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Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

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Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#201

Post by 2-718-281-828 »

commoner wrote: post #128
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #119

I have been using LOS since 17.1 on OP3T and OP6. How would my experience with /e/ differ?

How are you using Google services on LineageOS now? Do you have microG preinstalled (LineageOS for microG)[1], did you install GApps, or are you not using Google services at all? /e/ has microG installed, just like LineageOS for microG. Compared to the proprietary Google Play Services in GApps, microG is a FOSS library that allows apps to access Google services. microG lets you selectively enable/disable push notific…

have been using microG (as LOS for microG) up until about two years ago. but it seemed less and less actively developed, so I switchted to vanilla LOS. No GApps. Everything I need works (even stuff like Signal or Google Maps). Only type of apps that don't work are some actively and unnecessarily screening for Google Services or stuff like Uber which uses an integrated map.

> LineageOS for microG may be a better choice on that device

LOS for microG always seemed a bit fishy - the way the project is run and executed. Seemed less transparent than vanilla LOS. microG's release schedule is a bit gappy for my taste. sometimes no updates or fixes for several months :/

https://doc.e.foundation/devices

> while /e/ has that device on Android 11 (R)

The versioning of /e/ seems to be about as confusing as the project name itself but as far as I can tell from that table there is no device with a version beyond R. so, I'd assume they just need some more time to release it?

Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#203

Post by HeckFeck »

kubanczyk wrote: post #199
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #13

"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.

The elders still sometimes say things like "shush, not over the phone". This didn't use to make sense for like 30-40 years, and, hey, it's a great comeback now.

My grandmother wouldn't give her bank details to anyone. She paid all her bills at the bank, cash in hand. She only had a phone line put in in the early 90s.

I thought it was extreme at the time, but now who is laughing?

Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#204

Post by HeckFeck »

autoexec wrote: post #99
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's like a trope now where a tech person builds a thing that bothers them but nobody else, and meanwhile most people are like "I just want to do X, why is it so hard". Like why does my Android phone take up 15GB just for system files? I care about having free space more than data privacy. Security would sure be nice too, seeing as I use banking apps from this thing. Call me crazy, but I think most people car…

> Call me crazy, but I think most people care less about Nike knowing what their shoe size is They don't care because they don't understand. "Most people" think their shoe size or what ad they see doesn't matter because they're right, those things don't matter. What matters is that all of the data being collected about them will be used against them at every opportunity so that other people can get more money and pow…

Great comment, I'd like to add:

Industrial-scale data guzzling is exactly like every vicious playground rumour (or vindictive people you may still be unlucky to know). Think back to school and remember how the bullies never forgot. How names and reputations were made instantly and never really shrugged. They used that information (demeaning anecdotes) to their benefit in every way they could. You had absolutely no control over the spread of rumours about you.

Imagine that, but on a much grander scale. I wish more people saw that it is the same kind of predation, probably perpetuated by the same types who have no conscience but are now adults.

Because the information is only valuable when tied to you, misuse of it is always against your interest. The use and handling of "personal data" is never neutral, even if "anonymised".

Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#205

Post by geokon »

commoner wrote: post #128
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #119

I have been using LOS since 17.1 on OP3T and OP6. How would my experience with /e/ differ?

How are you using Google services on LineageOS now? Do you have microG preinstalled (LineageOS for microG)[1], did you install GApps, or are you not using Google services at all? /e/ has microG installed, just like LineageOS for microG. Compared to the proprietary Google Play Services in GApps, microG is a FOSS library that allows apps to access Google services. microG lets you selectively enable/disable push notific…

since you seem knowledgeable..

I noticed when apps are installed on Chinese androids they generally magically work just fine. I remember reading that at install time the app detects if it's on a western or Chinese phone and it reconfigures itself accordingly (this was with Signal)

The issues appear when you install on a western phone and disable Google play services and the apps keep trying to access them

For instance on my mainland xiaomi Instagram works just fine, but on my Taiwanese xiaomi (with the global ROM) it won't do notifications and I don't know how to fix it

If there a way to have apps install in this Chinese mode?

Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#206

Post by soco »

em-bee wrote: post #81
soufron wrote: post #51

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.

pretty much the same story for me. started 3 years ago, and got a phone for my 70 year old mother almost two years ago. she gets help to install new apps, but otherwise it works just fine for her.

How is /e/ making things easier for them? My folks are constantly puzzled by their galaxy phones: not only notifications and sudden app changes, but also touching the edges of the screen triggering unexpected things... What will another OS do better?

Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#208

Post by 8293048883 »

stkdump wrote: post #167
opan wrote: post #96

I'll never use a custom ROM that includes microg by default. LineageOS with no gapps of any kind is my preference. I can get apps from f-droid or even aurora store, and everything I need works. I don't want any google stuff on there, not even a slightly less sketchy version.

I might be misunderstanding it, but microg is not (like the name suggests) a stripped down version of the google services. It is a reimplementation of the APIs that the google services provide to installed apps. It doesn't reuse any code (it couldn't, because the google services are not open source) and doesn't connect to google servers, afaik.

> doesn't connect to google servers

Microg optionally supports Firebase Cloud Messaging for apps that require it for push notifications.

Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#209

Post by npteljes »

_rdvw wrote: post #171

I'm biased as a maintainer of my own OS, but there are severe issues with /e/OS: https://divestos.org/misc/e.txt And it is honestly sad to see, because they could be a real viable option and instead choose to largely ignore or hand-wave away these issues.

Very good list. As a daily user of /e/, I can attest to most of the concerns, which I agree are valid.

Advanced Privacy is a major WTF. Using TOR without mentioning it is strange. And so is their all-or-nothing location faker tool. Sounded nice until I wanted to use a navigation app, which too got my fake location. Then I had to disable the faking, making my location available to all applications - quite a headscratcher.

CleanAPK is another WTF baked-in dependency. I suppose they are running it themselves, just not in the open, because of copyright and other issues maybe? I don't know, they don't tell me, and why are we left guessing such an important thing on a privacy phone?

An update also borked my phone, forcing it into a reboot loop. Granted, it was from 0.something to 1.something, but still, it was the next update in line, I thought the updater could manage it.

Aside from these, I'm still a happy user of the system. I appreciate the degoogling effort over the mainline LineageOS.

I'd like to have a question about DivestOS. Which device(s) do you regard as the main one(s)? I mean, which do you think will receive the most updates, the longest support, and so on? I'd wager the ones marked "Tested working" are the most healthy?

Re: Review of /e/ – Android-based alternative for mobile phones

#210

Post by npteljes »

josephcsible wrote: post #181
_rdvw wrote: post #171

I'm biased as a maintainer of my own OS, but there are severe issues with /e/OS: https://divestos.org/misc/e.txt And it is honestly sad to see, because they could be a real viable option and instead choose to largely ignore or hand-wave away these issues.

> - Enables Safetynet checks by default which downloads and executes obfuscated proprietary code from Google > - Includes proprietary Google Widevine DRM on nearly all devices While proprietary code, obfuscation, and DRM are all evil, if /e/OS didn't support these things, then a lot of very popular apps wouldn't work on it, which would make it a lot less viable as a platform. Refusing to do those things wouldn't resu…

Linux solves a similar problem sometimes by asking the user if they'd like that feature or not. I'd really appreciate that, of course, while understanding that all these need a lot of extra effort.
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