Why? I have had the same phone for the last 5 years.

That number probably higher. However that changes nothing as we can't control proprietary firmware blobs.

Honestly there is no way of knowing anything about the security of those blobs. Firmware vendors can do whatever they want.

Why? I don't understand. Doesn't it have any update mechanism for that?

for it to get mainstream

It will never get more mainstream than this.

Lineage has been the go-to ROM that beat every other ROM in active users by one or more orders of magnitude since the beginning of Android. Everyone that cares a little bit about custom ROMs knows what Lineage is, and if they don't they will recognize its previous name CyanogenMod.

Average users are never going to care about custom ROMs because it's not worth the effort for them, so why would you care about making LOS more mainstream?

And did your Pentester find any vulnerabilities yet? XD

📱🐈‍⬛

Meanwhile, the OG OS has more vulnerabilities probably

There are workarounds:

Install magisk, add the app to the zygisk denylist before first run.

Install universal safetynet fix and magisk hide props config (modules for magisk).

For some apps, you may have to install them in island so that they can't detect the magisk app.

Follow the guides, if you have a supported phone. It is really nice for supported devices. But do follow the instructions exactly.

For an OS that you need to install manually, it's definitely a lot.

Depends. 1st you need to find out if your phone/manufacturer allows unlocking the bootloader. No unlocking, no custom rom, no lineage os. If it is supported, you need to find a lineageOS rom for your phone. There is an official lineageOS website where you can find compatible devices. If it’s not listed there (which is not unlikely), you can search the web for unofficial lineageOS roms or other custom roms. Be careful, some of your phone’s features might not work properly or at all but most custom rom developers provide you with a list of what is and isn’t working.

And for the installation part, it’s probably better to look up a full tutorial on the web as installing a custom recovery that you need to install the rom can be a bit tricky…

You cam use the pixelify module. It adds many pixel-exclusive features, including the google photos app!

Maybe I'm not aware what I'm missing out on. On GrapheneOS on a Pixel phone, you can install the camera app made by Google. com.google.android.GoogleCamera. Has some fancy features, but maybe not the ones you are referring to?

I can't confirm if all features are working, but possibly. My case is that I have LineageOS on my phone and my son has an Amazon tablet that I've used Fire Toolbox on to install Google Playstore and services. I'm able to approve/deny apps for him to install (I get the notification on Family Link on my phone), but some things aren't working because I'm having trouble with Play services on the tablet.