I am on a Samsung S23, rooted via Magisk. Debloated with Universal Android Debloater NG. I am running Android Firewall + to block user and system apps that are not essential for normal operation, including the Play Store. I only unblock it once every month to update some system critical packages. I am also running AdAway to block specific hosts that some system critical packages make connections to without my permission. I am also using App Manager to block internal trackers and to disable app ops and permissions that are not needed for normal operations. The hosts that I allow my phone to establish connections to that are owned by Google and that possibly collect data are play.googleapis.com (don't remember this one), android.googleapis.com (neither this one), play-fe.googleapis.com (to update apps at the Play Store) and mtalk.google.com (for push notifications).

The reason I such these lengths instead of "simply" ditching Google, is because a few dear friends are on the Japanese spyware Line and because I use USB Audio Player, a paid app, whose certificate doesn't validate without logging in to the Play Store. All in all, two apps... But I rather translate that into "friends" and "HiFi music". 🙂

I am really happy with my setup and it works without any hickups - expect for when I push it too far, because I like to experiment by removing packages that people don't recommend removing but that are closed source and thus cannot be verified without decompiling. Which is a skill I don't have.

Question: did you install MicroG or something, on that Linux phone? Asking since you're saying that you're not ready to completely degoogle yet.

As a fellow former CyanogenMod user, I run GrapheneOS. I like that it gives me the most control over my hardware, of any of the Android variants I have tried.

Edit: I buy phones specifically looking for GrapheneOS support, now. But for non-pixel phones, I have found LineageOS to be fine.

lineageos is the direct continuation of cyanogenmod since 2016. just grab any android phone that supports lineageos and you're good. microg provides you google services, but it's still dependant on google's servers. i use mine without google services at all, aside from not having push notifications it's very usable.

You can go with GrapheneOS. Currently, it's only Pixels supported. GOS and Motorola have a partnership and GOS on a Moto should be available in 2027.

I installed GrapheneOS on a Pixel for my dad along with Sandboxed Google Services so I know you don't have to fully degoogle with GOS. The good thing with this setup is Google only gets the info you allow it to have.

Sandboxed GS can also be installed in a second user profile.

20 years ago Android phones didn't exist, let alone CyanogenMod.

There's essentially Lineage (formerly Cyanogen, or a fork of it) and Graphene.

Ignore /e/ OS - it's Lineage with their crap on it.

Go read about those two.

All those alternatives are Android, but mainly degoogled, lots are pretty good, I like CrDroid on my Poco F3, this is a very nice ROM, Graphene, Lineage, etc are all fine.

Main problem is mainly a lot of banking apps will not work, oh yes you can install Magisk, SuperSU, Zygist, SusFS, keybox, Mask Integrity, Autofix, TEE hacking, spoof a lot of things, etc and BANG! your bank app or Google Wallet will work and you can tap to pay with NFC! It will work 2 or 3 weeks until a google update/bank app update, and you re-spend countless hours on XDA or Telegram to find how to fix this. Until next time.

If you don't tap-to-pay or your bank app does not mind running on an insecure OS, everything else is perfect in all those ROMs, pick one.

If you want a real alternative, you have the Apple world but you already made the mistake before 😜, or Ubuntu Touch maybe.

There are many alternatives. None of them are "good" yet.

The real answer to a good Android alternative is probably not another android fork, but another Linux distro, like SailfishOS that the Jolla Phone ships with: https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sep-ii-2026 It has support for Android apps though, so you can still use your bank app (probably), but it runs them in sandboxes