New to e/OS: some annoyances

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A few weeks ago, my LineageOS phone died. I got a second-hand Pixel 5, and, following the advice of a friend, installed e/OS instead of LineageOS.

The good

It works. The installation went just fine, and everything seems to work, even eSIM installation and network location.

A large number of older phones are supported. Unlike CalyxOS.

The system looks like it’s reasonably well de-googled, even the captive portal detection doesn’t require a Google server.

The bundled Maps application (a rebadged version of Magic Earth) has good support for public transportation, it usefully complements OrganicMaps/CoMaps.

The bad

The bundled applications are quite horrible:

  • the F-Droid app isn’t bundled;
  • the bundled Camera application (a rebadged copy of OpenCamera) doesn’t work, it hangs during usage; easily fixed by installing a third-party camera application, but this just shouldn’t happen;
  • the bundled App Lounge (a rebadged version of something) is configured to override applications installed by F-Droid; that’s easily fixed, but it shouldn’t happen;
  • the bundled “App Lounge” cannot be uninstalled, it cannot be removed, and it cannot even be configured to do no background updates;
  • the bundled launcher is very primitive (I gave it a whole week, it definitely doesnt get better with usage); there’s a copy of Trebuchet, but it cannot be enabled; this was solved by installing Lawchair with Obtainium, but this hassle shouldn’t be required.

The ugly

The bundled applications are rebadged versions of open source software; the original names are carefully hidden. Folks, you’re welcome to use open source software, but please give proper credit.

The bundled applications cannot be uninstalled, they cannot be disabled. Lawnchair allows hiding and app from the app drawer, but that’s at best a workaround.

There are some hidden, undocumented applications that are running in the background. What the feck is ntfy, and why does it have network access? What is Lato? Why are there four instances of Kai and what are they doing? Why is OpenKeychain hidden?

Conclusion

An impression of hutzpah (you’re going to take our launcher, and you’re going to like it), mild dishonesty (well-known open source applications are being rebadged) and amateurism (the default camera hangs for tens of seconds at a time). I need my phone, so I’m sticking to e/OS for now, but I’m going back to LineageOS the first chance I get.

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Just install it (or any other client like Foxy Droid).

It has also a lot of problems taking serious pictures. The algorithms for noise reduction and antialiasing are not good at all. So you get either grainy or blurry pictures.

It’s a service for distributing push notifications. Used by messengers like Molly. The problem with this is that the now OS-integrated ntfy has exactly the same name as the app you can install. I had a ntfy installed before it got integrated - so I had suddenly two instances with the same name not knowing which one is which and both didn’t work until I uninstalled the first one. It would have been a simple thing to detect this situation and to notify the user about that. The OS could even have asked to uninstall the app to get a proper working result.

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My testing camera’s of in the Pixel 4a5g, 5, 6, 6a and 7 have had no issues.

As for opensource stores like irrlicht says just install your flavor of f-droid. While you are at it install Aurora Store.

The map app seems to work just fine for me in NA.

BTW jch0 welcome to the site and eOS as you are new here.

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I do agree with most of your comments.
In terms of the apps store, I also agree with irrlicht to just install the app store you like (F-Droid, Aurora etc). You can actually set in the App Store to deactivate automatic updates

I don’t know which device you are using, however for over > 200 devices officially supported (and some more unofficial) there are certainly bugs. Its the same as for the app store, use the camera app you like most

Also you can argue about the launcher, take the one you like

The list of prebuild apps you can view here:

And here I fully agree with you, it would be good if there would be a much better documentation about this what the apps does and from where the original source is

You can disable system apps via adb command (I dont have the full command but you can look here in the forum)

Lato is a font. I don’t know what Kai is…who knows?

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Have a look at this picture in full size.

Pay attention onto the bottom left corner - absolutely grainy without any reason. This is the result of the noise reduction algorithm under low light conditions. You have four options for this algorithm but it doesn’t get better whatever you do, I tried a lot with this, it just gets more or less blurry.

This picture shows also remarkable artificial pixels near edges, for instance on the upper part of the vertical eaves gutter pipe on the house. The pipe is black but has interesting bright edges on both sides which are not real. The same happens on the branches of the tree on the right.

Disclaimer: it’s not the camera in my phone which is responsible for that - my camera makes much better pictures using other camera software. It’s indeed the not fully developed OpenCamera fork - I don’t use it for anything anymore.

P.S.: You will probably not see this when you look pictures only on the mobile. But on a computer screen or even in beamer presentations you see all this very soon and get a lot of questions.

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Looks like a photo my sister in law sends from her iPhone over SMS.

I will take some pictures from my camera in next days using stock app and post.

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Pictures over SMS (MMS) are strictly reduced in size, so the resolution is much less, or in other words: it MUST get grainy :slight_smile:

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Yes, they can :

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Yes so I am making the point the picture you posted and I am viewing on a 1080 laptop is not great quality.

What phone did you use and app, I’ve lost it in the mix? What happens if you use an alternate camera?

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My mobile is still an FP3 with the “plus” camera module, so it looks like an FP3+ now.

The picture was taken in 2020 with the original /e/OS Camera app from that time. This app changed a bit over the years (I guess they made a re-fork) but the picture quality remained nearly the same, still today, I check this from year to year. I have the impression pictures taken under artificial light (especially from computer screens) are a bit better today.

I use normally a GCam port instead which makes much better pictures under every conditions. Also FreeDCam is mostly better (but seems to be dead now).

Does anyone use Blackmagic? How to install?

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[the bundled Camera application] also a lot of problems taking serious pictures

That’s actually Google’s fault. The image processing is supposed to happen in the camera driver, behind the Camera2 API, so that all applications can profit. Google have chosen to neuter the camera driver and put the image processing in their camera app, so that only Google’s applications can make good pictures.

What the feck is ntfy, and why does it have network access?

It’s a service for distributing push notifications.

When did I opt-in? Who operates the servers? What is its privacy policy? Are the servers in the EU? Where is it documented?

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Yes, OK, but each serious Camera app has it’s own algorithms controlled by own options. And the results of OpenCamera are indeed far behind GCam. You can’t blame Google here for that, the problem is indeed on the OpenCamera side.

It should be off by default. You have to opt in when you decide to use it. There’s a switch in the global Settings.

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The bundled applications cannot be uninstalled, they cannot be disabled.

Yes, they can :

I know I can do more or less anything over adb, but that’s quite besides the point. e/OS was recommended to me as a user-friendly alternative to LineageOS. Having to use adb just so I can uninstall the rebadged applications does not seem user-friendly to me, it actually feels actively user-hostile.

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the (longish) “what’s /e/” doc article has a section on this - and gitlab repo description usually holds the https upstream. The help / about sections in the Apps do credit the original authors too

Android FOSS apps all out there fighting for themselves, doesn’t make sense when bundled in a ROM, thus rebranded with icon and name to what they do. Ideally App authors could offer a “bundled” target that does this, suffix it to the appid, use Android facilities for credentials, fertig ist die Laube.

Edit: the main critique of OP (and I’d agree) is default apps being hard to remove. It will come I’m sure.

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oh cool, so easy to find and I wasn’t aware of it

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You won’t find that section when searching for “default applications” (you could probably fix it in the elasticsearch config)

The doc git repo doesn’t take MRs anymore, but it needs a brush up (hierarchy and labeling).

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it may not be “user friendly” from a die-hard LOS user’s point of view, but eOS as I understand it is generally aimed at a non-geek audience and offers them a sort of fully featured environment, I think this often leads to misunderstandings on the geek side which has a completely different set of expectations (no offense)

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it may not be “user friendly” from a die-hard LOS user’s point of view, but eOS as I understand it is generally aimed at a non-geek audience

I’m not sure I agree.

e/OS bundles a rebadged copy of OpenCamera, which is probably the most geeky piece of software I’ve ever seen used on a phone (what is DRO mode and why should I use it instead of NR?). The first thing a non-geeky user will do is replace it with something that’s a little easier to use.

Since OpenCamera cannot be disabled (at least not without access to heavy machinery), and since BlissLauncher doesn’t allow hiding apps, the non-geeky user will end up with two different camera apps on their home screen. How is that not user-hostile?

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The only thing that actually bothers me is the launcher part while other things can be tweaked around.
I thought it would be better if app choice is given similarly to iodé (?).
Still, positives outweighs negatives (just my personal opinion).

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You sure have your points. :+1:

Yet still I would not go as far as calling it “user hostile” … I simply think “user” is a broad field that covers many expectations that are probably hard to meet all at once, given the idea of offering a degoogled system for “the masses”.
UX is a great field to argue about :slight_smile:

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