experiences of eOS degoogled

[timconsidine]

Wondering if any here have experience of eOS deggoogled phone OS.

I have been using GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 4 and like it.
But I have a OnePlus 7Pro which GrapheneOS does not support.
I was looking at LineageOS but was put off by their installation process.

I read on Activists Toolbox (https://activiststoolbox.com) that they are switching to eOS.
Anyone tried it ?

[robi]

This reminded me of Rob Braxman who uses https://calyxos.org/ on his deG'd phones.

[timconsidine]

Thanks Robi
Haven't seen much of Rob Braxman lately - will check that link

[lukas]

I heard e/OS is not really degoogled OS, here you can read a very good review, it's in german: https://www.kuketz-blog.de/e-datenschutzfreundlich-bedeutet-nicht-zwangslaeufig-sicher-custom-roms-teil6/

[timconsidine]

thank you @lukas

[nottheend]

I have been using e/OS 1 or 2 years ago. It is less mature than GrapheneOS. Concepts are there but technically not as advanced and thought through as in GrapheneOS.
If you really want to use a unsupported GrapheneOS I would still use e/OS as an alternative, but you need to keep in mind its purpose and maturity level

[jdaviescoates]

I've been using /e/ OS for a while now and overall I think it's great. I think they strike a good balance between minimising connections to Google servers, anonymising them where they are necessary, all whlist keeping the whole system pretty easy to use and user friendly. For the majority of people (which none of these are really ready for yet) it seems like the best effort in the space to me.

@lukas said in experiences of eOS degoogled:

I heard e/OS is not really degoogled OS, here you can read a very good review, it's in german: https://www.kuketz-blog.de/e-datenschutzfreundlich-bedeutet-nicht-zwangslaeufig-sicher-custom-roms-teil6/

To be fair, his conclusion is:

We remember the opening quote:

/e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled”, mobile ecosystem

I would agree if /e/ did not activate microG by default. If microG is enabled, you should be aware that some connections are made to Google servers. My definition of deGoogled is: Complete independence from Google services and Google infrastructure. Apart from the standard initialization of microG and the unique connection to firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com(Carrier-Settings app) the developers have done a good job to free / from Google.

So even that critical review ends up saying they've done a good job. And let's face it, must of us who want to be degoogled still rely on apps that are only available via the Google Play store (e.g. all my banking apps) and so we need microG if we want usability.

I just saw this in /e/ OS docs:

If you are looking for an OS with hardened security, use Graphene, if you are searching for an OS that helps you keep your data safe from Google, use /e/OS . The choice depends on your needs.

https://doc.e.foundation/support-topics/how-does-e-os-compare

Although I have to say I find this sentence a bit confusing:

You can have the most secure device, but that will not change the fact that your data will be constantly streaming your data to Google or Facebook . Zero-privacy can be achieved in a very secure way.

Because given the context it would seem to imply that GranphenOS is constantly streaming your data to Google or Facebook, which I don't think it is.

Overall, I thought this comment on the /e/ OS forum summed it up pretty nicely and succinctly:

/e/ removes unnecessary calls to google and anonymizes those which are necessary using microg. Also /e/ cant stop 3rd party apps making calls to google, or web pages. You need an adblocker for that.

[timconsidine]

That’s really helpful thank you

[jdaviescoates]

I should add, the worst annoying problem I've had have been poor BlueTooth performance. But to be fair it's gotten a lot better over time and I think at least part of the issue is my hardware, not the software.

There was also a foollshly planned roll out of their actually pretty cool Advanced Privacy features: when they first push the update it was all turned on by default, including the spoofing of location and IP address, which made loads of apps (like maps, both others too) just not work because they were being blocked by the new Advanced Privacy features.

Again for usability, I actually turn quite a few of their Advanced Privacy features off because too many things just don't work if you have them on (e.g. unfortunately for one of my contracts with a Charity I do some work for I need to use Outlook and it just wasn't working because all M$ servers were automatically being blocked - but it was OK once I whitelisted the necessary ones).