Finalising the setup wizard without consenting to Google's TOS

[AnotherElk]

@WhyNotHugo

it’s unclear why they made their fork

Subjective.

@AnotherElk

LineageOS will not allow the pre-integration of microG in the way /e/OS or LineageOS for microG (another fork) do it.

LineageOS will not take further degoogling steps like /e/OS does. It’s not their priority and not why they exist. And it keeps LineageOS compatible with the genuine Google Apps and services, e.g. via installing Open GApps.

And then the e foundation sells phones with /e/OS on them. When doing this, you’d better have some non-volunteer developers at hand and full control over the OS you use.

---

@WhyNotHugo

The advertise themselves as a de-googled Android, but seem to mostly be a closed-source LineageOS fork (though they somehow don’t present themselves as this?).

“The /e/ ROM is a fork of Android and in particular the LineageOS flavor of Android.”
(https://doc.e.foundation/what-s-e)

“/e/ is forked from LineageOS.”
(https://doc.e.foundation/support-topics/about-e#is-e-a-combination-of-lineageos-and-microg)

@WhyNotHugo

nor why they decided to make it closed source

What is the “it” you are referring to?

“Is /e/ open source? Yes - all source code is available on our /e/ Gitlab. You can compile or fork it. Some prebuilt applications are used in the system. They are built separately from source code available here or synced from open source repositories such as F-Droid. We ship one proprietary application though (read the statement).”

(https://doc.e.foundation/support-topics/about-e#is-e-open-source)

@WhyNotHugo

nor in what specific ways they diverge from LineageOS.

https://doc.e.foundation/support-topics/about-e#is-e-a-combination-of-lineageos-and-microg

https://doc.e.foundation/what-s-e → https://e.foundation/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/e-state-of-degooglisation.pdf

@WhyNotHugo

Honestly, they sound pretty shady.

You’d better not let me choose a side .