Hello
I have noticed (Jan 2025) that Lineage OS has discontinued support / updates to this device and I am wondering if this means that as a fork thereof, whether /e/os will indeed continue to update this device?
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online services
Unfortunately it would mean an end of life for the S8/S8+ in /e/OS as well.
The reason more than LOS stopping support would be the stopping of security patches as the OS is S or Android 12. Vendor also stop putting out updates for devices that are old. While we can try to make builds for such devices the chances are high that the applications will also not work as expected.
For now we have not finalized on this decision. The discussion are still in progress as this model has a large base with our users. Will share any updates on this discussion.
For devices still on S, where technically possible, we will work on upgrading the OS to T or U.
Our very best @ronnz98 has shown that a working [UNOFFICIAL BUILD] Samsung Galaxy S8 / S8+ / Note 8 for /e/OS-U is even possible for the S8-Family.
Although the first attempt to build an /e/OS-U for S9 (starlte) has failed, it’s not all evening yet.
It would be very desirable if the Samsung Galaxy S8/S9 family could live on with a current degoogled OS.
The Galaxy S8 and S9 family are first-class Samsung smartphones, “small” by today’s standards (5.8“ / 6.2” Super AMOLED with high resolution 1440x2960px), fast UFS 2.0/2.1 internal memory, USB Type-C 3.1, puristically slim and IP68 dust/water resistant.
Thank you both Manoj & Xxpsilon for answering.
It sounds like there is some hope yet - the large user base of S9 coupled with a strong developer/maintainer team might yet bring it back from the brink.
A small android phone and running a de-googled ROM have only a limited set of choices these days. Would be a shame to loose these, especially as the hardware still works perfectly well otherwise.