I know the generall guidance for private phones was Pixel with graphene OS. I was financially planing on buying a 10th gen pixel when they come out later this year to only put gos on it. However with the recent news, I am wondering if this is still the recommended best practice from this community.
I am worried that if the gos team needs to spend tonnes of ressources on maintaining basic drivers and stuff then they won’t have any time to work on the privacy and security features they are best known for.
What is your oppinion?
Also does anyone have a way to dpam feedback to google? I couldn’t finf a generall feedback form, but if they know that people aren’t buying their hardware because of this decision, they might back down. (I really fell in love with gos researching it lately so I would hate to have to switch to something like /e/ os or calyx or something)
How does it work to get banking apps and similar on /e/os? Do you have to sideload?
Ah, glad you asked because this is precisely what I highlighted to a friend yesterday : it works, even that!
I make online purchases, like train tickets here in Belgium on the go, with the phone, via the website of SNCB (the national railroad) or any most other commercial website basically. So yes at least some banking apps do work, as I can’t obviously confirm for ALL of them.
In practice you get
App Loungein anonymous mode, letting you download and install apps from the (proxied AFAICT) Play Store. So you do not need to login to any store yet can install apps beyond solely F-Droid. That being said the vast majority of Apps I use come from F-Droid or directly install the .apk via adb.Aha! Thank you :) My next phone will definitely be /e/os then. I can’t really justify buying a new phone now when my old phone works, but maybe a refurbished one wouldn’t add to e-waste I guess.
Please don’t hesitate to ask questions as they come. I’m not /e/OS expert but this was the last piece in my transition from proprietary tech and walled gardens, so I admit very glad I tried and happy with the result!
PS: maybe /eOS work with a phone you or a friend has, see https://doc.e.foundation/devices
Thank you, it is for me too. I’ve been running linux and bsd for 15 years, and now I’ve realized that my phone and the services I use have been a blind spot. I have two phones that are supported to install but only through adb. What does os version S,T,U mean in the list?
Exactly! Few months ago a friend was home and I was proudly showcasing my HomeAssistant on RPi, all ZigBee, no non-standards IoT, no vendor lock-in, SteamDeck to play on Linux, streaming videos with VLC on my video projector via miniDLNA, etc. He was impressed… then asked “Right, and what’s your phone?” to which I, quite ashamed, had to confess I was relying on an iPhone. It was secure, no Android, etc. On that day I thought “Ok… ok I got PinePhones, I got other gadgets but somehow this specific part of my digital life is wrong!” and thought I should try, even if it wouldn’t work, something else. I also wanted, due to geopolitics (sadly), a non American solution so checked https://volla.online/ which looked wonderful but too expensive for a test. Noticed Murena, French based, refurbished or even new phones but much lower price but still paying for service and I hope for /e/OS maintenance and voila, found a compromise that works for me for now!
S,T,U are build versions, where S and T are official and U is community. You can see a discussion on https://community.e.foundation/t/difference-between-e-os-builds/60585/7