For me as well, Mandrake was the first Linux distribution I tried and actually used
I’m really picky about how a system feels to use,
and a lot of GSIs don’t work for me because they have an app drawer.
Don’t get me wrong, the app drawer isn’t bad, it’s just not my cup of tea.
I wanted an ‘ethical phone’ and heard about Fairphone. Then I discovered on their website they offer a privacy OS that its open source I was sold. Previously i was using a refurbished phone thinking I cant do any better.
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Like most others here, my search for an alternative was driven by concerns about the invasive nature of Google. Basically the costs of being on google’s system now outweigh the benefits for me. When Louis Rossmann pointed out how easy it was to install grapheneOS via the browser, and I happened to need a new phone, I figured I’d get a pixel 6a and install graphene. I enjoyed that for years. But when Google recently decided they needed to halve the battery life of the 6a because they wanna, I decided no more google spec’d hardware either.
I considered all the alternative OS’s but I’m in Australia - so I needed a phone with an alternative ROM that I could be sure would work on VoLTE (Australia deleted it’s 2 & 3G networks and all phones must use VoLTE for calling). I figured the only way I could be confident about it working was to choose a phone that I could buy domestically from a real store - that way I can take it back if I need to (not taking a $600 gamble on it working thanks).
Since e/OS supports so many phones I was able to find something that met most of my requirements, and I’m pretty happy with it.
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I was an Apple user. Mac, iPad, iPhone, apple TV…
In 2019, I realised my iPhone was doing some things I didn’t ask it to do. Like determinate my office based on my locations for example. I had a battery problem and the price to replace it was 80€ if I remember well…
So I decided to search a phone that can be fix by myself and an OS which will respect more my private life.
I found efoundation with e/os/ and Fairphone with FP3 on the web.
I bought my first FP3 beginning of 2020 and flashed it with e/os/.
Since then, I buy refurbished FP and install e/OS/ for people around me, explaining advantages of that phone and OS.
To the team, you are doing a great work ! Thanks a lot. And special thanks to @Manoj for his availability everywhere in this forum 
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Hello forum members,
It is my first post in this forum.
At the beginning, I searched for a replacement ROM for my old Samsung S5 mini which was stuck on Android 6 and was no more able to run some of my Apps. I discovered /e/OS/ which seemed to me following a right goal; keeping our lives as far away as possible GAFAM influences.
I also discovered that /e/OS/ was created by Gael Duval a French person who also created Mandrake Linux my first Linux try.
Unfortunately, /e/OS/ was not available for my old phone.
I decided to buy another Android phone Asus Zenphone 10 because it was the one with the smallest screen size even if its battery is not easily replaceable, unlike the S5 mini.
Two years after, I gave a FP6 with /e/OS/ as a gift to my wife. Unfortunately, some of my wife’s apps were not compatible with /e/OS/. Finally, I kept the FP6 with /e/OS/ for my own usage and bought her a FP6 with Android stock.
FP6 was my choice because of its repairability and its service life with /e/OS/.
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Hello !
I’m new to the /e/os and to this community, but already very enthusiastic !
I’ve always been curious about alternative OSes and the world of open-source software. I tried Debian linux in the early 2000’s, then left because at that time maintaining the computer running required a lot of “tweaking” and efforts to run everything I needed.
I kept away from smartphones untill 2012, when I bought a Nokia running “Symbian OS”. This phone was stolen a few months later in Italy, and as I was travelling a lot at that moment, people were encouraging me to keep in touch on facebook, I wanted easy access to my (g)mail, calling my family over WhatsApp instead of having expensive roaming fees. So I bought my first Samsung Android a few months later in south america for an affordable price.
A few years later when Micro$oft introduced forced the update to Win 9 (or 10 I don’t remember exactly) then I decided to check again if there were alternatives. Linux distros had significantly improved in the meantime and I have been since using Linux as main operating system (Ubuntu, then Linux Mint), keeping Windows in dual-boot for some specific tools I can’t find in linux. Also left FB in the meantime (just kept an account for professionnal use)
I naively believed that, since Android is based on Linux, it didn’t have the same privacy issues.
Then I think it’s at the end 2010’s/early 2020’s that I realised how tied we are to Big-techs, and especially Google, and how they “trap” us, with pre-installed, very intuitive and easy-to-use, free software. That was to me the most difficult step : getting rid of OEM Android and moving all my data to a less intuitive but privacy-friendly solution. I switched to a self-hosted Synology NAS, then to an online instance of NextCloud which I still use today. Wanted to flash my phone with Lineage but I met a lot of difficulties and finally bricked my phone.
I restored the stock Android but started removing the google Apps + many bloatwares using ADB commands. Then my next phone (Crosscall core X4) was a complete mistake : I went for it because it’s French brand (at least desgin, not manufacturing), robust phones, but I am very disappointed by the poor features (especially camera) + the tons of Bloatwares that come with it.
Finally, because I had 2 simcards and the Crosscall’s OS (Android 10, sic) doesn’t include the privacy settings that I needed to really separate pro and personnal use, I decided to buy a second phone, but I wanted something durable, ethic (as far as a smartphone can be), and if possible privacy-focused, and this is how I bought a Fairphone and tried to flash it with /e/
The online installer didn’t work, but after a few steps and because I’m familiar with linux environment I managed to have it working and I was satisfied of the /e/ experience. Therefore I tried flashing @ronnz98 unofficial build on an old Samsung Galaxy A20e which succeeded as well, so I gave the fairphone to my wife and keep the Galaxy as personnal device.
I think there will be no turning back as we are both very satisfied to have discovered /e/OS. As we are already using NextCloud the transition was very straightforward, and doesn’t change our habits. Also the community is great and we can get good support from other, more experienced users, which is valuable too. It seems to be really what I was looking for : a privacy-focused OS which works out of the box, but not too many restrictions, and the possibility to use as a “normal” Android.
As already mentionned in this post, the main problem is having to do without some of the banking apps, that are required for sensitive operations.
The rest is just little improvements, like having an updated version of Applounge available instead of having to install both F-Droid and Aurora, etc…
If I can be of any help, please let me know and I will be pleased to give back to the community !
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Thank you for the piece of information @piero. Today, when I look at the screen definition of the Samsung S5 mini, I find it too bad since I had an Asus Zenfone 10 (5.9 ") and now a FP6.
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