@kevinrenskers @stuartm I have been exploring /e/OS on a phone and so far it works fine? My primary annoyance is that in-app purchases do not work (less money to Google, yay!).

In some ways it's a bit of a downgrade. But enough people have to accept a bit of a downgrade so that the alternatives get enough funding to improve.

Best of all, it does not have liquid glass.

@Fietsbel @wsslmn @vosje62 @BuyFromEU Yeah, though the situation is a bit more dire, a lot of Android manufacturers don't allow you to unlock the boot loader anymore, so you cannot install another os like /e/OS. Devices like Fairphone and Google Pixel are the exception.

@Fietsbel @wsslmn @alloalli @vosje62 @BuyFromEU Other Android vendors also build their own images from AOSP with their changes on top of it.

*However*, they also include Google Play Services, which gets privileged access to everything. /e/OS replaces Play Services by microG, which is an open source implementation of many of the Play Service APIs (needed for app compatibility).

@Fietsbel @wsslmn @vosje62 @BuyFromEU /e/OS is a European OS. Yes, it is built on AOSP, but it would be silly not to do that. Using AOSP makes it so that you don't have to develop the whole mobile OS from scratch and gives compatibility with Android apps.

Murena compiles /e/OS from the AOSP source with their own changes on top of it. If Google ever stops publishing AOSP sources, the E foundation/Europe could fork the AOSP project and continue developing it.

@Fietsbel @wsslmn @alloalli @vosje62 @BuyFromEU Yes and no. Google maintains AOSP code, but Google does not directly push compiled code to an /e/OS phone.

The /e/OS developers take the AOSP code, rip out things (like Google bits they don't like) and put their own bits on top. Then they compile the whole system (minus device firmware blobs) themselves and push the result out as an OS image.

So Google does not have direct control over an /e/OS phone.

@Fietsbel @wsslmn @alloalli @vosje62 @BuyFromEU But the Wikipedia page you are linking to says /e/OS does *not* leak data to Google (they challenges people to find leaks).

The reason is that /e/OS does not use Google Play Services, but emulates it using microG. Of course, if you are installing apps from the Play Store and using the Google notification service, you will leak data, but that is your own choice.