roll back some of AOSP’s baseline security models just to support a broader range of hardware.
If KDE were to back or build a true privacy ROM, it should aim for bulletproof security rather than just being “de-Googled.” I highly recommend researching GrapheneOS’s under-the-hood security features deeper to see why it is considered the absolute gold standard in this space.
I am using Debian based mobile distros as my daily driver for years now and think we should not weaken a true alternative for a pseudo alternative.
GrapheneOS is a great project for what it does, but it also does not provide a true alternative. In fact, it supports the “smart” approach of phones that binds users to BigTech (“Android apps”). One of many reasons why I am using Debian based mobile distros is to become uncomfortable to companies and governments to show “you are not open for competition and innovation unlike you advertise”. For those who cannot follow my way completely we already have GrapheneOS and Waydroid as bridge technologies.
I think Plasma Mobile still has enough work to do at this point to split resources. I rather would like to see Dolphin and other applications become fully convergent (without changing behavior for desktop), so that it can run on phones with touch input, just as GNOME does these days. The day will come when more people can daily drive pocketcomputers as Mobian plus Plasma Mobile, but it needs a good basis first.
The ultimate goal should be to cut smartphone dependencies completely. Meaning no bank requires an app, no train ticket has to be bought by train app, no Packstation requires DHL-app to get access to packages and so on. I can do bank stuff via browser just fine (and more secure), but many others cannot. Supporting the app ecosystem directly resulting in more dependencies. I don’t think that is the way KDE should follow.