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posted by Fnord666 on Friday March 05 2021, @07:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the now-with-100%-less-Google dept.

Google-free /e/ OS is now selling preloaded phones in the US, starting at $380:

/e/ OS, the "open-source, pro-privacy, and fully degoogled" fork of Android, is coming to Canada and the USA. Of course, you've always been able to download the software in any region, but now (as first spotted by It's Foss News) the e Foundation will start selling preloaded phones in North America. Previously, /e/ only did business in Europe.

Like normal, the e Foundation's smartphone strategy is to sell refurbished Samsung devices with /e/ preloaded. In the US, there are only two phones right now: the Galaxy S9 for $379.99 or a Galaxy S9+ for $429.99. North Americans still have reason to be jealous of Europe, where you can get /e/ preloaded on a Fairphone, which is also Europe-exclusive.

[...] Actually getting regular Android apps to run on a forked version of Android is a challenge. Google Play Services is built into many apps for things like push notifications, and there's a good chance that functionality won't work on /e/ OS. These apps will at least run on /e/ OS instead of exiting outright, thanks to the inclusion of MicroG, an open source project that hijacks Google API calls.

[...] There's a chance you don't have to actually buy a phone to run /e/ OS. Just like with Lineage, you can install the OS at home, for free, if you have a compatible device. There are 138 devices officially supported by /e/ OS (oddly no up-to-date builds for Pixel phones, which are probably the most popular unlocked devices), although only about 60 are on the latest version. There is even an "Easy Installer" for some Samsung Exynos devices.


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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday March 05 2021, @07:22PM (4 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Friday March 05 2021, @07:22PM (#1120479)

    Android already provides a lot of flexibility to load and configure the apps you want. Are there options to load Android (or anything else) or go vendor-free for iPhones or Windows phones, or pretty much any other greasepad phone? That would open up the used market a *lot*.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday March 05 2021, @10:17PM (3 children)

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday March 05 2021, @10:17PM (#1120562)

      One reason this matters: Android phones, even Androids doing nothing at all, "phone home" more often than just about anything else, which means Google uses its extensive involvement in Android to spy on its users. An open-source model that doesn't do that is a nice improvement even for people with Androids now.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday March 05 2021, @11:07PM (2 children)

        by krishnoid (1156) on Friday March 05 2021, @11:07PM (#1120580)

        No reason not to believe you, but more than *Windows* phones would? That would be pretty impressive.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by coolgopher on Friday March 05 2021, @11:12PM

          by coolgopher (1157) on Friday March 05 2021, @11:12PM (#1120586)

          Last time I checked the chatter from my (now very much end-of-life) Windows Phone, it seemed to do very little untoward.

          The "do no evil" company really has worked hard to overtake the "evil empire"...

        • (Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Saturday March 06 2021, @02:50AM

          by Thexalon (636) on Saturday March 06 2021, @02:50AM (#1120661)

          Details on what Google is polling can be found in a report by a Vanderbilt University Team [digitalcontentnext.org].

          --
          The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Subsentient on Friday March 05 2021, @07:44PM (7 children)

    by Subsentient (1111) on Friday March 05 2021, @07:44PM (#1120487) Homepage Journal

    I'll stick with my PinePhone, which runs regular old Fedora Linux with XFCE, just like every other computer I own. It's so liberating to have a real PC in your pocket, and lately the stability is getting quite usable.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by NPC-131072 on Friday March 05 2021, @08:19PM (2 children)

      by NPC-131072 (7144) on Friday March 05 2021, @08:19PM (#1120501) Journal

      It's so liberating to have a real PC in your pocket

      Don't people assume you're just happy to see them?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:17PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:17PM (#1120542)

        Old nerds? Everyone just assumes the bulge is a bunch of bootable Linux sticks. Because that’s what gets them hard. And they keep trying to convince you to let them slip one in your port. Even after you remind them of how disappointing and inadequate your experience was the last time … and the time before that … and the time before THAT.

        • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Saturday March 06 2021, @12:15AM

          by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 06 2021, @12:15AM (#1120616)

          "Old nerds" "bootable Linux sticks"

          Sheesh, that ain't old, that be youngsters (on my damn lawn).

          Bootable floppies, couple of boxes full (ok, only the first is bootable...), now you're gettin warm, and closer to old nerd.

          Make them 5.25 and you're into the old (and yes, I've done Linux on 5.25 for machines that didn't have 3.5s).

          But to do "old nerd" properly you need 8 inches and none of this new-fangled Linux rubbish, and you make sure you insert those 8 inches with the requisite care and attention, not just banging stuff into any port like the youth of today, not even caring which way up things go and heaven help them if they needed to use write protection...

    • (Score: 2) by Tork on Friday March 05 2021, @08:38PM (3 children)

      by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 05 2021, @08:38PM (#1120520)
      What unique abilities do you get with a phone like that? I played with a first gen Zaurus yonks ago and thought it was neat but the form factor was so different from the computers of the era it was hard to imagine what I'd be doing where running the same code on both made a big diff. That was around... oh I wanna say 2003 and things are quite different now... like working with real resolutions now.

      It's something I found fascinating just couldn't find a killer use-case for it.
      --
      🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Subsentient on Saturday March 06 2021, @02:45AM (2 children)

        by Subsentient (1111) on Saturday March 06 2021, @02:45AM (#1120659) Homepage Journal

        Big thing is I get to use whatever I can use on Linux, and that is such useful things as:
        * sshfs connected to my server's network drive
        * rsync/sftp for moving between local machines over wifi
        * real desktop Firefox with all the extensions and quality adblockers
        * Pithos for Pandora music without the bloated webpage
        * All my development stuff, including a full copy of my preferred IDE Geany, so if I get stranded on an island, I can still write code in any language I know.
        * connect it to a type-C dock and use it as a desktop in a pinch
        * root filesystem can either be on the 16GB SSD or the SD card. Mine boots from a 128GB Btrfs + zstd compressed SD card.
        * I get SMS through a Pidgin plugin, along with all my other chat services, except I use HexChat for IRC.
        * Fully featured Thunderbird so I can use a real email client
        * I can even compile and run Warzone 2100 [wz2100.net], my favorite game on Earth of which I've wasted literal years of my life, but which otherwise only runs on a real PC.
        It's good stuff.

        --
        "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
        • (Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday March 06 2021, @03:27AM

          by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 06 2021, @03:27AM (#1120682)
          Very helpful, thank you!
          --
          🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
        • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday March 08 2021, @12:05AM

          by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 08 2021, @12:05AM (#1121212) Homepage Journal

          You've summed up the reasons I want to have a Linux phone.
          What holds me back is wondering whether two specific features are easily usable.

          For good or ill, my children have decided to do all in-family communication using Facebook chat. Without something compatible I'm cut off from family news. Now the Facebook Lite available on Android works fine, and gives me noticeable notifications -- ones I can find out about easily when the phone buzzes.

          Now Facebook will run on a browser, and will even do Facebook chat. (I know -- I use it on my Linux-only laptop). But notifications aren't very noticeable -- they re silent and I have to decide to look for them to see if there's anything new.

          Is there any way to get noticeable notifications for incoming messages on Facebook (or Facebook Lite?) Or some surrogate that will interface well with Facebook chat?

          Similarly with Google Calendar. It doesn't have to be Google Calendar itself -- just something that will interoperate well and notify well.

          -- hendrik

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @08:17PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @08:17PM (#1120500)

    ’ What costs way more than a used iPhone that still gets manufacturer updates and works with the Apple Store? A used Samsung S9 with /e/ that doesn’t work with the Google play store or most apps.

    What a waste of money to be Google-free. A used iPhone is cheaper and it just works with apps, no screwing around.

    • (Score: 2) by Tork on Friday March 05 2021, @08:42PM (3 children)

      by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 05 2021, @08:42PM (#1120523)
      Hi, Apple user here that almost agrees with you.. but only because my life in a state where I need my phone to be an appliance and NOT a PC. I think you're being bit short-sighted about who the target audience is for this.
      --
      🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:10PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:10PM (#1120539)

        The target audience here is people who get that Google rapes their data (though they still use Google stuff), hated Microsoft (but still use windows quite often) and can’t bring themselves to admit that Apple is the best option because it’s not open source, even though open source now has as many security flaws as closed source.

        Fanaticism - the one ring that joins them, binds them, and blinds them.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @07:32AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @07:32AM (#1120724)

          Apple insralled contract tracing crap too. I doubt they are one butt less rapey than google.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @09:42PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @09:42PM (#1120874)
            Blame that on whatever middleman you bought it from on contact. Even cars bought on broken-arm-finance-co contracts now come with trackers and remote engine disablers. But it outright, you own it, no phone company tracking.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday March 05 2021, @08:41PM (5 children)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Friday March 05 2021, @08:41PM (#1120522)

    /e/ doesn't search well (e.g. try typing it into url bar). Fail at step 1.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:21PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:21PM (#1120545)
      You’re typing it wrong. Try /e/ phone is.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:23PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:23PM (#1120546)
        And yes, “/e/ phone is” is not a typo. Works just fine. Gotta love search engines that come with their own quirks mode.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:54PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 05 2021, @09:54PM (#1120556)

          You can blame Google for that, before Google search engines tried to understand what they were indexing, Google didn't bother implementing a bunch of stuff in order to be fast. It can be an absolute nightmare to find search terms that are just near each other. And God help you if you're looking up things in a range of software versions.

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 06 2021, @12:47AM (1 child)

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday March 06 2021, @12:47AM (#1120626) Journal

          I did "wikipedia /e/ os", which tells you what it is and links to e.foundation [e.foundation].

          "wikipedia /e/" brings up the same article at the bottom of the first page of search results instead of the top.

          The name is a complete disaster (it used to be called "Eelo" which would at least be searchable). But if they can preload it onto phones, they can target the users who would never search for it anyway.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @09:44PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @09:44PM (#1120876)
            When I think of e, I think of the Enlightenment Desktop UI.
  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 05 2021, @11:55PM (1 child)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday March 05 2021, @11:55PM (#1120603) Journal

    I'm in the market for a new-ish phone, currently with my sights set on the Pixel 4a (except now I hear there's a 5a coming soon?) specifically for its LOS-friendliness. No doubt the 5a will get it as well, but my old Moto C is really starting to crack up and is on the LineageOS equivalent of Android 7.1.2 with no further updates possible. How is /e/OS by comparison?

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
  • (Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Saturday March 06 2021, @04:09PM (1 child)

    by Dr Spin (5239) on Saturday March 06 2021, @04:09PM (#1120815)

    Using the commonest letter of the alphabet guarantees it will be completely impossible to conduct an internet search for anything related to it, thus guaranteeing obscurity and an early death.

    By now it should be obvious that the key to open source software success is to name it "Rancid Robot", "Morbid Manatee" or any other pair of obscure and unrelated words.

    --
    Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @09:48PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 06 2021, @09:48PM (#1120879)
      Surprised they didn’t name it after the most common character - a space. Python people would love it, everyone else would hate it.
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