To put it simply, /e/ is courting a massive lawsuit.
I feel strongly it is the job of human effort to do its own work and not copy others. If /e/ wants to create its own brand identity then it must do so on its own terms. It is, frankly, lazy to copy the work of others.
In have flagged this post as being a troll post. Do not reply. /e/ is based on LineageOS which derives from the AOSP project freely distributed by Google. Obviously basing /e/ on stock Android is counter intuitive to any argument given and this post is blatantly aggressive and provoking.
I don’t see anything trollish or aggressive about this topic. OP voices reasonable concerns about the Bliss launcher which looks and behaves a lot like iOS and as he said this wouldn’t be the first time Apple sues over this.
“lazy to copy the work of others” is an unnecessary parting shot disparaging the hard work of e developers and is counter to the basic concept of open source software which encourages “copying” and enhancing and expanding previous development efforts.
That case is over 6 years old and at this point in the mobile device space user interface designs are fairly similar. Does Ford sue Hyundai because they released a car that has a round steering wheel with turn signals on the left stalk and wipers on the right? No it is smart design to make interfaces similar for safety and ease of use. Back when Apple had a new product then yes such a lawsuit may have had merits. But no more, the interface of mobiles is now ubiquitous.
I am not trolling. I take this issue very seriously. Bliss Launcher’s UI is a blatant copy of iOS’ launcher: from navigation to icons to the system search bar one swipe to the left of home. /e/ deserves better than this.
You may leave that decision to the moderators, please.
Yes, the language was not ideal and a bit dismissive to the work of the designers and developers, but far from what the code of conduct forbids (no ad-hominem attacks or explicit language).
Yes, Floss encourages copying, but only of Floss. Copying proprietary software is not encouraged at all.
Yes, it’s unlikely Apple will sue /e/ - simply because there is not much money to get. But just because nobody sues doesn’t make it legal.
I think it would be very wise for /e/ to be more original with their designs or derive them from freely licensed designs.
Please contribute, for example submit requests for new features you think would benefit users. For example there is already one for being able to rearrange icons and is an accepted feature proposal. https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/apps/BlissLauncher/issues/48
Tycho, you are not just naive but uninformed also. I’m not gonna go into " the hard work of e developers" because you can’t really tell, obviously but the first time I put /e/ on my phone I was unpleasantly surprised by the iOS lookalike, almost on purpose. So there is a legal issue and an ethical one.
I agree with the OP that if /e/ eventually becomes as big as we all hope it does, it may face some legal challenges due to its similarities with the iOS interface. I would personally hate to see the project killed/impacted because of some legal action.
Not to knock all the hard work that went into making Bliss, but I personally would have preferred just using Trebuchet (which I do). Making an Android ROM have an iOS feel just seems like a huge identity conflict.
“The first touchscreen phone was launched in 1992 by IBM.The IBM Simon is also referred as the first smartphone.Simon is the first smartphone to be incorporated with the features of a PDA. It was refined further and marketed to consumers in 1994 by BellSouth corporation an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia.When it was launched, it was launched under the name Simon Personal Communicator.”
Everybody builds on work done earlier in history, Steve Jobs started with a Berkeley Software Distribution: https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Unix
"It also spawned two commercial operating systems called BSD/OS and NeXTSTEP. NeXTSTEP eventually became Mac OS X. "
Maybe we can go a “Moe” way!
There’s a Chinese artist called Tysontan who will do mascot and LOGO designs for free software projects for free(and under free license)! We can ask him to make us a new logo, and a cute mascot too!
Check out my avatar, those cute characters are his works!
*“Moe” means cute in Japanese.
