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/e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

e.foundation

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Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#141

Post by odeckmyn »

I wanted to add a perspective from actual daily use, because a lot of this thread sounds theoretical.

I’ve been using a Murena/Fairphone running /e/OS as my primary phone for a while now, and honestly the experience has been much smoother than I expected. My banking apps work, GPS/navigation works reliably, messaging and everyday apps behave normally — I’m not constantly fighting the device or giving things up. After the initial setup, it just feels like a normal smartphone, except noticeably quieter in terms of tracking and background noise.

What surprised me most is that this isn’t a “privacy experiment” anymore. It’s a usable, stable daily driver. I still get the convenience people worry about losing, but with far fewer ties to Google services by default.

I think a lot of people hesitate because they assume moving away from stock Android means breaking essential apps or living with constant friction. That hasn’t been my experience at all. If you’re curious but unsure, it’s genuinely worth trying — the barrier is much lower than it used to be, and you might find you don’t miss as much as you expect.

Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#142

Post by safety1st »

goldenarm wrote: post #9

Tweaking user-hostile OSes into user-friendly ones is impressive, but not sustainable. Even worse, it slowing us down from leaving Android entirely. Look at the AdBlocker crackdown of Google Chrome. Every single chrome-fork has shut down MV2 extensions, even Brave is about to do it, because it is impossible to maintain features that complex on a browser that Google spends >$1B/year to develop. Same story for /e/ and…

I appreciate that there are people out there working on stuff like /e/OS, but the number one question I have when I learn about a mobile OS that isn't iOS or "Googled" Android is: will the banking and payment apps I need to operate in the modern world run on this OS?

A lot of people don't think this way because they haven't had any problems. But then one day it happens to you and you realize, ok, this is the one thing that matters - you're in a cashless store and the only way you can pay for your meal is to use Approved Apple or Approved Google operating systems.

Where I live, the app my electricity utility provides for viewing and paying my account DISABLES ITSELF FOREVER if you so much as enable USB debugging on your phone (even after you've disabled it again).

To their credit Graphene maintains a global database of which of these apps work and don't. They're the only ones I know of so a thousand upvotes to Graphene OS.

But for my banks, the records in that database are grim. They won't run on Graphene, and they don't respond to reports about it.

One of my banks just discontinued its web UI because "people don't use it anymore, they use the app only."

This is how they're going to get us, folks. This is how we're going to lose it all. Writing code alone will not solve this. It will require some kind of collective action to defend our liberties. Some parts of the world are already lost. So this situation will likely come to a jurisdiction near you eventually: to make a transaction you will need permission from Google, Apple, Visa, Mastercard, or it won't happen. Then that four company list will start to shrink.

Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#143

Post by ForHackernews »

ergocoder wrote: post #69

I worked at Google before, so I trust Google more than these random organizations that claim they are better than Google at handling sensitive info.

On the other hand, I would trust a randomly chosen organization more than the world's largest adtech firm.

Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#144

Post by enriquto »

safety1st wrote: post #142
goldenarm wrote: post #9

Tweaking user-hostile OSes into user-friendly ones is impressive, but not sustainable. Even worse, it slowing us down from leaving Android entirely. Look at the AdBlocker crackdown of Google Chrome. Every single chrome-fork has shut down MV2 extensions, even Brave is about to do it, because it is impossible to maintain features that complex on a browser that Google spends >$1B/year to develop. Same story for /e/ and…

I appreciate that there are people out there working on stuff like /e/OS, but the number one question I have when I learn about a mobile OS that isn't iOS or "Googled" Android is: will the banking and payment apps I need to operate in the modern world run on this OS? A lot of people don't think this way because they haven't had any problems. But then one day it happens to you and you realize, ok, this is the one thin…

> the app my electricity utility provides for viewing and paying my account DISABLES ITSELF FOREVER if you so much as enable USB debugging on your phone (even after you've disabled it again).

These are self-inflicted problems by these apps. Nothing to do with the OS. These apps simply don't work. Complain to the companies that push these broken apps to you.

Would you buy a microwave oven that kills itself if you play the wrong kind of music in your kitchen?

Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#146

Post by astrolx »

My phone (Teracube) is running /e/OS now for 2 years. Nearly everything works out of the box (bank apps, e-identity apps etc ..). The only issue I have is that the app I use to take contactless payment on the phone via NFC does not work (while it works using Android).

Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#147

Post by mft_ »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #133
mft_ wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the website[0] I’d need 20+ hrs idle time, video recording, Bluetooth, and GPS. I’m being gently snarky, of course, but the goal shouldn’t be an MVP that nerds who are deeply into privacy or FOSS or hate Google can tolerate - it should be something that disinterested normies could seamlessly and happily use. [0] https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

Well, it idles for about 22 hours, can record videos, does multi-constellation GNSS and both classic and LE Bluetooth. The way to make disinterested normies able to use it is to have lots of nerds capable of fixing various papercuts themselves switch already and contribute rather than complain.

Maybe I should file an issue to update the website then ;)

Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#148

Post by Vinnl »

StingyJelly wrote: post #123
Vinnl wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iodé is available for my device as well, but it looked fairly similar to /e/OS to me (and the latter has an official partnership with my phone's manufacturer). What makes it a better option - should I switch?

When I looked into it, /e/ constantly used to be many months late with security updates. LineageOS for microg and iodé were much quicker (~ 1 month max which is still not that great).

Hmm, possibly I'm looking in the wrong place, but as far as I can remember, I've been getting new /e/OS versions about every month, and looking at the release notes [1], they usually seem to include the latest "Android security patches", which I assume is what's relevant - unless there's something else that should also be included?

[1] https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/releases/-/releases

Re: /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled” mobile ecosystem

#149

Post by decasteve »

If you block Google, as much of it as possible anyway, on your firewall, does the device work/install? I tried /e/ and Lineage about a year ago, but neither of them worked when Google was blocked completely. The only one that made no requests to Google was Graphene.
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