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The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

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Re: The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

#41
post #3

The name of the operating system is actually "/e/"??? That's terrible..

I have to agree, the first thing that pop in my head is the /e/ board from 4chan which is for ecchi

I’m reluctant to google; what’s that mean?

Re: The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree, the first thing that pop in my head is the /e/ board from 4chan which is for ecchi

I’m reluctant to google; what’s that mean?

hentai - pornographic manga and anime.

"ecchi" is Japanese for the English letter "H", standing for "hentai", which means perverted or strange.

Re: The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

#44
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I am aware of the repository. > Have you already asked them to add a reference to Bromite somewhere in the about screen? I have not; I was expecting it, given the amount of modifications from Bromite patches (which is zero, as far as I understood). > I think /e/ is different from MS or Google in that it's possible to swap out most of the integrations with your own servers (it's all a bunch of glued-together open…

> I have not; I was expecting it, given the amount of modifications from Bromite patches (which is zero, as far as I understood). I won't lie, I would have expected the same if I were in your shoes. Thinking positively though, it's possible that the /e/ people don't care much about the attribution they themselves receive and don't realize what it means to others to be recognized for their personal hard work. Asking n…

> They did add a reference to the original project to the AUTHORS file, so I'd like to believe in a variation of Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by laziness.

This would be all fine and agreeable if they had not contacted me first, see my first comment :) of course I can still do contact them pointing out the situation, but let me say that given the nice project manifesto (https://e.foundation/wp-content/uploads/e-manifesto.pdf ) and the large amount of open source projects being involved...there must be expectations of this type :)

I do not claim malice - but I feel like the exact bare minimum was done there, which is not that surprising given that I declined creating/maintaining the customised fork that then they created.

Re: The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

#45

I don't really see the benefit in this. You can install LineageOS without gapps and MicroG already distributes a fork of LineageOS that includes MicroG. If you want full control of your device you will likely be better off going with something like Librem 5 from Purism.

The alternate app store with a focus on privacy could be a big plus, depending on how broad of a selection it ends up providing. Neither Google Play nor Amazon Appstore respect your privacy at all. F-Droid is great for open source software, but has some big holes (Signal is an obvious one), and side-loading isn't the best option for security reasons (no automatic updates). I have no problem with proprietary software, or with paying for it, if I had reasonable guarantees that it wasn't spyware, and didn't require installing spyware to obtain and stay up-to-date.

Re: The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

#46
post #2

“Google-free” in that the name is impossible to google? /s I had not heard of Qwant before this. How does it compare to other privacy-focused search engines e.g. Duck Duck Go?

One thing that I like about DuckDuckGo is that you can browse results with arrow keys and enter. No simple way to load the next page, sadly. If you have it set as the search engine in Firefox, you can get mouseless search with ctrl+t and f6 if needed.

This is not to say that Qwant is horrible because of not having this (I just ran a couple of test queries and the results seem decent), just it would be nice if different "indie" search engines allowed navigation with keyboard.

Re: The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

#49
post #21

Bromite author here ( https://www.bromite.org ); I was contacted some time ago about the possibility to maintain a modified version of Bromite with a customised /e/ home page and list of search engines. Nothing particularly murky there, but after some Q/A I did not want to proceed with this type of cross-branding because fundamentally I do not want Bromite to be using or be affiliated with any cloud service and I con…

Just logged in to say thank you for maintaining my favorite browser bromite. :)

Re: The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available

#50
Just what we need, a new system with the name of /e/ which will make information and discussion of it unsearchable on the web. WTF.

I thought only Google did that, name things and projects for common dictionary words. You'd expect a search company to know better.

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