SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday March 08 2021, @12:05AM
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