17 months ago I tried /e/. It was an impressive OS, but I was sad: crashes, resets, disappearing apps. Unusable as a daily carefree phone. In anguish I decided to move from Google to Apple. Again, by the way.
2 months ago I remembered why I had been so disgusted with iOS before: a golden prison. And not private at all either.
Although I had not heard about /e/ in the meantime I thought it had the most promising philosophy, so let’s try their cheapest pre-installed Samsung.
Wow, what a surprise! A phone that actually works! That runs most of the apps that I need without ado. A handy machine that I own, and am not owned by.
Thank you people on the Forum that promptly helped me with problems.
Thank you programmers for changing a technical experiment into a reliable smartphone.
Thank you, I guess, French and German people, for jumping over your shadow and choosing English as the lingua franca.
Thank you /e/, for making something for everyday use that empowers the user in stead of selling him or her out to a data hungry moloch.
I see /e/ as part of a very hopeful cultural movement, where people take responsibility for their own lives, where their data is their data. Where having a phone that is private is an entirely normal option.
A heartfelt THANK YOU to the /e/ community. Happy new year!