I have used /e/ as my main phone for 1 year - and I am a heavy user. It’s a bliss! I also got a phone with /e/ installed on it for my 73 years old mother. She loved it. It’s really surprising to see how the bigtech monopoly has nothing to do with the quality of their services, but everything with their unfair practices - Microsoft yesterday, Google today.
Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
51–60 of 245 posts
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#52This is unrelated from the rest of the project, but why do open source projects in general have such inexplicably bad marketing? To the degree where you can't believe that somebody actually thought this would work? To the degree you can't believe someone with no marketing experience could be this inept? What is /e/? How is it pronounced? What does it mean? How do I tell people about it? Does it stick out in a Google…
> why do open source projects in general have such inexplicably bad marketing?
Because they don't pay a marketing team to work 9-5 alongside them? That's probably the reason why all the art is ugly too, their website kinda sucks, et al. But that's not really the main appeal of this project, and I think it's honorable that they're focusing all their effort on the product rather than the vanity. If they did spend time writing marketing double-speak, the HN refutation du-jour would be that they're not focusing on privacy enough.
> But on that line, why do we have GIMP, GNOME, Everything starting with the letter K on KDE, KDE itself, Hector Martin's "Asahi Lina" nonsense, and on and on...
Why was one of the first NES emulators called Nesticle? Who knows, and who cares? The quality of the software spoke for itself, and it opened the doors to decades of unsuccessful litigation from Sony and Nintendo. The same thing happened for Linux, Nginx, Kubernetes, BSD... you name it. The utility of these projects far outweighs their respective sex appeal, so why even bother making a pretty landing page?
While we're on the topic, why does Apple have such a bad history of choosing names for their stuff too? "Xcode" doesn't confer anything to me as a user, at least "Visual Studio" tells me I'm about to be using an IDE. Also makes it sound like an x11/Xorg tool, which it certainly isn't. Similarly, "Logic Pro", "Final Cut" and even "iTunes" are dorky titles. Even Microsoft, the patron saint of bad UX design, has the balls to just call their app "Music" and "Photos".
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#53Really embarrassing level of blatant copying of iOS icons and design language, here.
"Picasso had a saying. He said, 'Good artists copy; great artists steal', and we have, you know, always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
-- Steve Jobs, in Triumph of the Nerds (1996 documentary)
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#54I feel like I wouldn't use this based on the name alone. How do I say it? forward slash ee forward slash? I don't understand why anyone would think it was a good idea to name it this!
and how do I look it up on google if I need help with something?
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#55I feel like I wouldn't use this based on the name alone. How do I say it? forward slash ee forward slash? I don't understand why anyone would think it was a good idea to name it this!
People should just call it Slashy Slash...
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#56I feel like I wouldn't use this based on the name alone. How do I say it? forward slash ee forward slash? I don't understand why anyone would think it was a good idea to name it this!
and how do I look it up on google if I need help with something?
A lot of websites (including TFA) are calling it "/e/ OS", which seems to work fine for searches.
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#57"We are making a mobile phone ecosystem that lets users escape the permanent and industrial harvesting of their personal data." I have never heard any normal person ever talk about data privacy. It feels like there's this giant bubble that the tech world lives in, and they are the only people who care about this issue.
I know a couple in their 70s who literally just switched away from using their ISP email because the ISP is adopting Gmail for the email service. People typically care about their privacy regardless of age or technical ability. Sometimes it just takes some basic understanding of just how deeply tech companies/services can invade their privacy. Most non-technical people simply don't grasp how shockingly omniscient tech corps are. That said, sometimes it can take a while for them to understand, even with regular discussions on the subject.
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm using Pinephone as a daily driver (and waiting for Librem 5 to replace it) and avoid all proprietary Android apps. But you in principle can install them with Waydroid or Anbox. See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32396685 .
> I'm using Pinephone as a daily driver What OS? Does MMS work out of the box for you?
Mobian. I'm not using MMS; according to [0], it's in beta state.
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is my #1 complaint as well. These OSs must be easy to install and reliable. Having parts of the OS crash, dealing with the terminal, using ADB over USB... all of that makes zero sense to the average person or someone pressed for time. I now want my phone to work and that is why i use iOS. Having to replace the OS on your phone is already a step too far for most. The install instructions here require using the te…
>Having parts of the OS crash, dealing with the terminal, using ADB over USB... I bought a phone from /e/ and have never had this happen in almost 2 years.
Relax, OP is just reaching for whatever rationalization they can get to continue sucking on Apple's tit.
Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm using Pinephone as a daily driver (and waiting for Librem 5 to replace it) and avoid all proprietary Android apps. But you in principle can install them with Waydroid or Anbox. See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32396685 .
> I'm using Pinephone as a daily driver Just in case you're not aware, because you seemingly are trying to convince other people: That fact alone indicates that what you're willing to trade off exceeds by an order of magnitude what the average user requires their main phone to do. And that even extends to the average tech-oriented user.
I am speaking to the HN audience here and expect that most people have more technical knowledge than ordinary people. Also, I acknowledged that today AOS might be superior, but it's important to support alternatives, because it will have problems long term, because it's controlled bu Google and heavily relies on proprietary code.