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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 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 🏳️‍🌈
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  • (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.