Let me just give you a table with all choices and which of your requirements they fit.
In the table below:
- Stock refers to the OS preinstalled on the FP3+ by Fairphone
- /e/ refers to /e/OS
- Lineage refers to Lineage without anything added
- Lineage (microG) refers to LineageOS for microG
- Lineage (GPlay) refers to LineageOS with Google Play manually added
- Ubuntu Touch refers to, well, Ubuntu Touch
- Y = Yes
- M = Mostly
- B = Barely
- N = No
| Stock | /e/ | Lineage | Lineage (microG) | Lineage (GPlay) | Ubuntu Touch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stable | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | M |
| Google-free | N | M (1) | Y | M (1) | N | Y |
| Hostile app compat (5) | Y | B (2) | B | B (2) | M | N (4) |
| Paid apps | Y | N (3) | N (3) | N (3) | Y | N (4) |
(1) microG is an Open Source reimplementation of Google Play Services. It will track you much less, but to work it will sometimes have to talk to Google servers. It therefore will give Google some ability to track you.
(2) While microG is pretty amazing at what it does, it is not a bug-for-bug-compatible reimplementation of Google Play Services and some Android apps depending on Google Play Services won’t work. Which apps those are, well, “it depends”.
(3) Paid apps are a no-go outside of the Google Play Store because of Google’s license verification system. You will have to sacrifice this (with the exception of a very small amount of apps having other ways to pay like FairEmail).
(4) Ubuntu Touch is not Android-based and cannot really run any Android apps (at least not easily, some may work under Anbox). As we speak I do not know of any paid apps for Ubuntu Touch.
(5) I have called “Compatible with important android apps like my banking app, paypal etc.” “Hostile app compat” as these applications tend to be much more strict as to where you are allowed to run them. You know, “for your safety”. I have been luckily with my banking apps (Rabobank Netherlands, ING Bank Netherlands and PayPal run fine) but not everyone is so lucky and they can break at any moment.
Hope this helps! 