I know microG will remain pre-installed after v1.0. but this may change in the future, and still it seems that it can be disabled as per user needs easily (as per their community forums).
LineageOS is definitely more popular, but runs on volunteer effort which means support for any given device may stop overnight and without prior notice. This happened to me twice already.
This is just my opinion, but if /e/ can prove they are up to the task, as a company I would put my trust (and money) in them rather than a project like LineageOS. Specially if they can focus on maintaining fewer devices if they find a hardware manufacturer like Fairphone I really hope this happens!
Well maybe but if LineageOS drops support for a given device /e/ could still maintain it, but I suspect that using their codebase is a way to get things up and running quickly. In any case, I’ve been doing some reading about Open OS and it sounds like is already Google-free, isn’t that what /e/ is trying to achieve? Does OS work only with Fairphone or is it portable to other devices as well?
If LineageOS drops a device (as they do very often, especially when they decide to move to a new Android version!) then /e/ will usually continue to maintain it. For example, LineageOS moved on from Nougat, to Oreo and then Pie; /e/'s main base is Oreo and they are prototyping Pie, and all the Nougat devices are still maintained as well. This because they don’t see the Android version as critical to providing /e/ OS (which I agree with). Ultimately they say they will move away from being based on LineageOS and this is certainly true now for Nougat-based devices as they are not maintained by LineageOS anymore AFAIK. Whether or not they will support new devices which LineageOS doesn’t support is another question which we have yet to find the answer to.
However, /e/ is not very clear about which devices are officially supported and which are community supported. The vast majority are community supported but are built on /e/ infrastructure and updates deployed to phones automatically, so from an end user perspective there is no difference.
FIVE percent only, gosh…
At least, let’s see things positively : I now understand the feeling of being myself “part of the 5%” too
Still this is the full market for a company like Purism, that alone should be worth raising attention in Fairphone!
P. S. this is not an ad for Purism : just compare the specs, FP3 beats them hands down on almost every line…
Well, look at it the other way: Fairphone has the potential for the mass market, as people buy it like other android phones. It’s not only a geek’s phone…
And also, you still can root it and use ad blockers and firewalls to reign it in. There are reasons why you e.g. need the play store
The community is generally aware of Purism. Purism has different design goals and primary ideals than Fairphone (the Librem 5 is not a fairly made smartphone). I take my hat off to both companies, as I can see the value in both, and both deliver a unique product for a niche I find valuable.
Btw that percentage doesn’t include the people who also use a different OS such as SailfishOS or LineageOS + microG or Ubuntu Touch or /e/.
Hopefully they will work on alternatives for the new FP3 without Google Services! Notice, if you have no control over the data which are passed to google, it’s not a 100% ethical phone anymore. So please keep on working on an alternative!
Unfortunately it’s not even close to 100% ethical even if you disregard the software. Have e.g. a look at the list of suppliers. There you’ll see that only a small percentage of the suppliers is working together with Fairphone on one of the supplier engagement initiatives.
There is a similar picture for the materials. Only a hand full of metals are sourced responsibly for the Fairphone. Fairphone identified the ones that are most impactful and started working on them, but there are conflicts and shortcomings with other materials. It’s a long way to go still.
As for the software: We know that Fairphone Open is “on the roadmap”, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are already working on it. Also I’m sure the community will port various alternative OSes soon. You’ll find them in the oslist when they are ready for use.
F-Droid is an alternative, but it is not perfect, indeed (I would argue Play Store also misses things F-Droid does have).
If all you need is a viewer, then LibreOffice Viewer | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository should be suffice. If you need to edit Office documents, I’m not sure it is a good idea to do that on a smartphone but you are right that there is no full office suite available on F-Droid.
I already use some of their products and I find the project very interesting.
I have already done a post on the other thread and but I repeat my point of view here:
I’m really looking for a phone done FOR the people: for the people who work and create it, the people who use it.
I think should be considered as a whole project pattern.
Why is so difficult to find a product like this?
Fairphone is unique in the vision:
I’d rather have half the guarantee and a chance to own my phone, from the root password up (you heard, “If you don’t have a root password, someone else does.”).
I’m sure there will be a product that will fulfill all these wishes.
I would like it to be FP3 .
Does anybody know, whether VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is/was working with Fairphone Open OS (or e.g. Lineage OS, Ubuntu) for the “old” FP2?
And whether it is expected to be working on e.g. Fairphone Open OS for the “new” FP3?
This is because VoLTE is not implemented in the AOSP and that should be done by phone manufacturers or someone else. Usually with Lineage OS VoLTE is not working.
Without VoLTE working on the FP3 with an Open OS it is not interesting for me. But I would be sorry about that.
I really hope this happens!
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