I have an donated Gen 1 Pixel phone so that I can experiment trying a new OS on it.
I use linux mint on my laptop but still consider myself a beginner.
The goal is to eventually do this to my main phone (A galaxy S8) but I wanted to get a feel for how to do it.
I'm stuck on the OS, I only use the phone as a clock, texting, and occasionally a call. Internet isn't a huge deal but it'd be nice in a pinch.
I'm looking for an OS that's easy to use, privacy & security.
Any recommends/guides?

i have a pixel 1, I would just flash it with lineageos without gapps. any kind of visual Linux interface would struggle hard on it if it even exists, and grapheneos doesn't support anything older than the 6 AFAIK

I mean they could give it a try beforehand. I did install (an ancient version of) Lineage on a Wileyfox Swift in the end as well but I gave PostmarketOS (with almost all available DEs) a try and it had THE MOST AMAZING graphical glitches a have come across on a long time 😸

lol true flash whatever and get a laugh, but lineage is an amazing pick for stability once the fun is over

I'm going to try LineageOS first, but do you have any thoughts about CalyxOS?
I'm in my last stages of degoogling so the further away I am from Google, the better.
I'd love to use GrapheneOS but I can't afford a Pixel that's new enough to run it.

never used it so no comment there

Lineage installed and it works beautifully.

good to hear, enjoy :)

That's not something you can do as a beginner in Linux. I'm porting Linux to a phone and even after using Linux for 18 years it's not an easy task.

If you want to use Linux on a phone, get one that is supported. (Or get comfortable with the shell anf inner workings of Linux and put in a lot of effort.)

For example, I've ported Mobian to the Pixel 3a and that works quite well and is cheap. Pretty sure others will have more recommendations.

I really enjoyed doing it with the pixel 1! I love a good tinker and it's good practice, might even switch over to it as my main phone.
I'm looking into finding a used pixel 6 so I can try out Graphene and ditching the S8 altogether. Next project is tablets though.👏