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E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

e.foundation

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Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#111

Post by joemazerino »

phh wrote: post #30
izacus wrote: post #13

One of the things that feels a bit problematic here - the webpage is avoiding mention of the fact that this is still Android. In essence, this is still Google's OS and the team has decided to start a fight against Google by taking their opensource and perpetually fight against the main developer by removing their proprietary component. I don't think this is a fight that's sustainable - a giant graveyard of Android pr…

I don't think the graveyard of Android privacy forks is that big? All I can think of is CopperheadOS which died because it was company-backed. You could argue CyanogenMod died, though really it's still well alive in LineageOS. (and CyanogenMod wasn't really privacy-focused) I have a very high respect for all the work that's been done on the various GNU/Linux mobile distributions, but it's still so far away from Andro…

> All I can think of is CopperheadOS which died because it was company-backed

CopperheadOS did not die. https://copperhead.co/android

/e/ mostly uses LineageOS code without providing attribution. They have a fair fight ahead of them and the Android FLOSS community benefits from this internal competition.

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#113

Post by joemazerino »

rst wrote: post #35
phh wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the graveyard of Android privacy forks is that big? All I can think of is CopperheadOS which died because it was company-backed. You could argue CyanogenMod died, though really it's still well alive in LineageOS. (and CyanogenMod wasn't really privacy-focused) I have a very high respect for all the work that's been done on the various GNU/Linux mobile distributions, but it's still so far away from Andro…

The original developer of CopperheadOS is continuing the work as GrapheneOS, after a split with his former business partner, over dilutions of the privacy guarantees, among other things. https://grapheneos.org/

> over dilutions of the privacy guarantees,

Has anyone found sources for this?

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#114

Post by nobodywasishere »

izacus wrote: post #45
GTP wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about LineageOS + MicroG? It seems sustainable to me

LineageOS has sadly been falling behind on device support these days, not sure what's going on there. :/

What do you mean? LineageOS currently supports 164 devices, and LineageOS 17.1 was released a few months ago with 75%[0] of devices moved over to it currently. LineageOS 18.0 is in the works as well [1].

[0] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1bx6RvTCEGn5zA06l...

[1] https://redd.it/jueya4

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#115

Post by higerordermap »

izacus wrote: post #13

One of the things that feels a bit problematic here - the webpage is avoiding mention of the fact that this is still Android. In essence, this is still Google's OS and the team has decided to start a fight against Google by taking their opensource and perpetually fight against the main developer by removing their proprietary component. I don't think this is a fight that's sustainable - a giant graveyard of Android pr…

LineageOS is both more successful and more practical than Purism thingies.

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#116

Post by kevinfanch »

francis-io wrote: post #51

How can this be "de-googled" but I can also use "all my favourite apps"? I'd love to step away from Google, but I have some requirements on apps from the play store for work (slack, okta) and personal communication (whatsapp).

/e/ provides its own Apps store, which have many apps including ones from F-Droid, but if you like you can also install something like Aurora and install any app. Not 100% work with MicroG but it is still great for privacy.

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#117

Post by kevinfanch »

I am using /e/ for quite some time now, and I'm really happy. Both articles seem like intentionally done by someone trying to scare people away from trying privacy-friendly and easy to use OS. About https://intangiblesheep.neocities.org/rants/eelo.html: - Most users would prefer Magic Earth even though being not open sourced, because AndOSM sucks, and Magic Earth is much close to Google Maps quality. - No one is forced to create an /e/ account, but if you decide to create one it is much less likely your data to be used, because /e/ doesn't sell ads like Google. - Lineage OS has no privacy enhancing features, while /e/ removed all calls to Google servers. This improves privacy a lot!

About second article which is not even published anymore. - Since when collecting money by crowdfunding makes a company bad? - It is a lie that /e/ doesn't do anything new. Check here: https://doc.e.foundation/faq#is-e-lineageos--microg - the ROM still falls back to google’s DNS : This have been fixed many months ago. - th/e/y don’t accept negative feedback : I have been in /e/ chat and there is so much negative feedback there and no one gets kicked out, I wonder what he did to get kicked out.

Seriously, this all looks like someone who doesn't like privacy trying to scare people away. Admit it no one is going to use a hard to install or hard to use OS. /e/ is the best option if you want your grandmother to have some privacy while still being able to use android apps.

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#118

Post by cookiengineer »

brnt wrote: post #110
cookiengineer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda agree with the sentiment in the articles from an AOSP/lineage/cyanogen perspective. They should definitely embrace the Telegram FOSS fork [1] and OSMAnd~ [2] (which is a superb offline navigation tool btw) and remove all Apps that require the Android 10 firebase hockey-based notifications. [5] and [6] A lot of apps use this for convenience and because it was _required_ since AOSP 10 but there are ways to work…

What about Fennec from f-droid? Does it have telemetry enabled as well?

The description of the package on fdroid literally states that it still connects to mozilla's and google's services. [1] So yes. It probably also includes the firebase and adjust sdk.

[1] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#119

Post by m3adow »

Vinnl wrote: post #64
closeneough wrote: post #28

I'm using e.foundation for a while now on my Moto G3 (osprey) and it's working ok despite a few camera/gallery crashes here and there. The only thing I'm not really fond of, is that the apps come from an opaque source ( https://info.cleanapk.org/ ). I also found no information on how those apps are signed, and how this is checked. Upon asking them, someone pointed me to a git commit where an outdated public key of F-…

Yeah, that's the thing that would worry me the most: it's nice and all that I can use many regular Android apps, but how do I know that that's safe? In practice, I'd probably still restrict myself to F-Droid, like I do today - the only app I'd like to use in addition is our Corona warn app.

If you're from Germany, that may work soon. The Corona Warn App may appear on F-Droid soon.

Re: E Foundation – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone OS and online services

#120

Post by ignoramous »

cookiengineer wrote: post #70
Qwertious wrote: post #60

/e/ is mud among the LineageOS community (which is upstream of it), due to several reasons. Sadly I can't find the relevant /r/lineageOS posts . Here's some reading that covers the basic points though: https://intangiblesheep.neocities.org/rants/eelo.html https://web.archive.org/web/20191224031946/https://ewwlo.xyz...

I kinda agree with the sentiment in the articles from an AOSP/lineage/cyanogen perspective. They should definitely embrace the Telegram FOSS fork [1] and OSMAnd~ [2] (which is a superb offline navigation tool btw) and remove all Apps that require the Android 10 firebase hockey-based notifications. [5] and [6] A lot of apps use this for convenience and because it was _required_ since AOSP 10 but there are ways to work…

Nebulo is arguably better than Blokada.

Besides, some of their practices like redirecting every blocklist through their own mirror (blokada.org/mirror) and in some cases through their URL shortener (go.blokada.org), makes me think they're not really as private as they claim to be.

Also, Blokada leaks DNS connections over TCP and doesn't let you set your own DoH resolver.

None of these are problems with Nebulo which is also recommended by https://PrivacyTools.io/providers/dns/ over Blokada.

https://git.frostnerd.com/PublicAndroidApps/smokescreen

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frostnerd....

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