I've been using it for a few weeks: It doesn't force you to put anything on the cloud. If you choose to create an /e/ account, it makes it easy to sync/backup to their cloud services, but it's completely optional.

Unlike Google or Apple, you're not required to create a cloud account just to use your own device.

Can you easily drop to a command line and just rsync your data to a remote host ?

... asking for a friend ...

The cloud "just" uses davx5, which you can ignore, or use to sync to your own nextcloud server, or you can create an account on their nextcloud instance.

I obviously use my own nextcloud.

Some mircrog stuff is enabled by default, which means it does allow apps to talk to Google for eg. push messages. It's not much work to disable, though.

Most people wouldn't think a smartphone OS was complete without an online component.

If you truly don't want that postmarketOS and a number of Linux distros work on some older phones and the pinephone now.

You can dump a device running GNU/Linux in front of them and when push notifications don't work the way they expect they'll tell you "it's broken."

To be fair, my 72 yo dad that never used a computer in his life nor possessed any smartphone, has a basic understanding of what is the cloud.

People are not dumb because they're not specialized in the same field as us.

Then go for GrapheneOS but be prepared to have to dev your own apps like I'm doing right now.

And like the color of the Ford T, you will have the choice of your phone as long as it's a Pixel ;)

Hey fellow Graphene-r!

What apps are you writing for yourself on Graphene?

Have you considered being a maintainer for one of the companion apps/Graphene itself on a device? The project could really use you.