/e/OS on laptops, PinePhone

Any sneak peaks yet @GaelDuval?

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On Pine forum there is an image: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=7954

Is this build officially supported by /e/?
How long till it reaches EOL?

Hi @Nastja at present we are in the initial stages of porting /e/ for Pine laptop and later PinePhones. We should have more details on questions like official support, EOL soon. We will be updating on the progress.

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I will buy a PinePhone Brave Heart edition, there will be an /e/ version for it? Or /e/ will only be available on the official release (March / 2020)?

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Hi @GaelDuval and team, please get a hold of of these and develop /e/ for it…?
https://store.pine64.org/?product=14″-pinebook-pro-linux-laptop-64gb-emmc-iso-keyboard-estimated-dispatch-in-october-2019
These specifications are good enough for me to able to use it for work!!

here are the 2 open source ones x86 Androids from the following post:

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i thought i’d add this to this thread: 5 Android x86 OSs . Some of them are open-source, so forking is possible! perhaps in the future for /e/!
https://www.geckoandfly.com/23614/android-os-old-pc/

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Chinese i dont really trust. BlissOS, looks good. Also they just released an Android 10 version… :sunny: will install on a laptop and see what happens

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I never had problems using Chinese tech as most electronics and household goods are made in China. I’m not blinded by usa geopolitics and just use basic common sense.

There is a considerable difference between contract manufacturing in the People’s Republic of China, keyword “China, the workbench of the world”, and the in-house developments of Chinese companies, especially in the provincial city of Shenzhen, China’s “Silicon Valley”.

European manufacturing companies play it safe and keep control of their production and check their supply chains very carefully. In particular Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies, which produce under their own flag in their own factories in China, do their utmost to ensure safety in their plants by European standards, and in many cases spare no expense or effort in doing so.

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cool, i’m curious!! i may do this as well, and try it out on my main laptop, to see if Android is a functional alternative for mainstream users (and thus for /e/, when they get to developing an /e/ version for laptops/desktops). Let me know when you’ve tried it!! when are you planning to install it?

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A prudent businesd would do that. I would take the same precautions if I contracted an amex company in the usa to ensure quality, and adherence to my requirements as well. So nothing different if its in China or usa. My point is many have blinded attitudes toward China by amex geopolitics. Whatever China is doing, usa is also doing. You have shady businesses and coders in both countries.

Just playing devil’s advocate here: one massive difference that I see in that statement, while true, is that great ideas that have served well millions (if not billions) of people have emerged from the US, whereas China has almost exclusively used this technology for censorship and totalitarianism.

Perhaps in a parallel universe things are they other way around, but this is where we’re at right now and most likely will continue to be for a little while.

Just providing a dose of reality here: one massive difference that I see in that statement, while true, is that great ideas that have served well millions (if not billions) of people have emerged from the China🇨🇳, whereas usa has almost exclusively used this technology for mass surveillance, censorship and totalitarianism. there will be deniers that can’t handle the truth, but that’s a true dose of reality. usa geopolitics to propagate negative sterotypes of China meanwhile usa is equally as guilty if not more guilty of these actions guised under the notion of their poor excuse of ‘national security’ ha. That is such malignant presence, it’s utterly fanciful to boot.

All: Please keep political discussion out of the forum. The subject is /e/OS on Pinephone or laptops …lets stick to comments on that.
No political discussions please.

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Agreed. @Manoj This topic has evolved into something completely different. Keep /e/ politics free.

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I don’t see the cross over from phone to convergent device or OS as being something that can easily be done. So far we have had Motorola (Atrix), Microsoft (Continuum), Ubuntu (Ubuntu Phone, with Nexus 5 reaching some level of convergence with UBPort), Google (with Chromebooks now being able to run some Android apps), Samsung with Dex, and the Android x86 project plus derivatives all attempting some variation on convergence. Everyone who has trod down this road has failed to gain traction for various reasons. (Mainly mobility apps are not desktop apps and vice versa) I don’t know how /e/ is going to differentiate itself in this respect on a laptop, and not run into exactly the same issue that Linux is or the other convergent OSes did with applications.

I will note that Apple is the one traditional consumer facing company that bifurcated their OS into slotted variations, but they obsessively controlled the experience for their betterment.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Purism (well, we will see with Purism, and I really hope they find success) are now all having versions of success by providing an ecosystem of endpoints that move together versus trying to hammer down on the single OS that does it all.

Does Microsoft provide a guidepost by jettisoning their mobile ambitions to providing one of the better Android experiences ? Rather than trying to provide a laptop OS, should /e/ provide the best integration, alternative applications and superior support ? (An entertaining question is does /e/ allow this by showing the way for a Google free, Microsoft AOSP phone ? I saw a forum post that stated use TWRP to remove those stubborn apps, and presto.)

In summary and to the point of my rambling, where does a desktop/laptop fit into /e/'s vision ?

thanks in advance.
-Sean.

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i see this differently; i think that the future of Android is that it will be available for all devices and that the future of Android apps is that there will be 1 application, that takes different forms depending on the screen size and input methods (e.g. small phone, phablet, tablet, laptop, desktop, and perhaps others)

I’m going to be agnostic on the OS. But, yes, once the HIG/HID problem is solved this might happen. The problem we have right now is that mobile apps are “sloppy” and designed for the finger, whereas desktop applications are “precise” and designed for the mouse & keyboard. These assumptions move through the underlying design of the application and its behavior. Until those two paradigms coalesce, then we have a chance at a convergent device/OS . With all the failures we have already seen in this realm, it appears to be a harder problem than first look makes it out to be.

-Sean.

I think you should focus on your primary goal : providing a Google free OS for smartphones.

There’s A LOT more to do to make /e/OS sufficient for everyday use, starting by application support.

So, please, don’t get distracted, don’t be too ambitious. Don’t loose focus.

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