how I came to /e/: I used to use BlackBerry because of privacy, security and reliability. Also, I like the physical keyboard and trackpoint which makes typing a lot easier than on a full touch device.
BB OS10 is not maintained anymore for some time already. This begins to show in daily life with an increasing number of websites and apps which refuse to operate. That forced me to get a replacement. I don’t support the business models of Apple and Google, so I tried a classic GSM phone. Unfortunately, it didn’t work reliably: even in bigger cities, it was frequently losing the remaining GSM network. Not an option for reliable communication, at least in Germany (with a mobile network worse than in the 3rd world).
Then I remembered that a new Fairphone was presented recently. I value their approach being fair to producers, environment and users. On their website, there is an article about the /e/ project. Reading more about it made me decide that /e/ is the OS of my next mobile phone. I bought a Fairphone 3 and subsequently installed /e/ on it. It was easy because:
a) Fairphone has an official hassle-free process to get the bootloader unlocked
b) /e/ has published a detailed description how to boot the software
c) I work in a big company in wireless modules R&D. So I have access and some practice using the necessary tool “fastboot”.
So far, I’m really satisfied but I’m not a power user: I use it for common things like Telegram, browser, mp3 player, email, SMS, phone call, navigation etc. but don’t do sophisticated things with it. I have normally turned off mobile data and WiFi while working. As a result, its battery lasts several days. The software works reliable so far. The more tedious procedure of entering text is so far the only tradeoff compared to the BlackBerry Classic. Maybe it will improve with time getting a better hit rate of the suggestions to complete an entry (German).
Chris
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services
), but I really like Swiftkey Keyboard. I know it’s owned by MS and that it is probably terrible for your data, but my approach to data privacy is a bit different from most folks here - for me my choice is really a marriage between usability and privacy.