Indeed, it’s obvious for Fairphone itself (and you) to choose an unfair Os (In therm of privacy)
But it’s not obvious for a lot of people in the community (including me). You could notice so much involvement in the poll you published which demonstrate the interest for a fairOS.
it would be obvious to choose GoogleOs if it would be the only Android Os in the world but it is not.
As you know, there is at least one credible and stable alternative to GoogleOs named LineageOs + microG which is an Os compatible with Android Apps market. So it is technically not obvious to understand why Fairphone didn’t choose a FairOS.
Thank you for all these links but I’m sorry, as long as the forum is hosted by Fairphone, they are responsible of what it is happening there, and they have to manage it, I mean, they have the last word.
Technically, it must have at least one person from Fairphone itself to operate on this Forum at least to install, secure and maintain it. The access to the storage to install the forum cannot be given to a random person: it is not secure.
What’s that supposed to mean? I’m pretty much known as the chief-Google-hater in this forum.
Most people want a well known OS on their phone. Fairphone is already in a fringe market, having a finge OS won’t do them any good.
Theoretically it would be possible to pre-install a different OS and give those who want Google Android the option to install that afterwards, or even to give users different OS options when they order, but 1. that would mean FP would have to maintain one more OS as I can’t imagine that the community would maintain Google Android and 2. even though Google was sued over this already once I still don’t think Google would allow this. They’d either find some sneaky way to force FP not to go that way or just openly forbid it and just wait to get sued again - it’s not like a few million € penalty would mean anything to them.
That’s most likely true.
Still technical support, maintenance and upkeep does not make for an official Fairphone communications channel and it especially does not make the moderators here speakers for the company. To my knowledge they are not involved in any decisions etc.
Fairphone acts more or less as a service provider like every other webspace provider you can contract.
As to the OS.
In my - already stated - opinion, there is no alternative to official Android.
Lineage is nothing officially supported. It is developed by a community. That’s ok if a user decides to go this way, But for a company, that is simply not feasible. They need some reliable supplier for updates etc.; someone they can contract and deal with. A community of volunteers - like this forum - is hardly a good business partner.
Edit:
I just took another look at the actual LOS thread in this forum.
Another drawback for this OS is the much less comfortable update procedure. That’s a major factor that put me off switching to another OS. I especially failed at installing Ubuntu touch.
@JulienGarrigue obviously FP is somewhat responsible for what is posted here, but why should they disallow community members to make polls just because they can’t act upon the result of the poll (which was never meant as an instruction to the company anyway)?
@BertG Lineage OS updates are super easy OTAs. Upgrades are a bit trickier, but isn’t that the same for FPOS?
Indeed but LineageOs is opensource so they could take it and support it.
if they have the money and time to develop from scratch an Os like “Fairphone Open Os” they should have enough finances to fork and adapt a project like LineageOs. No? It also saves time and money as they don’t need to reinvent the wheel + they could contribute to the community And get help from it. Am I wrong?
With all of these advantages I still don’t understand the point to sign with Google and by the way, nobody clarify the reason why they choose GoogleOs. Why do they sign with a company which runs against the deep values of Fairphone?
OK Paula, however the main question of this poll was “What OS do you want to run on your next FP3 or later?” it really sounds like a hope and official.
As FP developed FP Open Os for FP2, why they didn’t at least used it on FP3? isn’t it a waste of energy time and money to step back to GoogleOs?
I have been to an Opensource software event organised in the South of France, I met many users disappointed by FP Os’ choice. Nobody understand this frustrating strategy. And all of them told me “I’m not going to buy FP as long as they use GoogleOs”. Does FP understand this?
But Fairphone Open is not an OS done from scratch. To my knowledge it is a basic Android (or Fairphone OS) without the Google stuff. FPOOS in this regard was a derivative of FPOS.
I have no idea, if your idea regarding Lineage OS is in any way feasible.
Would be interesting to learn what the LOS community would think about a company trying to take over control. This - to me - seems a bit contradictory.
And finally the statement posted by @AnotherElk stays valid whatsoever.
You never would get this phone sold to the mass market, when it does not offer Google services. There are quite a lot people out there using e.g. location services, Google maps, playstore and cloud all the time. They don’t care to bother with MicroG and stuff like that. They want a phone like all the others.
That’s at least my experience and impression.
Edit:
Hope and Official are a bit contradictiory as well, don’t you think so?
Plus this sentence
Since this is a hypothetical poll about future FP models
If it would be the case, /e/ and LOS won’t be at the top of the poll.
I’m sorry, most of the people who want a phone like other, buy a Huawei or One Plus or Nexus or something like that.
FP customers are different.
I think one of the reasons might also be that people who are more tech addicted can be found with registered accounts in a forum like this and take part in the poll.
Maybe LOTS of other people don’t and are so far happy with the FPOS (i.e. Google Android).
I think to remember that I’ve read somewhere that less than 10% of FP2 users have used an alternative OS on their FP2. So, as said, maybe this big amount of people have not taken part in the poll…
I’ve been using /e/ for more than a year and I’m really happy with it. I’d also like to see a closer cooperation between Fairphone and /e/.
On the other side Fairphone has limited resources and has to decide on which to invest the resources…
And at the end, /e/ is still in Beta. Would you try to sell more than 100.000 devices and install on OS being in beta status? Who shall support that?
No. Open OS is not that different from FP OS. Lineage is.
I don’t think anybody but you misunderstands it that way.
FP3 is different from FP2 and it runs a different Android version. But nobody said they wouldn’t still release an Open OS for the FP3. With the FP2 it also came quite a while after the device was released.
Well, duh. Go to a Google event and the situation will be opposite.
Yes and they prioritized selling more devices instead of selling to a fringe community.
Their main aim is and will always be to change the problems with the supply chain in the electronics industry and they have a better chance at that if they don’t pursue too many other goals simultaneously.
A forum poll is never representative at all. Especially if the CEO of /e/ mobilizes for it on social media.
I had exactly the same question in mind. I’d really love to be wrong, but it seems that we are facing another saddly case of using solidarity and enviromentalism as marketing strategy. It is a too obvious contradiction in the FP philosophy.
I still have to read the whole post with all the replies, and I am not a native english speaker, I’ll need some time. What is for sure is that I am not going to buy a product in order to protect and save other’s rights, when some one is violating mine.
@JulienGarrigue Purism and its phone Librem5 could be a good option.
Not just in terms of privacy. They use the open source work of others to make money without returning the customized source code from the beginning. Fairphone simply violates the GPL.
You’ve read the other thread. No real statement from Fairphone. Except they write after three months, zhat they now try to get the source code from the contract programmer. The moderator just closed it. No more discussion.
What the hell?!! After this I really do not need more explanations, thank you @FairOpenIsGreat. This is totally sad and frustrating… They have shown their real face.
Thank you
.