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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

#71

Post by unethical_ban »

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.

What is your point? You're using loaded terms like "normal" to contrast with people who are tech hobbyists, and you sound as if it is bad for an organization to care about something moral if few people care for it.

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

#73

Post by sfRattan »

solotronics wrote: post #63

Is there any Android alternative that works with Android Auto? One of the primary uses of my phone is plugging into my car to play music and navigate.

I've been searching for an alternative to Android Auto itself. After an update some months ago, launching the app takes me to a settings panel declaring that Android Auto is no longer supported for phone screens (i.e. it is now only designed to run while linked to a car with a compatible display), and the app itself refuses to run as it used to on just the phone.

Add that functionality to the Google graveyard, I guess...

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

#74

Post by smoldesu »

toxican wrote: post #67
smoldesu wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I'm a little hung up on the fact that you think between "Xcode" and "visual studio" that the latter is the one that more suggests you're about to be writing code in an IDE.

On every Unix box I've ever used, any tool prefixed with 'X' usually relates to the display server technology. MacOS is the only outlier here, and the 'X' doesn't really mean anything to me as a user. The word 'code' hints that it's a tool for development, but altogether it could mean anything from a compiler to a Xorg IDE. At least Visual Studio conveys the idea that you're going to be using a GUI application with designer/compositional tools, and adding 'Code' to it clarifies that it's a visual tool for manipulating code.

It's a bit of a reach, but if you think the average iPad user could tell you what "Logic" does, I'd be inclined to disagree.

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

#75

Post by commoner »

solotronics wrote: post #63

Is there any Android alternative that works with Android Auto? One of the primary uses of my phone is plugging into my car to play music and navigate.

I don't think Android Auto works without Google Play Services at this time. Here's the feature request for Android Auto support on microG:

https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/897

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

#77

Post by evilos »

rglullis wrote: post #62
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #39

This 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…

Do you need good marketing to guide your decisions? Do you need someone else validating your choices? Why do you care about "good marketing"? > How do I tell people about it? "hey, the website is https://e.foundation , here is the link" That was not so hard, was it?

Why would you put work into something meant for others to use, and then make it hard for people to find it?

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

#78

Post by commoner »

martinald wrote: post #70
COGlory wrote: post #12

I use /e/ daily as does a co-worker (we aren't working in tech). It's the one piece of alternative software that I'm comfortable recommending to anyone. It "just works" just as much as Android "just works".

But do apps like Uber, WhatsApp etc work ok on it?

Uber and WhatsApp work well on /e/ and other Android distributions with microG.

For microG compatibility, Plexus rates Uber 3 out of 4 (good), and WhatsApp 4 out of 4 (perfect).

- Plexus: https://plexus.techlore.tech/

I can confirm that the map in Uber can be janky at times, but the app is otherwise fully functional. Both the Uber web app and the Lyft app (4 out of 4 on Plexus) work flawlessly.

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

#79

Post by jrockway »

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.

Yesterday I was reading that Facebook shares DMs with the police to find people that are thinking of leaving the state to get a medical procedure that is illegal in that state. Data privacy is now deeply relevant to 50% of the population that have reduced rights relative to the other 50%, they just might not know it yet.

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

#80

Post by rglullis »

evilos wrote: post #77
rglullis wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you need good marketing to guide your decisions? Do you need someone else validating your choices? Why do you care about "good marketing"? > How do I tell people about it? "hey, the website is https://e.foundation , here is the link" That was not so hard, was it?

Why would you put work into something meant for others to use, and then make it hard for people to find it?

Who said that is hard to find it? Is it hard compared to what? How much does it cost (in times and resources) to make it "easier" to find it? The people working on it are doing it for free (as in, it cost me literally nothing to download and install /e/OS on my phone) and you think you still feel entitled to get "good marketing" on top of it?

If you think that the product is lacking in some part, how about you CONTRIBUTE to make it better instead of just diminishing the work of others?

What a fucking lame attitude.

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