Google-free /e/ OS is now selling preloaded phones in the US, starting at $380

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/google-free-e-os-is-now-selling-pre-loaded-phones-in-the-us-starting-at-380/

by thg • 5 years ago

155 84 5 years ago

bobkrusty• 5 years ago

I live in asia how can i buy this one? Is there any way

npteljes4• 5 years ago

You can just buy a used phone that's supported by them and install the OS yourself. I have done it with LineageOS and it's not hard.

177tcca9• 5 years ago

If you're going to do this, buy a Pixel so you can have the bare minimum in secure hardware.

And consider GrapheneOS.

jeroenhd• 5 years ago

You can follow this guide if you have one of the easy installer compatible devices: https://doc.e.foundation/easy-installer

Or on any other supported phone (see this list: https://doc.e.foundation/devices/) you can follow the install guide there. Might even work with your current phone!

jqpabc1233• 5 years ago

The "easy installer" has very limited hardware support at this time.

The first time I followed the install guide, I ended up with a "hard brick" --- wouldn't even power up. Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to recover from this but it does take time, effort and determination.

As a result of my experience, I made suggested changes which were incorporated into the guide for my device.

fuzxi2• 5 years ago

So they're charging a premium (you can buy these phones in mint condition on swappa for nearly $150 less) for a refurbished 3 year old phone because it's preloaded with a ROM for enthusiasts. Who would buy this? I can't imagine any of the people who know or care enough to use /e/ are the kind of people who'd pay someone else $150 to flash a ROM for them.

geogra4• 5 years ago

I think /e/ needs the Exynos version, which is much harder to come by in the US.

Either way, when I'm ready for my next phone i'm going to strongly consider /e/

fuzxi2• 5 years ago

Yes, there's no root exploit or rootless bootloader unlock that I know of on the Snapdragon versions. I'm seeing similar prices on the Exynos versions, though.

npteljes4• 5 years ago

I don't know either but I wish them luck. I'd really like it if it would take off, along with Fairphone, Pinephone and Librem.

websites23233• 5 years ago

I've flashed ROMs before. I don't get a kick out of it, and my hourly rate is more than $150. I'll probably buy one.

BoorishBears2• 5 years ago

W... what?

Could you find someone to pay you more than $150 an hour to flash a rom?

Do you have to sit there the entire time you're setting up a phone with a new rom?

The comment you replied to is making a great point, generally people running custom roms without Google's services do so because they are enthusiasts.

An Android device without Google is going to require avoiding very common apps and using workarounds that are already going to be time consuming whether you flash the device or not.

Meanwhile people who aren't enthusiasts probably don't care about Google's hooks into Android via GPS.

People who apparently think... their hourly rate... is too high to flash a rom (something mostly automated anyways...) but also want to flash a rom and deal with a phone that is missing the core services that normally define an Android device on an outdated device and want to pay a 2x premium for a privilege may just be a sample size of you lol

smbullet• 5 years ago

Agreed, I'd probably pick one up if my pinephone wasn't already in the mail.

177tcca9• 5 years ago

Do these phones even have boot security?

johnchristopher2• 5 years ago

an email fork called K-9 Mail,

Say that again :) ?

Tease apart I think and believe /e/ is a really great initiative, which aligns better with ecology than Fairphone does (so far).

If my phone was supported I'd have switched long ago (it's a 2015 sony z5c I bought second hand 3.5 years ago).

sleavey• 5 years ago

which aligns better with ecology than Fairphone does (so far)

What do you mean by that?

johnchristopher2• 5 years ago

A refurbished phone needs less raw materials and processing than a new fairphone.

bj-rn• 5 years ago

/e/ & fairphone have a partnership. You can get a fairphone preloaded with /e/OS (in Europe & the UK): https://www.fairphone.com/en/2020/04/30/keeping-your-data-sa...

https://esolutions.shop/shop/e-os-fairphone-3/

age008• 5 years ago

In Europe if we want a Google-free phone we just buy a Huawei.

kube-system2• 5 years ago

I've only owned one Huawei phone, but it definitely had Google's software installed. (and after running some network analysis, I noticed it also phoned home to China)

pdimitar2• 5 years ago

I'm very interested in how do you run the said network analysis? I'm considering buying an Android again but I'd like to properly tame it by cutting off as much spy traffic as possible.

extropy2• 5 years ago

Haha, you made my day. Huawei is likely worse than Google in tracking. Unless your reason is to avoid Google specifically.

Bancakes3• 5 years ago

Some people unironically believe "Better China than Five Eyes, haha, they're too far away!".

Daho0n4• 5 years ago

They are "likely worse", IE. you don't know? IMO they are not worse and the data collected by Huawei is useless compared to anything Google collects since I don't live in or near China. They also don't share it with anyone that might kick down my door if I like something that the US someday in the future sees as the new red scare.

FieryBinary5• 5 years ago

And if you flash a good custom OS like GrapheneOS, maybe LineageOS without microG, then Google doesn't track you even if you use their hardware. Even better if you use a secure OS like GrapheneOS or standard AOSP without Google Play Services or bloatware.

plq• 5 years ago

Why not go sailfish? It also has an android shell that seems to run android apps just fine.

chaosharmonic• 5 years ago

In a word: drivers.

Sailfish has a runtime for Android apps, but under the hood it's closer to other mobile Linux projects, and to that end the hardware compatibility is less like Lineage or /e/ and more like UBPorts.

Android's handling of the Linux kernel, until this current version cycle, has involved several forks per device -- patches from Google (the Android Common Kernel), then patches from chipset vendors, then patches from device vendors -- with closed binary drivers inserted at various points in this process. [0] Treble has been exposing generic hardware interfaces to system images since version 8, but the drivers themselves haven't had that kind of uniformity re: how they interface with the kernel itself.

There are projects that will adapt them to run GNU-based systems -- to use UBPorts as an example again, it actually does exist as a GSI -- but since the modifications needed to get them to run depend on a custom kernel, they're still device-specific.

Meanwhile, Android devices are required to run Google's entire test suite using a generic build of AOSP, so while GSI compatibility isn't perfect, the minimum baseline is effectively just the ability to unlock your bootloader.

[0] Generally. In some cases -- most Huawei devices, non-US Samsung models -- the device vendor is the chipset vendor. But that doesn't mean their chipset IP is any more open than, say, Qualcomm's, nor does necessarily alter that of other components like camera sensors.

etaioinshrdlu• 5 years ago

Honestly, I think this kind of thing is more likely to lead to a good usable daily-driver phone than the Pinephone. Unfortunately there is not quite as much hardware freedom on this device...

choward• 5 years ago

I thought they were changing their terrible name.

labster• 5 years ago

I’m sure people use their phones to look at ecchi pictures all the time.

throwawaygulf• 5 years ago

Get a Pixel 3/4 and throw GrapheneOS on it: https://grapheneos.org/

It's the best non-Google, privacy enhanced experience you can get at the moment.

mickotron• 5 years ago

This is the way. From another happy grapheneos user, and project sponsor.

UncleOxidant• 5 years ago

Wow, I don't see that often, but when I tried (several times) to go to that link I get:

    Gah. Your tab just crashed.

In Firefox (85.0.1 on Ubuntu 18.04). Works fine in Opera, though, and it looks like just a wall of text so I'm not sure why FF would be unhappy.

bryanrasmussen• 5 years ago

Firefox Developer, worked fine for me.

cmeacham98• 5 years ago

Works for me on firefox nightly on linux.

MildlySerious• 5 years ago

Wow indeed, same here. I don't recall seeing that for a very long time, if at all. FF85 on Ubuntu 16.04 x64

dhimes• 5 years ago

Firefox 86 Win 10 — works fine.

crtasm• 5 years ago

Had Firefox updated and needed a restart? I get that crashed message on xubuntu 20.04 when opening a link in a new tab. Every time it confuses me for a moment then I remember why.

phh2• 5 years ago

The offers of GrapheneOS and /e/ are very different. /e/ targets to be a usable alternative to a google-owned software, which includes for instance cloud storage and backup, access to third party proprietary apps, etc. While GrapheneOS is harder to use, but it does provide much better security hardening.

ignoramous• 5 years ago

hey there phh; slightly tangential, but: What are your plans for phh-treble? To be honest, if you've got the bandwidth, I'd love for you to start something comparative to /e/ and CalyxOS.

With Generic Kernel Images (and APEX to an extent), do you see phh-treble likely replacing LineageOS as the preferred base for projects like /e/? Merci.

twobitshifter• 5 years ago

Giving money to google to deGoogle yourself is an odd angle.

177tcca9• 5 years ago

Not giving money to Google if you buy used.

Also, not weird in the context of Google actively maintaining their position as a a top security firm these days, with Project Zero.

177tcca9• 5 years ago

Google privacy is 0%, security is high 90s%

FieryBinary5• 5 years ago

Not giving Google a few hundred dollars (or if you buy a used phone, $0) isn't going to hurt them.

bestouff• 5 years ago

Is there a way to easily install the server part "at home" ?

npteljes4• 5 years ago

They have a guide, but I'm not sure how easy or stable it is. https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/infra/ecloud-selfhosting

johnklos• 5 years ago

It's a fork of Android, so it's not Google-free.

swiley• 5 years ago

yes. Anything Android based is absolutely dominated by Google. At this point it probably takes less manpower to maintain a Gnome/KDE/Lomiri based distro for your platform than Google-free Android.

unethical_ban• 5 years ago

Your definition of google-free: Completely zero code input, developer overlap, or potential design influence by Google

My definition of google-free as it relates to phones, and I think the more common one: No callbacks to any Google service such as Play store, google cloud messaging, or any of Google's usual default android applications.

FieryBinary5• 5 years ago

By that definition, Linux, Chromium, and lots of other software isn't Google-free. But that's ridiculous. Android does not contain any tracking code, and at most uses Google servers as the default for network connectivity tests, etc. which you can change. Versions of Android running on actual phones often have tracking, but this is not related to Android itself and is largely about Google Play Services.

willio58• 5 years ago

How do you say "/e/ OS"? I know this is always asked but I still don't know because I've seen conflicting answers. Is it just e OS? Why complicate your brand by throwing in "/"s?

Bombthecat• 5 years ago

Could i use my banking apps?

jqpabc1233• 5 years ago

I have two banking apps that run just fine under it. Your mileage may vary.

jqpabc1233• 5 years ago

How about a new Moto G7 Plus for say $185 with screen protector and case with $5 going to /e/ foundation to continue development. Here is the proposed /new/ hardware:

https://m.gsmarena.com/t_mobile_revvlry+-9764.php

I use one of these myself as a daily driver and have done several for friends and family so I have the flashing part down. I have toyed with the idea of turning this over to my grandson as a business for college spending money.

I replace some of the default apps with better non-tracking, privacy focused alternatives such as Brave browser and TwinMe for video calls and instant messaging. Note: Your iOS friends will like TwinMe too.

Any interest in going turn key "Google free" at this price point? The goal is for my grandson to net $50 per phone. Any less is not worth the time and effort required.

Google-free /e/ OS is now selling preloaded phones in the US, starting at $380

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