First of all I am very happy user of /e/os since 2018.
Before that, around 2015 I wanted to see how far I could get to ungglen, ggmail, ggApps etc, etc.
I was using CyanogenMod/LineageOS, on a moto -G & -E (2013 & 2015), which I still use, but was still kind of dependent on ggll stuff.
In 2018, /e/Os came across my path by searching again on Unggoogle my mobile.
Looking for new developments in that field. I got curious after seeing a /e/os promo video on devtube.
Since then /e/os has been running on the moto’s.
Big thanks for developing /e/os and keep my old mobiles alive.
Hi there
Today it’s my third phone with /e/ OS !
I like it so much !
My first was Moto G G4
The second was Gigaset
And now Redmi note 9 pro. Today this one is the best quality i’ve got. And with V1 !
So i am very satisfied with /e/ OS.
Congratulations for the team.
I think the next will be Teracube 2e
Or you could connect a computer to your TV, stream from the browser, and block trackers directly in the browser (via NoScript, uBlockOrigin, Privacy Badger add-ons).
If you want to discuss further, let’s create a new thread.
I’m coming over from Sailfish OS which is a great achievement on it’s own and in my eyes the most complete and stable and most linux smartphone OS you can have which is still usable without AOSP at all. But theres also a decent android app support available out of the box without play services and without microG. While being a great OS from the technical POV I increasingly missed some things over time what makes me searching an alternative for SFOS. So I started to give /e/os 0.23 a try, now I’m on 1.1 of course. Having flashed Sailfish and LOS many times on several different phones I had no problem at all with the flashing process of /e/os. I liked the /e/ package right away: AppLounge is simply there (no need to install fdroid, then aurora), sync with ecloud is simply there, the bliss launcher is pretty much the same as the Sailfish OS launcher… and there were much more benefits than regressions (performance, memory consumption, app compatibility) - so I completely switched.
Hello all,
I would also like to share my story of how I came to /e/OS.
I (46) have always been a device user who looked at the “behind”. In my early days I had my iMac and was excited about the simplicity of how Apple devices harmonize.
At some point I got into Linux and quickly came to the conclusion that I could find my workflow on an Ubuntu system as well. My knowledge increased, I now had a new hobby. For a long time I felt constricted in the Apple cosmos and Apple’s company policy with the fast release cycles made me angry at some point. Profit maximization before simplicity of the products. In the meantime the Open Source thought inspired me and still inspires me today.
I switched next to my Ubuntu system to an Android device. But now I always had in mind that I was freer to install apps, but also had to cope with Google’s privacy policy. Here I often had a lot of belly ache and tried to use as little google apps as possible.
In early 2021, I came across the eFoundation site by accident. At that time, I was still using a Huawei Mate 10 Pro.
Since I did not dare to flash a smartphone yet, I was very taken with the Easy Installer. I switched to a Gigaset GS290 with /e/.
I’ve been with it since V0.12 and my enthusiasm continues to this day. In the meantime, I have learned a lot about Nextcloud and have already been able to flash a few smartphones myself. I had a Nextcloud instance on a Rasberry Pi, all at home.
For security reasons and due to my insufficient server knowledge I decided to use an eCloud and I am very happy with it.
In the meantime I can’t imagine my digital life without /e/, even my tablet runs on /e/OS. Simple - fast - (almost always) without problems
I also like the touchpoint on Gitlab with the developers, so I really identify with the OS. There you can report bugs, which are then fixed by the developers.
I have now introduced many of my friends and acquaintances to /e/OS and helped them flash and set up their smartphones. They are now as happy as I am.
I first heard about /e/ back in 2019. I’d been looking for an alternative to the ‘Apploid’ duopoly for quite a few years (I had been on BlackBerry for over a decade, but we know how that turned out…), and Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism motivated me to finally find that alternative.
There were three that stood out:
LineageOS;
SalifishOS; and
/e/OS
which I was intrigued about. Of course, there was also GrapheneOS, but I had a problem back then with the idea of using a Google Pixel for privacy & security I’m over it now, BTW, since I’ve come to understand the way that GOS operates. It’s still on my “possible” list, but users report difficulties with running many apps, so it is a backburner idea for now.
Looking for a phone that could run all of these led me to get the Sony Xperia XA2 (pioneer) in early 2019 as an experimental device, so I investigated the install instructions for all of these. It turns out that this was necessary, since it took a long time to finally put together the instructions from Sailfish and Lineage to get LOS onto it first, then eOS at last, in Mar 2020. The drivers were the problem on a Windows machine.
I’ve been using it ever since, and recently re-flashed to 1.1-r. The driver issue no longer applies since I am now on a Linux machine. I am very happy with the eOS philosophy and the whole ecosystem it has, but I am even more looking forward to the day when the backend eCloud moves to fully zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption. The lack of this is, at the moment, my main concern, especially given recent errors that have led to user data being accidentally exposed. Best to make such mistakes irrelevant entirely.
My backup phone is a Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish.
I also hesitated a lot because I read about other peoples struggle.
But it was easy. I used Mageia Linux, as i am a long time Linux user.
BTW: Mageia, former Mandriva, former Mandrake was founded by the same person as founded /e/
Been rooting Android phones for a LONG time and over the years, have formed by own way of “debloating” or “Hardening” a phone. From Cyanmod > LineageOS and one night found /e/OS. Havent looked back. /e/OS does everything that I normally do plus more.
Hello, everyone,
I learned about /e/ OS through a post on mastodon where a user was undecided whether to install it or not. When from my research I learned that it was a degoogled android, I installed it immediately and haven’t abandoned it since. The first version I installed seems to me to have been 0.16 if I remember correctly.
Wow, it’s really cool to see that people are still engaging with this post even years after I made it. I really enjoy reading everyone’s stories and hope this post will continue growing well into the future!
I saw the ad for the new Murena 2 phone and it’s got me excited all over again. This is the 3rd phone I’ve seen with privacy dip switches, the other two being the Pinephone and the Librem 5. I think this new feature for /e/ is LEGEND and I hope it will become a standard for privacy smartphones going forward.
I randomly came across /e/OS as I was searching for a phone with a removable battery in the first place.
The phone I used also had a removable one, but I was very dissapointed with it as there was no custom ROM available for it. I de-bloated and de-googled it by myself and still, there was no guarantee that this phone was not sending any private information back home.
Long story short, I ended up searching phone models via GSM-Arena. They were not many phones with a removable battery and most which did, didn’t have support for custom or de-googled ROMs except the Fairphone!
Then I read that the Fairphones original ROM is shipped with Play Services installed. So I read further and came across Fairphones partnership with Murena and also support of other OS makers like Iode and CalyxOS.
I was so impressed by the visual look and functions and ethical principles of /e/ that I said to myself, this phone with this OS is exactly what I was searching for!
I donated (anonymously) to eloo in 2018 i think. at that time i was searching for ungoogled cloud for my PC and installed Nexcloud. I had an apple 5, and when i saw the kicstarter project I found it perfectly matching my needs for a new phone and environnement.
My brother offered me a MI8 for Christmas, on which he previously installed /e/OS as there weren’t no more phone in the store that would have been in his budget. I was very please with launcher after using IOS for years.
I don’t remember how I was aware of the project, but it was surely a chance.
I still donate to /e/ foundation monthly and I’m going to ask my brother to update my mi8 to dipper T.
Edit : /e/os 1.17-t is now installed on my phone. great changes for me, coming from beta.
kuddos to murena team !
As a developer, I truly value open-source and privacy. I think we’re part of a minority of people that are able to understand the technology that we use everyday and the implications of what it means to use a service / hardware or software.
It was a revelation when I started to install Linux on my computer and learn about how it worked under the hood. Seeing so many open-source alternatives to the major apps I used to use was so rewarding. Sharing code with others also brings people together and makes communities.
I had Linux on my computer(s) but it was never an issue on my phone because I found that flashing a ROM and changing the OS was quite complicated and not supported on older phones. I recently bought a new phone (previous one was 6 years old because old tech is still working) which is the FairPhone 4 (repairable, removable battery, transparency…) and installed e/OS/ was very straightforward and simple!
What a relieve to be able to install apps without Google services and tracking, owning your data is so valuable so thank you for making the tech world a better place
I stumbled over the murena website while I was looking for information about the Fairphone. This was suggested to me by an acquaintance. My two months old android phone, a Samsung Galaxy A54, was giving me constantly issues to the point that once it froze while I was entering the pin to unblock the screen. When I restarted the device I discovered that I’d been locked out and couldn’t enter the pin for24 hours. I was very upset and asked around people for suggestions about smartphones.
I wasn’t looking for a privacy based phone because at that point I didn’t think I could find something like this. I’ve been looking to degoogle for a long time now, but I really don’t want to buy an iphone (it’s already enough that I have to use it for work) and I don’t think I could be without a smartphone. I’m very happy now with my murena Fairphone I think I’d like to contribute to the open source projects, I’m a developer
Long story short : I started working in Machine learning 3 years ago and got really concerned by privacy related to big data. Then, I read 1984. The week after, /e/os was installed on my phone.
I have now proudly installed it on the phone of a dozen of friends
So, I’ve been modding my handsets for years, trying to straddle the line of “having an Android phone” and “having control of an Android phone” since the 4.0 days. For some time, this was done with modded ROMs and XPrivacy/XPrivacy Lua. In theory, it was a great solution, and for the time it was, but as those programs became less actively maintained, it was worth the time to start exploring alternatives.
Pure AOSP ROMs were a bit too sparse for my liking. I did run LineageOS for a while with “only” the Play Store, but even that felt like “too Googled for privacy, not enough Googled for convenience”.
I think someone in a Slashdot thread mentioned /e/OS; it could have been an XDA thread as well - I don’t remember specifically. While Graphene and Calyx are purely privacy focused (and respectable projects in their own right), what drew me to /e/OS were two things:
The time spent on the ecosystem, not just the ROM. Other projects focus on the phone, and leave it to the users to figure out the e-mail/calendar/contacts/storage elements. Apple has iCloud and Google has…G-Suite, I guess? but the privacy ROMs left users to figure out how and where to store their data. /e/OS was the first one to address that need and fill it.
…and it’s (mostly) possible to self-host that solution in addition to the presence of a cloudy version. As most of us are aware, “there is no cloud…there’s only someone else’s computer”. Murena not only provides the sort of service Apple and Google provide to their end users, they do so at reasonable prices and with a far better privacy policy, but i’m unaware of any other mobile device OS that provides that much flexibility.
When that combination was seen, and it was possible to do it all on the phone I already had…it was a no brainer to switch.
Long years ago i flashed an old HTC with cyanogen because i needed to try Android 2…
Later i got the Oneplus One and i tryed to flash the official Cyanogen Mod partnership with Oneplus. Next i tryed LineageOS too, normal for who that know.
My curiosity let me found a list on wikipedia, about alternative rom for smartphone. Like this i founded e/OS project.
I tryed it on my Oneplus 3, since i’m using e/OS/.
I’m specialized on Oneplus phone and i flashed every models, actualy i got the Oneplus9 and it work well very well and i convert people around me about that OS for data privacy.
I’ve been using Linux for over 30 years and about 10 years ago started to get into custom Roms. I had a regular android phone as my daily driver and a second one as a ‘test subject’ to install and try custom Roms.
Back then I would mostly work with xiaomi’s MI OS but I pretty much tried every compatible rom out there.
Around 5 years ago after trying cyanogedmod and lineage os I first heard of /e/OS. A Google free Android OS.
Long story short: I was hooked and haven’t looked back. Now I’m the main Spanish translator for this project
I think I’d like to contribute to the open source projects, I’m a developer
