Sooo I’m on the fence here. My youngest kid is going to get his big brother’s Fairphone 3 and I’m going to pass my Fairphone 4 to this one, so I’m looking to buy a Fairphone 6.
Thing is, i’m going back and forth between the regular version and the e/os version. e/os is unavailable in the shop for now so that leaves me a bit of time to think. I was pretty sure I was going with e/os because I’m fed up with all the GAFAs and I’d be happy to cut the chord with Google and american laws (frenchie here).
BUT I’m really a virgin when it comes to step out of regular boundaries AND I still have the entire GAFA ecosystem on my Samsung Tablet and on my PC, so I’m wondering if it’s worth it having only my phone more or less disconnected with the rest. Most of the user feedback I read is from people who already cut off most of these things.
Also, it’s a bit annoying to get the new Fairphone and not being able to use that big yellow button.
So, I don’t know, I’m looking for opinions, I guess, waiting for the argument that will make me tip one way or the other.
Which Apps you are using have to really, really work nearly 100% for you, and aren’t allowed to have any trouble working for … let’s say weeks?
Anything crucial? Work? Health?
Once those are identified, we would have to look at whether they are Google-dependent, which most Apps are to various extent.
Google-dependence of crucial Apps would disqualify /e/OS because it can’t guarantee compatibility at any point in time. Might work anytime, might break anytime, for any amount of time.
Well I’m using Family Link a lot to manage my kids’ screen time. Waze when we take the car. And I have like three different gmail adresses linked to my two jobs which I need to be able to answer on the fly. Aside from that… there’s Deezer, the bank app which seems to be supported by e/os. I think I could manage Instagram and Facebook only on my tablet (I’m also community manager for the theater I work in, that’s the main reason I still have those).
But as for work, what I have on my Samsung Tab would be enough I guess.
Thanks for your answer.
(But yeah, my main fear is that I often need to be reactive)
/e/OS comes with Magic Earth … question would be if it suffices as a replacement for a while in case Waze might not work for a while.
Could be tested in advance … https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.generalmagic.magicearth&hl=en … users also like some Open Source maps or navigation Apps, but they don’t have any kind of live traffic data (yet).
/e/OS doesn’t “support” banking Apps, or any Google-dependent Apps for that matter. /e/OS does its best (and this is a pretty good job overall so far) to somehow make them work without all the genuine Google Apps and background services on the phone, but this has technical limits, especially with notoriously Custom ROM-unfriendly banking Apps … they might work at a certain point in time … or not.
I guess you are aware of these points, but anyway just to make sure:
The Fairphone 6 with /e/OS pre-installed is available both at Fairphone as well as at Murena (the company that develops and maintains /e/OS)
It is possible to switch a Fairphone from /e/OS to Fairphone’s “Android OS” (and vice versa) by the owner/user himself – but you might want to seek assistance for that if you feel uncomfortable or insecure with doing so. And depending on where you bought it, customer support can demand to restore the original operating system if you seek their support.
Thanks. Yes, I see that Murena still has some in stock, but I want to go through Fairphone to work through my Keep Score and stuff.
And yes, I’m more of a “chose your environment and then stick to it” kind of guy than a “let’s try to hack my own phone” guy.
And thanks also to @AnotherElk for his feedback. I said my bank app is supported because it’s listed in the “compatible” apps I found somewhere (here I think). What about contacts ? Would they be easy to get back from my Android Fairphone 4 if I chose e/os ?
Maybe so, there’s also [LIST] Banking Apps on /e/OS - Lists - /e/OS community, and there’s also “Compatible with all apps” … problem is, the former is always just a snapshot in time, or perhaps several snapshots over time if users don’t edit the Wiki table like they are supposed to but just post their findings randomly into the topic … those Apps can break on /e/OS anytime nonetheless. And the latter compatibility claim is just plain marketing.
Technical reality neither cares about any list nor about any marketing.
I’m using /e/OS for years now, I like it very much, it suits my needs, but I’m aware of the limitations. More awareness is needed to make informed choices.
Rightly so.
This can happen on /e/OS with any Google-dependent App (even if most are running fine on /e/OS so far, but there’s just no guarantee), and with any App not keen on running on any Android Custom ROM (including most banking Apps).
So a thorough check of Apps and personal use cases is always in order before making the switch.
And the update of this week solve this problem so… Yes of course it’s not 100% perfect but for me, for my usage, because my bank works, it works perfectly well, especially with this new update 3.1.2
It isn’t for you, it isn’t for me, but it might be very different for others, and this is exactly the question that can only be answered individually, and ideally not without some problem awareness.
If it is a work phone and crucial Apps for work are broken suddenly … if crucial health Apps are required to work and suddenly don’t … this is very serious, and anybody might deem anything crucial individually.
There will always be bugs (be glad 3.1.2 let’s you use your SIM card, not every FP6 user is so lucky currently), but Google-dependent Apps and banking Apps breaking on /e/OS is not bugs, the risk of this happening is conceptually inherent if you really look at how /e/OS works. It can’t be any other way as long as the Apps themselves don’t drop their Google dependencies and/or Custom ROM paranoia.
After consideration I also have doubts about some apps that I didn’t flag the first time because I use them without thinking, but that could be very annoying if they stop working. I’m thinking Yespark, which opens the door to my garage… that one could be a bore!
On the other hand I think it’s most of all a political act and maybe I shouldn’t overthink it… argh.
To me, the big problem with /e/OS, is the notification because Advanced Privacy block trackers like Batch, Wonderpush etc… and th’at blocks notification. So it’s easy in app to accept this trackers but for other apps, sometimes is not Batch, Wonderpush so idk which trackers to accept to receive notifications.
Yeah, I ended up ordering the regular FP6. I might switch to e/os in the future, I’m still curious, but for now it’s too complicated for me, alas, to get rid of the entire Android ecosystem (in a reliable way, I mean).
