OS Upgrade - Volunteer Testers Required - Next Set of Devices for OS Upgrade

Thank you @Manoj, we just have to be patient :slightly_smiling_face:

It’s been over a month since Xiaomi Mix 2S (polaris) was mentioned last time. Since then I have managed to buy one, so now I can’t wait to try it with eOS Pie and even ready to became a BETA-tester. Is there any news regarding this model?

The focus has shifted for the time to some of the other critical tasks like the FP3 release. Hopefully our device upgrades plans should be back on track from the next week.

Topic added to favorites…
One time a day to look if oreo build for Galaxy S7 is coming/arriving/arrived… :wink:

Thanks for this great rom !

All:
This thread as well as our upgrade process has been silent for almost two months now.
Believe me when I write this, as the person who is driving this I have been following up on this on a regular basis. This week we have been conducting a series of internal meetings at /e/ to discuss how we can take this forward.
The small size of the team does not help much either. What happens is when ever we have a big ticket item like the release of the FP3 or the easy-installer all eyes are focused on those activities and as such the other tasks get sidelined.
I will be updating the plan on how we intend to move forward with

  • Upgrades of existing devices to Oreo or Pie where available
  • Decide when to start on integrating 17.1 into the source

Will update all in this thread what the decision is. Stay tuned.

regards
Manoj

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Hej @Manoj, open and honest communication has always been a successful recipe for partnership.

Many of us /e/nthusiasts are concerned about the internal situation of /e/. Understaffing and limited resources at /e/ are no secret. This is reflected e.g. in only 20 of 93 smartphones supported by /e/ run with 9-pie. Even the flagships of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S9 series only work with 7-Nougart and 8.1.0 Oreo.

In your opinion, what can the /e/ community do to improve the situation?

How could we win over new developers for /e/?

I would be happy to donate between one and ten Euros per month for a period of 2-3 years if it would be ensured that the money is used exclusively for the further development of individual builds.

I would find it best if regular donations could be made directly to /e/ build developers.

With a (small) monthly fixed income private spare time ROM developers could be supported in home office and part-time work to work continuously on the development.

A (temporary) part-time job and job sharing with guaranteed financial compensation - could be a solution. Only reliable donors and developers have to find together, right?

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts and concerns @archje
As far as contributing to individual ROM developers is concerned - ultimately the devices get build on the build infrastructure. The testing is done by users on the testing team on the devices. Unlike Lineage the ROM Maintainers at /e/ do not fix the issues. It is the developers who fix the bugs. The maintainers build the ROM and share it on the server. Bugs if any when they come are assigned to the development team.
Getting more developers - we have a job openings page on the documentation site. Talented developers are always welcome. We even have a projects looking for contributions page. Some of the categories are open for more than a year!
We are also working on opening up the Gitlab so that users can fork and make the changes to the code which they can then merge in. This started with the easy-installer code being opened up. Users can make changes and check in the code.
There are some issues that still need to be resolved before we can say that the gitlab for community users process works smoothly.
You can always contribute or donate as per your level of comfort. You can check where the amount gets spent here.

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Hello @Manoj,

I have been participating in the project /e/ since August 2018 and will continue to do so. It is a beautiful project and very promising. Nevertheless I have the feeling that the project is dispersing and that, considering the small size of the team, it puts a stop to some developments.

While I think that supporting the fairphone project is a great idea and that multiplying the number of supported phones is a good idea, it avoid us from further developing some phones that are/were considered to be the main phones in development.

Indeed, at the beginning I owned a LeTv L2 which seemed to be one of the main supported phones… but today, this phone is abandoned. In the meantime I had to change my phone so I switched to an S7.For several months now, when a migration seemed imminent to oreo… no more news.

While it seems perfectly normal to me that the planning can’t be respected, I have the feeling that the project is dispersing and, in fact, some branches are left abandoned.

I believe that it could be interesting to maintain on a handful of well-identified phones a sustained development and especially to guarantee a continuity, on the long term, of the support of these phones and this in a priority way.

Why not indicate two or three telephones that will be considered a priority and stick to them?

I appreciate and support the project /e/, these observations are personal to me and are only intended to help this project continue.

The work accomplished over the last few months is considerable. Congratulations again!

(Sorry for my english :wink: )

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Agree with you on all points. As I mentioned above we have some meetings this week to thrash these questions out. Will be updating what the decision is on this thread.

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Great !
As Framasoft says : “La route est longue, mais la voie est libre” :wink:

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hi Manoj, for the meetings, my 2cents:
i think it would be good if /e/ designed a few phones to be its flagship phones, and if it made sure that those phones were always up-to-date with the latest Android version as soon as possible. Perhaps consider here a few phones from each market, e.g. one high end phone, one mid price phone and one budget phone. To choose which phones, i would consult data on mobile phone popularity and choose the phones in those budget groups that are most often used.
Support for all other phones would be a plus, but not necessary and can be left to the community in case of time/money constraints at the /e/ team.
Would need to think well about security updates for already existing phone in the /e/ device list.

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haha i love that quote

Following up on this, would it be a good idea to prioritise a build for GSI, since it would enable a lot of phones in 1 go…? Or does it bring problems of its own?

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Hi @TheMajorTom @Rik most of the points you raised are being considered. I shall share a summary of what was discussed , proposed and being planned by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

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Thanks Manoj. Re GSI for project Treble phones, does anyone have any experience with developing GSI builds generally for these phones and flashing them? Does it work well, does it indeed greatly decrease the amount of work needed to develop a build for one of the treble supported phones?

Re most sold phones :


From https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/21157386/iphone-best-selling-phone-worldwide-xr-11-samsung-a-series-counterpoint-research

And

From https://www.statista.com/statistics/258597/global-apple-and-samsung-smartphone-shipments-by-model/

I also support all the raised points concerning the devices and the further developments.
It would be much better to focus on a well defined set of devices (low, medium, high range), keep them up to date (general updates/bugfixes and of course the important security updates) and running smoothly like e.g. @Rik pointed out.
It’s all about user experience. You’ll probably get more users which stay because they’re statisfied, promote /e/ and that may also bring you more people who contribute to the project.

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oh and @Manoj , for the discussions, please also include a really small phone! e.g. between 4 and 4.8 inch (ideally 4.3 or 4.5). many of us want one!!

Galaxy s5 mini would be good (4.5") HD screen, good quality, etc…

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/e/ must support the specially sold products for a long time. These are the Samsung Galaxy S7, 8, 9 and now also the Fairphone 3.

The devices must always be up to date with the latest security standards. Privacy can ONLY be ensured on a secured device. And /e/ sells their product with the promise of privacy. Apart from that, the devices hardware must also be perfectly supported by /e/. If that works, then something else from the 92 devices can be tackled.

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