LXCast 3: /e/ project – freeing the Fairphone 3 (and many other phones)

In this episode, we look at how to get a free smartphone operating system on the Fairphone 3 (and many other phones), thanks to a great free OS called /e/.

Shownotes

The LXCast episode #2 on the Fairphone 3 when it came out

 

Two solutions for a free OS:

1 lineage OS – free android with the Gapps removed

2 the /e/ project !! A „de-googled“ operating system – actually a fork of lineage OS – this is what I‘m going to talk about here.

 

Background articles

An article about /e/ on ZDNet (2019)

The research paper on Google Data Collection by Professor Douglas C. Schmidt, Vanderbilt University (2018) – learn how and how often normal Android phones send your data to Google servers.

Another background article on tracking (in German) based on research from a Norwegian journalist

 

More about /e/

/e/ uses MicroG services, a replacement for Google’s libraries on /e/ with purely open-source implementations.

The man behind the /e/ project: Gael Duval, pioneer of Open Source, Mandrake, Ulteo…

Gael’s article outlining his vision for /e/

You can buy a FP3 and an FP3 + with /e/ pre-installed here

 

Installing /e/ on your phone

Over 110 devices supported: from Asus to Google, to Oneplus and Xiaomi

https://doc.e.foundation/devices/

How to install it on the FP3

Privacy ratings of apps: https://exodus-privacy.eu

 

Alternative Android Launchers:

KISS launcher

Simple launcher

 

I recommended you add these apps:

Antennapod – podcast client

FairEmail or simple email

Fennec (Firefox)

Signal

Newpipe for watching youtube without being tracked

 

Backup and Recovery

Backup via adb is apparently broken… Not the fault of /e/!!

You cannot simply flash a new recovery, such as TWRP, to flash images or backup, instead, you can use this method launching TWRP from your PC

 

How to support /e/ OS

Donate or become a member to keep the project going

 

That’s all for this episode, feel free to add any comments below!

Credits: Theme Music: Jazzhar, “Room with a View” CC-BY-SA, check him out on Jamendo and on Free Music Archive

 

 

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