Simply replacing the launcher can enable a different experience in terms of look and feel. I found the stock /e/ “Bliss” launcher does not really provide a user interface flow I like - but just installing and configuring an apk solved all of that quickly for me. I went with the “Ruthless” launcher which works nicely for providing gesture based navigation and a category searchable “app drawer” - and checks out as not having any trackers, and is ad and gsf free (important to do as many popular launcher apps, such as “Nova” actually have trackers embedded in them, which would totally undermine the whole /e/ privacy measures.)
on the “Ruthless” launcher - the bottom search bar just does local searches for installed apps. I’ve set up DuckDuckGo to be my internet search engine on my /e/ device (Redmi Note 9 Pro) - using Brave instead of the default Browser.
As a power user only when I need to be, the main features of a mobile OS is reliability and compatibility and I have found /e/ is superb in these areas. My main wish is a better camera app, ability to text photos and videos in high resolution, and easier self-hosting of ecloud (or tighter integration with nextcloud). Perhaps also include activesync in the default mail app and fix the SIM card internal memory restriction. Overall the devs are doing a great job in a highly complex and dynamic environment and have my deep respect.
Good topic ! In my opinion, personalization is very important. It’s good to have an IOS kind of theme, but other themes would be welcome. Maybe /e/ work in partnership with some of those launcher apps to include it in /e/.
Look at what Vilvaldi Browser is doing. They are all about personalization for their browser and I believe they are gaining presence on the market, not only tech enthousiasts.
What is there to include?
The launchers are out there. You don’t like Bliss, then you install the launcher you like more from the App Store or other source of your choice … done.
What’s the big deal? If /e/OS would start to somehow include a selection of launchers there would be no end of users saying “Why is this launcher included? Why not this other one here?”
/e/OS can’t include them all. And it’s an Android OS. Android allows you to pick your own favourite launcher, to easily install it and to use it. End of the problem.
Here’s a guide on how to install and try a different launcher, and perhaps even more importantly on how to return to Bliss in case you don’t like the new launcher … Third party launchers. As for the example launcher picked for the guide, mind the comments after the guide.
Related to the launcher is to say: they should improve Bliss to make it more user friendly. Think, they did understand this now. Making gaps between icons is not soooooo strange. And getting rid of these damned useless widgets nailed onto the left most screen is also a good idea. These two things would solve a lot of trouble the users have agian and again.
De-googling is the primary purpose and appeal of /e/.
If that doesn’t appeal to someone there are other ROMs available to suit them, doesn’t mean /e/ should change it’s direction. Which is epic
So I installed various launchers but to select one of them I have to go in settings → Apps & notifications → Default apps → Home app → and checkmark my launcher there. Not very intuitive You need the How-to guide to find that out.
Also, there seems to be plenty of launchers on the different app stores but I doubt that they are all qualitative. Would be good to have just a few of the best ones pre-installed, I guess.
I never had an Android before and found this setting on the second day. (I wasted the first day with finding out that the Weather widget is really fixed there.)
I wholeheartedly understand where you’re coming from, although for me /e/os does exactly what it needs to do: making a degoogled android experience that just works and isn’t overly complicated.
It has in my opinion lowered the bar for those who would like to make small but meaningful changes to their digital lives. You can also see this with the easy installer, although its in early stages, it is very thoughtful and makes it less scary to attempt to install a rom like this.
Many of the people who want to remove google probably are also looking to simplify and declutter and I think /e/ does that really well. The simplicity is also what allows it to work on so many devices, which is contrary to many of the other roms which pride themselves on the addition of features. This helps with adoption. Calyx and Graphite are feature-rich, but the fact that so few devices are supported might exclude a lot of people.
in short, i think simplicity is key, make sure the basic experience works well on a large range of devices and make the installation procedure simple. This should help appeal to a large moderately techsavvy audience.
for me the main goal to reach with /e/OS is also to degoogleing my Phone. But: the OS also should be safe and somehow trustworthy… And for me this is one of the most difficult point. Who creates a really trustworthy OS. And beside also knows enough about safety to build a safe OS.
As far as I can see a lot of Custom ROMs are made by some random guys (at least I don’t know them) I have no idea if there are backdoors in it. Are they safe? OK; the code might be open source. But who is really able to check the source code. So my conclusion is: Either I remain with the stock ROM or I choose one of the better known Custom ROMs like maybe /e/OS with a big community. Support in case of a problem is also important…
For me like “end customer” it’s difficult to choose. At the end of the day I need a safe OS as a daily driver without spies on board. And it looks like I found it here.
Sure, there are things I don’t like. But the perfect OS didn’t appear yet
Another recent convert, due to concerns about the effects of the sale and manipulation of personal data on civil society. Here in Aotearoa NZ have just had two weeks of ‘freedom’ march very uncivil behaviour. Concluded that this is (a perhaps unintended) consequence of the big data surveillance capitalism model.
So it felt like time to stop participating. Very new to this and likely won’t go to great extremes, such as vpn’s encrypting emails and hard drives etc. Have used google since their early days, will be a gradual process and my gmail is still active and forwarding to /e/. Will be hard to leave youtube behind though, as a fan of the wsl surfing coverage and 18footertv, skiff sailing on Sydney harbour.
Brought a $30 oneplus 2, and got fwul linux to set up a temporary phone tinkering software environment on a laptop. The bootloader unlock, twrp install and /e/ sideload went well, following the foundation’s instructions.
Straightforward process for a person with low to moderate tech skills. Just paste in a series of terminal commands.
Impressions from using are good, lots of good stuff in the app library including some local interest stuff like nz covid tracer. Have donated to the project, and will likely be a long time supporter.
You need the How-to guide to find that out.