Why can’t I delete default apps on my new Fairphone 6? I can do this with adb or whatever the command line is, but I did not understand why users were locked out of un-installation capabilities, other than maybe the App Lounge, which is probably linked to system functions and might break with nothing there. The map app is definitely suspicious, since it is proprietary. I like Cmaps instead and normally use Fossify apps.
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you answer the why with your thread title: they’re system apps.
Default apps are system apps historically because LineageOS didn’t need a package distribution system, so /e/OS didn’t have one either when starting out. “temporal solutions become permanent”.
By now everybody wants that capability including Murena, but it isn’t trivial and didn’t get priority yet over product features, because - my outside guess - it just isn’t as visible.
The demand is acknowledged in the 2020 and 2021 roadmaps and other posts. The lowest forum id thread that asked to remove default apps is from 2018 and many, many user threads since. Technically things are still pretty entrenched.
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Okay. That’s understandable. As an engineer I know how it is. Are there any apps that you would strongly recommend against removing? I’ve got a ton of Google trackers coming up on my domain filter, but those only started after I connected with the Murena provider. The only non native app I have is Eternity, a Lemmy client. I was going to at least try to remove the maps app to see if that would resolve the issue before deciding that the trackers are from the provider connection. I might even consider disabling esims to isolate the issue. See screenshot with filter results. Red lines on left are blocked domains.
that’s all microG - you can cut down on Google connections if you do not need push messages and disable (all) microG components. Most people only need it for timely incoming messenger notifications, especially when it’s a voice call (Signal, Whatsapp). The controversy here is: should microG be enabled by default or not.
for domain classification see these 2 pages:
- Anonymous calls to Google servers (more detailed than the second link)
- Google Network Connections · microg/GmsCore Wiki · GitHub
as you know about the ‘adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0’ - I’d use that on Maps (com.generalmagic.magicearth) if you feel uncomfortable. I’m unsure if it will come back on OTA update though - as said, images deliver all apps, it used to be their only update mechanism (there’s a secondary one too for a subset).
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