/e/OS is not fully degoogled, as DNS connectivity checks, hardware attestation provisioning, and eSIM activation all go through Google.
It is often many weeks or months behind on security updates, especially in the WebView, which makes it easy to exploit.
It doesn’t support bootloader locking on many devices, and if you lock the bootloader on a phone that does support it, it could brick if /e/OS is on an older security patch than the stock ROM was.
It doesn’t use a lot of the hardening in GrapheneOS such as hardened_malloc which prevents memory corruption exploits, even if the hardware supports it.
And finally, /e/OS’s text-to-speech sends what you say to OpenAI, despite local options being available.
If you want a properly secure Android phone, the best option is GrapheneOS, however it only supports Pixel phones and future Motarola phones due to its high security requirements.
If you can’t get a Pixel then iOS in lockdown mode is the next best option, however if you can’t replace your phone, LineageOS is much worse than Graphene although it is still much better than /e/.
As someone who bought a Murena FairPhone 5 with /e/OS preinstalled because I had the option to pay a reasonable price for a decent phone that isn’t Google branded, and have been enjoying the experience with it for a while now, I don’t think I’m going to fall for that very obvious rage bait that’s been copy-pasted from an aggressive forum post.
I’ll give GrapheneOS my attention when it works on more than one phone. I hear Motorola is building a second phone for it to be compatible with.
I’m using a stick FP 4 and am really happy about it, I just try to lock down the android bloat from time to time. My wife has a murena Teracube. After changing the launcher, she is really happy with the software, but the hardware is hot garbage, so she plans to get a new one soon.
Our idea was the FP4, because I have good experiences with it, you still get spare parts and it’s comparable cheap.
Do you know whether there was anywhere a bit jump in performance from FP4 to 5?
I love my FP4, but my manager just bought himself a FP6 and… I’m envious! It seems ti scratch almost every itch I have with FP4
(screen draws too much power and isn’t bright enough in summer, phone is a bit too large, etc.)
Pity my FP4 won’t stop working anytime soon.
(Actually joking, at almost 4 years, no phone has ever survived this long in my dangerous hands, and I’m so happy about that).
I’d give FP6 serious thought. On the other hand, maybe you can get some great bargain on a used FP4 (FP4 isn’t sold new anymore).
I still see FP4 in the Fairphone store on Amazon, so can’t be to bad. Is like 200€ while the new one is north of 600€ (don’t remember the exact price). But yeah, looking into the used market might make sense. Ty
tbh they’re on the FairPhone 6 now, so it might be worth taking another look if you’re approaching time to upgrade. :)
I know, in getting old… ;)
I had a terracube. It litterally broke apart in my hands. The glue for the screen stopped working. And i tried to get it repaired only to be told they didnt support the first phone anymore. After less than two years.
I now have a fairphone 4. Much better device!
There are dozens of hardware issues with that phone. Really a shame