There are drawbacks to bundling apps into the OS and few advantages in most cases. + Rather than GrapheneOS bundling a bunch of apps, it makes far more sense for users to + install their preferred apps via F-Droid, Aurora Store or other sources. GrapheneOS is + also working on designing and implementing a first party app update system for a first + party repository with higher robustness and security than the existing options. Rather + than bundling apps, it could just offer recommendations as part of an initial setup + wizard. Users have unique needs and preferences and there has to be a very compelling + reason to bundle additional apps with the OS. For example, it's useful to have the + Auditor app available before connecting to the internet (see the + installation guide documentation on + this).
+ +Bundling additional apps with the OS can increase attack surface, unless users go + out of the way to disable apps they aren't using. Bundling an app into the base OS is + also painful to reverse, since removing the app without implementing a migration + mechanism will lose user data stored in the app. Some users are also going to take + issue with the choices made by the project or will want to make suggestions for + bundling more apps, and having this as a regular topic of discussion and debate is + unproductive and distracts from the real work of the project. Each bundled app also + increases the size of the base OS, and shipping the app updates as part of the OS + updates results in more overall bandwidth usage. It would be possible to ship only + out-of-band app updates to avoid wasted bandwidth for apps users have disabled, but + then the apps would be temporarily out-of-date and vulnerable to patched security + issues after a factory reset or the user re-enabling them. If the updates aren't going + to be shipped with the OS, it really makes no sense to bundle them.
+ +GrapheneOS is focused on making meaningful improvements to privacy and security, + and bundling assorted apps into the OS is not only usually outside of that focus but + often counter to it.