Android 5 Lollipop enhancements explained on lifehacker.com - i guess a custom launcher would damage the experience. I looks nice.
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voted for option 1
but there should really be an sub option here that says crap or bloatware freeā¦
most phones come with blaotware you cant get rid off without loading a hacked rom, if you can get one for your phone
and should we not have the right to have a very basic phone to start with and then load what we want?
ie out the box it should only be able to do calls, text, mms and then the play store
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Bloatware free yes - play store no. Because if there is the Play Store, there is Google and all the Evil which comes with it.
well just becuase the play store icon is there does not mean the user have
to use itā¦ but yes when its first luanched the bloatware comes in
a number of users whoāre not as tech-savvy as those posting here might not know that āCyanogenmodā actually is based on Android. Those users might be afraid to not be able to use their favorite (and paid) apps on an OS with such āweirdā, unknown name, and thus go for option 1.
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As much as I stand sympathetic to the āopen sourceā choice, Iāve become quite dependent on Android apps over the years. And Iām sure a majority of other straightforward users are in the same position. My years of experimenting and playing with devices (even building my own in some cases), are well behind me. I now wish to buy a device that works. And that works in a familiar way, w/o having to find out where all the buttons and dials are and what the you-know-what- they are ment to do. So yesā¦ keep supporting official android releasesā¦ please 
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So this is my opinion. I would like to see phones as an open piece of hardware, just as computers are.
Where YOU as a user can decide what OS to run.
If I want the latest Android, I install that. If I want Ubuntu Touch, or Firefox OS, hell, or even Windows 10.
The Fairphone company could deliver a default OS, like Android ONE. So it can focus more on other stuff, than the OS.
As far as I read from Android ONE, is that the Fairphone company does not have to worry about the release cycle of the OS anymore, and users can choose to follow the latest update.
I am totally FOR Open the open culture, however we have to acknowledge there is an existing user community, who have iphone and android apps. If you want them to come over, we have to incorporate some things. Like the huge ammounts of apps other platforms have. So. Android is Open Source, what is against that?
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Did you read the last sentence, right by the asterisk? It says: [quote=āwww.android.com/oneā]Receives automatic Android updates for up to 2 years.[/quote]
FP should be more! 2 years is as long as any other convential smart phone works. I am aiming to use my FP for 4 years or longer.
In that sense, Android One is not much different from the Nexus line of products.
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Itās different in that it is supposed to run on devices built and marketed by manufacturers and not by Google itself. There is only so many Nexus devices. However any manufacturer can possible build and sell AndroidOne devices.
Applied to our case: Fairphone is not a Nexus device and no future version of it will be. But future versions of Fairphone could be AndroidOne devices.
It would be great, if Fairphone worked with Sailfish OS or if FP created a new independant, open source OS that wants to protect the privacy. Privacy is also a human right.
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I think two years of mayor OS updates is pretty fair, on the prerequisite that the OS is up to date when the phone is released. It is about as long as Nexus devices get updated (some get longer more updates, the promise by Google for Nexus is 18 months). I know it is still is not ideal, iPhones typically get 3years (the iPhone 4s, released in 10.2011 got iOS 8.1 in 10.2014). However in the Android World 2 years is very much an exception.
Itās all about choice.
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I think, in the Android Ecosystem, there are great OpenSource Projects that ensure Security and good App support, like:
- CyanogenMod
- ParanoidAndroid
- F-Droid + Replicant
- OmniROM
Anyone who wants to stay free of Google can do so using these Options, everybody else can install GAPPS if needed.
I would be happy to try other Options like Firefox or Sailfish as well, but I think as we donāt have the MTK drivers and usually want to have good App choice, Android would be the best.
My personal Preference would be Cyanogenmod (+ a Fairphone branding, since I think the CM mascot is just horribly ugly 
).
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I dream about an ubuntu fairphone!
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āAndorid basedā includes for me AOSP as well.
An important step along the road to being fair is being fair to the user of the phone. Shipping with Firefox OS or Ubuntu would make a much clearer statement in line with Fairphoneās principles than Android. I donāt mind the Fairphone shipping with Android too much, as long as it is possible to install a Free/Libre Open Source operating system in its place.
It felt somewhat mocking to read the āIf you canāt open it, you donāt own itā postcard which came with my Fairphone, knowing that the device was forcing me to use Google products. I certainly donāt āownā the software - it spies on me, and I have no choice in the matter as long as I continue to use this phone (I did try using the Fairphone without Google Play for more than a month, with all sorts of difficulties, and finally relented).
I donāt experience problems without Google apps. I even think that I run into less issues because there is nothing digging as deep into the system as Google Services.
This phone not being supported by Cyanogen is one reason for me to not buy it. Sustainabillity is not only about hardware.
I donāt use search, gmail, youtube, plus etc, but I found there were a lot of times when I couldnāt find what I needed in F-Droid, or I couldnāt use GPS properly with OSM etc unless I installed it via Google Play. I canāt remember specifically what other problems I was having and I donāt know whether they were related to earlier Fairphone updates or the lack of google services. Maybe I should try again.