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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: 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...