Hi @gcrl great to hear that we both agree we’d like a complete de-googled, privacy respecting OS on our Fairphone 
However, Fairphones objectives are about fairness for the workers in the supply chain and minimising environmental impact. That’s what they are experts at, that’s where they add value and that’s what I think they should continue to focus on.
I do not want Fairphone to develop in-house an alternative, de-Googled OS, because there are plenty of options already available from organisations which are specialists at this. Fairphone should pick the one which is closest to their ideals and partner with them; I’m sure it will end up as a win-win for both.
@JeroenH NixOS looks interesting, thanks for the links they were good to read. Unfortunately is it not yet ready for use buy the general public (and would still need a UX/DE like Unity or Plasma Mobile anyway). However, I strongly hope that pmOS can get get decent support on the FP3. The holy grail would be everything supported in mainline, but I know that’s not realistic.
However there is much more to /e/ than you give them credit for. They differ from LineageOS in many ways, such as:
- It is LineageOS + MicroG + even more degoogling. LineageOS is not really about degoogling, it’s just a custom ROM. MicroG replaces Google Play Services. /e/ has gone even further and removed every last bit of communication with Google that it can find (e.g. the built-in DNS, NTP servers, IIRC).
- It’s aim is to be user-friendly, accessible to the vast majority of the general public, not only tech-enthusiasts etc. They still have some way to go on this, however.
- They provide online services too, because degoogling is more than just removing Google from the OS, people need privacy respecting cloud service alternatives as well. Whilst some people with the technical capability may be happy to self-host, e/e recognise that the vast majority of people have no interest in this, but still want privacy respecting email, calendar, storage, etc. IMO these services are a major differentiator and improvement over LineageOS, FPOOS, or any other custom ROM.
There is the one proprietary app, Magic Earth I think. I don’t know why they include it as there are totally adequate FLOSS alternatives available, e.g. Maps on F-Droid is a maintained fork of Maps.me, which is itself open source anyway. A lot of the design decisions come down to the preferences of Gael (like the iOS-like Bliss launcher) so maybe he just likes Magic Earth and wants to continue using it.
Anyway, one proprietary app is nothing compared to what is in LineageOS, IIRC.
In my mind, if you’re technically capable, LineageOS might be of interest to you, but to me /e/ provides so much more that LineageOS isn’t worth considering anymore.
Cheers