/e/ (formerly Eelo) first beta is here and it supports FP2!

I just saw the news, I haven’t tested yet !
/e/ beta presentation here, official site here and installation guide for the FP2 here :tada:

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It’s basically a Lineage OS 14.1 fork with microg, no app store (own store will follow, instead of just using F-Droid) and a very googly looking launcher.

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There is also an e-mail client (derived from K9-Mail with OAuth support) and an account manager in this beta.
It seems to me that the purpose of /e/ is to provide an user friendly OS without any google services (with integration of Nextcloud apps, Signal, etc…).
It’s always interesting to see new projects appear to go without google !

If you speak french, you can read this interview in which the /e/ team explains the project they try to achieve with this OS.

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(Linking this with the older thread: Eelo may become a new OS for the FP )

I totally agree with @paulakreuzer’s comment above.

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If you’re used to Lineage OS or Fairphone Open, then it’s quite easy to get into the /e/ world… I think the idea is quite nice - the launcher is pretty iOS like (my girlfriend will like it :wink:).
Also for a Beta it’s quite smooth already… They will ship updates on a daily basis for the beta phase.

And yeah… the idea is just, to create a open source ecosystem (that one could host for oneself), that provides similar benefits as Google / Apple do.

I installed the beta and will follow the updates!

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To me it sounds like he’s bringing to the mobile world what’s already normal in the (linux) desktop world: a distro that builds on top of another distro in order to be more user-friendly than the one it’s based on. Think Debian and Ubuntu :wink:

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But as far as I understand the Version for Fairphone is still Android 7? Did you use Lineage before? Whats the difference to Lineage+microg apart from design and some apps?

The annotations on incoming messages on launchers home screen which - as far as i could observe - is only available from Lineage 15.1 on. But seems like it’s available in /e/ as it is in iOS.

Yeah… /e/ is currently Lineage OS 14.1 -> Android 7, they’re porting to 15.1 at the moment.

Afaik, there’s also some other code left in Lineage and so on, that might sync with Google.
/e/ tries to remove all those parts (like the well known issues with leaking location data and so on…). They even aim to use 1.1.1.1 or 9.9.9.9 as DNS instead of 8.8.8.8.

Another aim is to provide an OS that one wants to use (UI and UX should be great). With a whole ecosystem, that’s datasniffing free - e-mails, search, storage, appstore,…

Big aim is to get a real alternative to iOS / Android… but yeah - we’ll see…

and @Ingo yeah… I see your point - but… I guess that’s already happening anyway I think…

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I hope they will, but I’m a bit sceptical about how serious they are taking it since the beta version includes a proprietary maps app instead of say OSMand.
Also I doubt that their F-Droid fork will only include bonafied FLOSS like F-Droid does since they say it will include 60,000 apps.

It’s a little thing, but if they manage to do that and don’t include more proprietary stuff in their OS than Lineage I’ll switch over (and first thing I’ll do is install a different launcher). Currently I’m blocking all G%$&e domains and 8.8.8.8. via hosts file (Adaway). Because of that I have to block all “This Wifi has no internet connection” notifications and I even ban the Wifi and mobile network symbols from the status bar. Instead I’m using orbot’s onion symbol to indicate whether I have a working internet connection or not.

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I actually think the main focus is not specifically on FOSS (though they try very hard to stay FOSS regarding preinstalled apps), but the main focus will be privacy and UX.
So for me this meant for example, that a (not yet) open source Maps App that respects privacy very well and provides good UX got the shot.

They said they aim to remove all Google targeted traffic -> the ask the people to sniff their traffic to find holes that might still be left.
DNS seems to be somewhat tricky, but it’s definitely a todo.

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is a contradictio in se.

If you can’t open [your privacy] you don’t own it.

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some of the questions are also answered by the project maintainer over here: https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/wiki/en/wikis/faq

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Still, is 1.1 1 1 or 9.9.9.9 better? As far as i can tell it’s still an American DNS provider?
It would be better to be able to specify your own choose of provider, if you’re going that extra mile…

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11 posts were split to a new topic: Cloudflare and tor

Is it working fine at the moment?

yeah - some minor bugs here and there, it’s still a beta… but in general it’s surprisingly stable.

It’s based on rock-solid ground (i.e. Lineage OS 14.1).

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What bugs are you thinking about ?

I tested /e/ today :smile:

My first impressions:

  • The installation is really easy, if TWRP is already installed it’s just:
    (1) Wipe data/cache/system and (2) flash the .ZIP :slight_smile:
  • Similar philosophy as Lineage+MicroG but with a different look and no F-Droid store by default…
  • Telegram is installed by default :arrow_forward:
  • Signal is installed by default in place of the regular SMS! I didn’t find the way to revert to regular SMS for those that doesn’t have 4G always enabled…
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