I was using lineage os from about 6 months. And once I got thelinuxexperiment video recommendation . From their I got to know about e foundation. My device is pretty old and almost had only two actively supported custom ROM lineage and aicp. Their was no mention of e is anywhere so I was unaware for a long time. But luckily my Moto G4 Play is also actively supported here.
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I was lusting after the Fairphones I can’t buy and saw the announcement of the partnership with the /e/ Foundation. I’ve always been a proponent of open-source software and digital privacy, so the project appealed to me.
Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to try it, as I’m still waiting for Teracubes to come back in stock (even the company itself is out, darn), and the S7 I was hoping to install it on seems to be some unrecognized regional variant despite nominally being one of the supported models; I’ll try a manual install this weekend.
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About two years ago I came across /e/ and decided to flash it on my Wileyfox. At that time I had already been fiddling around with different phones and os’s like Ubuntu Touch (ubports) on a second hand Oneplus One and Copperhead OS on a Nexus 5X. Ubports didn’t really work for me and after the screen of the phone broke I gave up on that. The Nexus bootlooped itself to death so that was the end of that. It was about the same time Copperhead ran itself into the ground.
/e/ didn’t run to well on the Wileyfox and after it got stuck on an update I said goodbye to it as well and switched to the dark side and bought myself a Samsung A8.
At the start of 2021 I bought an Pinephone and started experimenting with that. Good fun, but at the moment it isn’t good enough to be used as a daily device. Nevertheless I still have hopes for a useable Linux-phone.
A month ago I stumbled upon /e/ again and decided to give it another go. I bought a Gigaset GS290 because it was cheap. That it worked with the easy-installer was a plus.
I’m about a week on /e/ now and sofar it has been excellent. The update to 0.18 went also smooth.
I installed TrackerControl to keep trackers in apps like Spotify and Signal under control.
So I will keep on using it a my daily device and try to convince others to give it a try also. Unfortunately not a lot of people around me seem to give a lot about privacy-issues at all.
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I don’t remember exactly when I discovered the /e/ Foundation and learned about the excellent and important work they do, but it was probably sometime in 2020.
I have always been concerned about privacy and wary of tech companies that would willingly track and exploit their own customers in pursuit of profits. In recent years, such companies have only escalated that exploitation.
For a while I have known that I need to break free of Google, Apple, and other such exploitative tech companies. Every time I have attempted to free myself, I get sucked back in by the convenience and vast ecosystems.
Then Apple - the company that boldly stood up to the FBI and said they don’t build back doors into their products - announced that they were essentially building a back door into their own devices to scan photos and messages. And to try to make the bitter pill easier to swallow, they coated it in “it’s for the children”. Any decent human being knows that CSAM and those who produce it are pure evil. But if we examine and learn from human history, mass surveillance can be used for equally evil purposes. You cannot defeat evil with evil. You cannot dispel darkness with darkness.
I decided enough is enough and I started looking, once again, for alternatives. Although I had tried on at least four occasions in the past to purchase older phones and load LineageOS on them, I was only successful one time. I am the guy my family and friends come to for tech support, and I was extremely frustrated at how difficult it was to get LineageOS working on a phone and the hours and hours I had to spend researching all kinds of issues I ran into looking for solutions.
I was not looking forward to that process again, so I thought I would check out the /e/ Store once more. I had seen in the past that they were selling refurb Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones running /e/OS in my country (US), but when I checked this time, the Galaxy phones were gone and instead I saw a phone I had never heard of before: the Teracube 2e.
As I researched the Teracube 2e, I was more and more impressed. A phone that’s focused on longevity and sustainability? Replaceable battery? Headphone jack? OS updates for 3+ years? A 4 year manufacturer warranty?!??! For only $240 USD shipped?!!?! I ordered one on the spot. And I’m glad I did!
I’m new to the community and I’m still learning the ins-and-outs of the /e/ Foundation, Teracube, and how the hardware, software, and services all work. But I am really impressed at what each organization has been able to do and I think the future looks really bright for both.
Above all, I am thankful that there are passionate, principled people out there who are committed to providing technology products and services that respect their customers - that empower them to do what they need to do without exploiting them or trying to lock them into a proprietary ecosystem.
“Your data is YOUR data.” What a refreshing thing to hear, these days.
Thank you, /e/ Foundation!
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It’s actually good that you didn’t buy the Samsung, because they lack VoLTE implementation, which is required by T-mobile now, and will be required by AT&T in a few months.
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What’s Your Story? How Did You Find /e/?
I think it was last fall when Google censored a bunch of podcasts I like on Youtube (even though I’ve been listening to them for years and they never said a bad thing) that I decided I want to find an alternative. I realized they’re probably evil and share information with evil people, who I wouldn’t want to know where I am all the time, now that the biosecurity state is coming.
So I started a big research project, and looked at all sorts of devices and “alternative” phone operating systems, all of which seemed to have some rather big flaws. I ended up with three options: buy something like a PinePhone (which are way too big for me and have closed source Modems that might be reporting your position as well), Ubuntu Touch and /e/. So I bought a Nexus 4 for Ubuntu Touch and had it running, but you can’t install android apps on it and the only podcast player didn’t work, which made it rather useless for my purposes. So I “settled” for /e/, which I am actually rather fond of. Since I didn’t want to install any apps with trackers, I have a second phone with Lineage that I keep at home, for “apyware apps” like WhatsApp.
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Hi Everyone,
Sorry for my english, but i will try to tell my story…
When i learned more about Bill Gates and Big-Tech and what they do with our privacy, censoring and controlling i decided to leave Microsoft Windows for Linux Ubuntu. For now i use Ubuntu for more than 1 year and i am happy with it. Also i like the Opensource and a lot of software is free to use.
Yes something doesn´t work and you will have to do more research for it, but when you can take a little time to learn, it will help you to solve most of the problems.
After that i also look for Ubuntu for my phone, but a Facebook-friend told me that he was using Lineage OS. After some research i saw that my Huawei phone was not be able to install Lineage OS and then i found /e/!
And i will say that /e/ is a really good project with a good community.
But the GS290 phone is not a really good phone with some problems on /e/.
The only biggest thing that i want to change is to stream video´s to my TV without Google Chromecast, but maybe i need a new television for that. ( mine is old and small with 32 inch and fullhd) Also i will love it when there comes more tablets with /e/.
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Hi MichielP80, I haven’t tried this myself, and it’s not a wireless solution, but you may be able to use a usb-c to hdmi adaptor to mirror your phone on your tv.
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Interesting topic…thought it would be good to add my story as well
I was a program manager with a MNC and working out of Mumbai, India. We worked exclusively on Microsoft products…from the OS to tools.
My job required a lot of coordination and interaction all through emails and chat. Then the IT team introduced an app ( do not remember the name ) which was to be installed on all employee phones. During the setup you gave access to the app and through it the IT department could control your phone. Those who did not install the app were not able to access official emails or chat with other employees. The worst part was that these were not company phones but our personal devices!
I was not the only one irritated by this intrusion into our personal lives. A number of employees refused to sign on.
As a manager I had no option but the spark was ignited. I became interested in finding means to safeguard my privacy and keep my data safe.
At about the same time I saw a newspaper article about /e/…what attracted me to it was the connection with Mandrake Linux.
I had been a user of Mandrake almost two decades ago. That connection introduced me to Gaël. I started following /e/ activities and contributing where possible. Soon the interaction found me spending more and more time on /e/ and eventually I left my previous job and started working with /e/ … First as a volunteer and later by 2019 as an employee.
I can say that the journey has just started. We as an organization have had our ups and downs but with the support and cooperation of our users I am sure we will move ahead successfully and in the right direction.
Thanks to all of you 
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Hello everyone, I’m very great full to be here with this big community. I would like to tell my story and how I became a fan of /e/ OS. So I am a student and at the moment I m in the last year of college.
My Project is to create a connection between a /e/ smartphone and a Linux Laptop to share files with video and audio. I’m using the /e/ OS for two weeks, and I am a new user.
I will be happy if someone has more Knowledge about the /e/ and he can give me some advices, how to get started and to begin with my project.
Thanks
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‘Syncthing’ app should help with files I guess, at least it works on Lineage os, so I guess that on /e/ it will also work 
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Hmm that should must be work if i can mirror my screen to my usb port.
But it is not wireless and i cannot use my phone when i mirror my screen like this way.
But maybe i can use also a tablet for this.
I have also a MiraCast, but I can’t get that to work.
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Some six months ago, one Friday night, I was sitting in forest in SAR dog training just waiting to be found. To spend time I checked Twitter and noticed that Nextcloud had tweeted article about /e/ using Nextcloud as their cloud backend. I read the article and the geek in me got interested.
Pretty much next week I went to local phone repair shop and purchased used S9 and switched to it from Sailfish phone.
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My story begins about 7-8 years ago.
I was still using “Big Tech” products back then. The first thing I deleted was my Facebook account, it was obvious even then that this company was collecting a huge amount of personal data and making a lot of money from it. This was a first step for me in being aware of digital data and online privacy.
Over the years I started to replace all Google products and also started experimenting with custom ROMs. A few years ago I learned about the /e/ Foundation, but at the time I was not really convinced about their OS.
Early this year then, Whatsapp wants to implement new user terms with which it wants to collect even more data. I installed Signal and was able to convince my family and friends to do the same. Since I am at home a lot due to the corona lockdown in my country, I started reading a lot about online privacy/security. I then made a big decision for myself : I am going to banish all Big Tech software from my life and completely replace it with FOSS.
On my Desktop I switched to Linux (bye bye Microsoft), and in the middle of May I deleted my Whatsapp account (bye bye Facebook).
Since I had bought a new Fairphone 3+ in September 2020 I was also already testing back with /e/ OS on my old device. So at the moment I 'm still running stock Android on my FP3+ but I hope to fully switch to /e/ OS sometime this year so I can also delete my Google account. At that point I’m going to be completely free of Big Tech and my “mission” is accomplished.
When I see how much effort I had to put into this you realize how powerful these companies are. I hope this will change in the future, and I think the /e/ Foundation can play an important role here, but there is still a long way to go. Keep up the good work!
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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Hi Community,
Just checking in here. I found out about /e/ through the Fairphone community and now have a FP2 running /e/ by way of preparing to move my main phone (FP3).
I must say I like /e/ a lot and hope to move soon 
Thanks to you all
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Hi folks,
My journey to /e/ is probably pretty similar to others. I have been a long time android user. Initially I loved android phones, but as time went on I became more and more frustrated with them and how pushy Google has become. Even simple things like being forced to have facebook and chrome apps on your phone and just being hounded if you just want to turn location services off for a while. You just really don’t feel like it is your phone anymore using google.
I started looking for alternatives. I even tried an old flip phone for a while. I first came across the idea of a degoogled android watching Rob Braxman’s videos and it wasn’t long before I found /e/. There were other options on the table still. I was also pretty interested in the pinephone and the lightphone as well. I really liked the idea of a degoogled android and of the options, I liked /e/ the best because of their efforts to make it accessible to an average user like myself.
I have to say so far I love the phone. It really has been my favorite phone in a long time. You really don’t realize how much you are under the control of the big tech companies until you break free.
Many thanks to the team at /e/. What you guys have put together here is awesome and very important in today’s world.
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Already a few years ago, the topic of data protection began to interest me more and more. At some point I said goodbye to Windows and installed Linux. Even then, the thought of installing Linux or a custom ROM on my smartphone tempted me, but I had too much to worry about. Then, maybe three quarters of a year ago, the upgrade support for my smartphone ran out. But since I wanted to continue using my smartphone safely, I installed Lineage OS. However, that didn’t convince me of app compatibility. A few months ago, I found /e/ and it looked like it would be exactly what I wanted. However, I had read in a review that some Samsung smartphones, one of which I was using, would not be as well supported. So I bought a Teracube 2e and installed /e/OS on it. I have been a satisfied /e/ user ever since.
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I have come a long way from around 2010 when i fully switched to linux on my desktop, back then i was 16years old.
It was mostly for privacy reasons but also for dislike of windows and to see the possibilities.
This particular choice in combination with my previous phone, a nokia n800, led me to try getting rid of the windows mobile os on my htc HD2 and led my pathway into android custom roms.
I owned several smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S2P, S4mini, S5mini, htc one m8, xiaomi rn4x, poco f1, now on rn10pro) , that all had to be flashed to get that AOSP feeling and functionality, i wanted.
Sometimes communities already had what i was looking for other times it needed digging a bit deeper and getting involved in building and testing jobs. Which after years of dealing with linux was quite familiar.
Until i discovered microg and shortly after the back in the days very small project /e/ os. Which caught my attention, for tge same exact reasons as my switch over to linux back then except for google being the big corp this time.
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I’m a Linux user. I’m an “ethical” buyer. I have rooted all my previous phone, because I don’t want all the apps preinstalled and I want to decide what my device do. For some time, I was interested of buying an Ubuntu phone but, early this year, my wife gave me a Fairphone 4. I like it, but I was not happy to see Google Android preinstalled. Fortunately, Fairphone let me install another OS, so I find eOS. For me is the better choice: now I have a daily phone, not rooted, where I can install the same app others people use to install; I can synchronize calendar and contacts; I have a cloud where to save some files. This is what I was searching for years.
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I’ve been using Android for more than 10 years for now, and one of my friends helped me to install custom ROM on my first smartphone, then root. Since then I used custom ROMs always since those were more easy to personalize and delete the useless pre-installed apps. When I searched custom ROM for my mido, I already preferred to choose OS with privacy friendly features. And I have read about /e/ in an article mentioned as possible ROM for my phone. Then I got more interested and read this forum. I decided to install this and since then I’m happy with this OS because this was exactly what I expected, to avoid gooogle dependencies and also trackers from big tech companies. I use Linux on my desktop PC for the same reason. I also convinced my wife to use /e/ when I bought her a Redmi phone, and she likes it, too. One of my friends also got interested and I helped him to install /e/ on his phone, too. It’s good to share this and also to let other people know the reason why it’s better to get rid of big tech dependencies. Thank you for the team’s work!
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