Why are there multiple OSes available what is the best option

I got my fairphone yesterday after deciding to retire my 5 year old HTC Desire (yes where there is a will there is a way - to resist the advertising sharks). To be honest I was unimpressed with the OS, it’s like stuff is hidden, I mean it’s a phone right ? it’s main function is to make a phone call, how do I do that ??? ok found it eventually but seriously unless i put the “phone app” on my desktop I can’t easily make a call and I’d hope that if someone needed to use my phone in an emergency say if I was unconcious it should be obvious enough to make a call…

Anyway, I found this app called Fairphone updater, I’ve updated to version 1.6 (from 1.5) but see that there is version 1.7 and 1.8 available, I can also install “stock” android.

Can someone explain the pros and cons of the various options, what is stock android ? is it any more user friendly (I never needed to ask for help on my old HTC Desire)

I think this is the purpose of a so called shortcut, namely to easily find a feature you are looking for.

The difference between Fairphone OS and stock Android basically is that you won’t get updates if you are on stock Android. Also Fairphone OS comes with some nice little features like the Most Used/Last Used widget, the Peace of Mind widget and Edge swipe (swipe in from the edge of your screen). You can also edit Edge Swipe to place e.g. the Phone app there.

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You can also swipe from the right side of the screen horizontally to get to “Qucik Access”. Here is a description how to edit wich Apps are available in Quick Access.

Hello and welcome at the Fairphone community.

There a two parts of Android OS available for the Fairphone. The first is “pure Android” with no modifications made by Fairphone (the Company) the other one is Fairphone OS this is a lightly modified Android Version witch is supportet by the company Fairphone. In general you should use the Fairphone OS.

Version 1.6 of Fairphone OS is the one you should use at the moment. 1.7 was just a test Version preinstalles on a view devices. I am verry happy with version 1.8 but the updateprocess from 1.6 to 1.8 was a little problematic, so Fairphone decided to postpone the Update while they are fixing the Problems with the Update process.

If you don’t like the Launcher because thinks are hidden you might be interested in this Topic.

regards,
Shiny

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OK sounds like I should stick with 1.6 for now. Annoyingly I had to set up google again on the new OS, does changing OS affect apps most of is it more about the “skin” at the end of the day I think we are talking about a core version of linux with a smartphone interface on top and suitable added programs and “apps”.

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Upgrading the OS doesn’t affect most user Apps but all System Apps are erased and reinstalled with the Update. Google Apps are somehow different and since the Fairphone OS doesn’t come with Google Apps preinstalled it’s not always easy to reinstall them.
I myself don’t have Google Apps so I can’t tell you much about it but if you search the forum there are many posts about problems reinstalling Google Services.

Well I am only just finding out that google is not the only option, I have no idea what the implications are (ethical ?) as my last phone came with it preinstalled as it was an ex contract phone so was running google and some of the original carriers apps that I could not remove.

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The think with the google Apps is, that Fairphone users are very special.
Some of them don’t wand to have anything to do with google (except Android itself), thats why the google Apps are not part of the OS and you have to install it after installing the OS.

Normal Apps shouldn’t be affected by Updating but the google Apps witch are not part of the System but act like a part of the System (and affect your system very deeply) are a special case.

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That is an interesting thought. The look screen usually offers a simply enough way to make a call to emergency services (works with locked phone and sim as well).

This is no different then with the Fairphone, other that the Launcher from the Fairphone is optimized to safe screen space. I suggest you use a different launcher, if you do not like the current experience. If you install the launcher Launcher3 from F-droid (see Android Launchers for other recommendations) for example your phone will behave more like the traditional android phones do AND you won’t loose all the useful additions from Fairphone. For illustrations: My Fairphone Home Screen with (1) Fairphone Launcher (Fairphone OS v2) and (2) Launcher3:

I have been running my phone without the Google Apps for about a year and was not missing much. Compared to Android, the Google Apps are not open source. They install themselves deeply into the system and of course, they use valuable processing resources. I finally installed GApps because of some Apps like DB-Navigator or WhatsApp i find very useful.

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As I said Fairphoe and Fairphoners are special. Google collects many Data of you and your usage and many people don’t like that. So they don’t want to use google. The problem is the using google services make the work with Andoid easier and some Apps won’t work without the google services. So other people don’t care about it and simply install the google services. A third party like me is someware at the middle. I installed the google services and deinstalled App by App everything of it that I didn’t want to use and restricted everything thats left to the rights they need. Thats more work but gives the best balance to me.

You just have to chose your way.

regards,
Shiny

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There is a whole Topic on how to use the Fairphone without Google.

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