/e/OS - Murena Smartphones
cross-posted from: https://monero.town/post/444500
Your data is YOUR data!
An iPhone or an Android smartphone collects several megabytes of your personal data every day to Google Servers, even when it is inactive.
Murena smartphones have been designed to offer a different approach to users who care about privacy and data-hungry handsets.
Those smartphones are running the open-source “/e/OS” operating system, which is fully “deGoogled”: by default it doesn’t send any data to Google and it’s been designed to offer a great and natural user experience.
/e/OS is paired with carefully selected applications. They form a privacy-enabled internal system for your Murena smartphone. And it’s not just claims: open-source means auditable privacy.
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It looks like these are Android phones that have just been rooted and had a different os installed.
Fairphone officially supports /e/OS devices
Also Android devices don't need to be rooted to install an alternative OS
How do you install an alternate os if the phone isn't rootable? Everything I've tried starts with rooting, and there's not a way to root my particular phone.
Depends on the device. Some allow the bootloader to be unlocked officially. Root is usually needed when you unlock the bootloader unofficially, using some hack.
Also, /e/os supports an official gsi, which can be installed without root.
That said, these phones aren't suited for people that need absolute security and privacy. They're more experimental and aimed at enthusiasts of the project who want to support it.
I can see why eos raises some concerns, but i find it to be an interesting alternative with moderate potential. We definitely need more alternatives to standard android.
It's really more about the eOS.
I'm probably just overly paranoid, but I don't trust that Google, in particular, would make the most easily rooted phone (Pixel) without burying something beneath the os that still tracks things.
I'm more excited about something akin to the Fairphone that's built from the ground up with no relationship to Google.
You are not alone with this thoughts. Purism
offers phones that have the open source deeply in mind. You can even check xRays of their board.
As someone that happens to using e/os on a phone with an unofficial device. You are technically correct. They offer custom Roms for a variety of devices that you can install however they also have their own range of devices which admittedly is lack luster in terms of price to performance. From what I gather those devices try to follow in the footsteps of the Fairphone but with all the growing pains of a startup... I like the os. they offer cloud services as an addon that you can pay for which is based on nextcloud. The integration with the cloud services in surprisingly deep. Coming back to the fact that its based on nextcloud you also have the option to self host (which I recommend) and still benefit from the tight integration and that aspect alone is a major reason why I'm still using it. Gallery, notes,backups,cloud storage. All the Google like service's built in but without the Google
The biggest problem I've had with e/OS is the lack of apps. Banking apps, official apps, etc. All require Google Play most of the time. As an Android developer, I know how to make this work, but the average user won't.
I haven't tried in two years. Maybe things have changed.
With Aurora store you can install all Apps, no matter of banking apps or other Android apps.
Worth mentioning to those unfamiliar with e/os is it comes with a built in app store "app lounge" that also has access to play store apps so you don't even need to go to the effort of installing aurora. One less thing you have to do
Unfortunately not ALL apps. Certain apps have checks in place to detect if they were installed from the Play Store or not, and if they don't, they won't start and ask you to reinstall. I have to be careful ful which apps I update through Aurora.
It's absolute horseshit and goes against the entire open ecosystem thing but what can we do.
That being said with how ad ridden the Play Store is, I'm glad I never have to open it unless it's to open one of those stupid apps.
This isn’t true. Most financial apps won’t work without a clear SafetyNet report.
I had several different banking apps, in different countries.
I have yet to be able to install anything from Aurora. The account is always limit exceeded or something like that.
I'm sure there's a workaround but it's not a plug and play solution for everyone.
This is not e/OS's fault though.
Yeah, the anonymous accounts are kind of annoying. If I go into the settings and swap 2-3 times I'll usually get one that works and lets me search. I've installed 6 or so apps this way.
I'm gonna keep trying :)
What's wrong with just using the web for apps that don't work. Most sites these days are designed for mobile screens nowadays. I typically use the web for my bank and there's no issues. Just got to know your password. Same thing for Facebook.
I use /e/is and I like it. Having a built in tracker blocker is nice.
I can't personally speak on the banking side. e/os has micro g implemented now, and on my device it passes the safety checks associated with it. To be fair though I can't give a full endorsement for how well micro g works as a whole (I'm not logged in) In general I've shifted to FOSS apps so my sample size for google play services reliant apps is limited but the one's I have used, open fine without annoying pop up errors.
I think you're confusing rooting with unlocking the bootloader. These most definitely have the bootloader unlocked, or at least, it had to be unlocked to replace the OS (sometimes it can be re-locked after), but they aren't necessarily rooted.
Bootloader unlocking is officially supported by many manufacturers (though your warranty is voided), and allows modifying the OS, which might be rooting, or completely replacing the OS (and the new OS might not be rooted).
Rooting, instead, just means becoming "root" (superuser, admin) on the device, which allows (almost) complete control over it.
You could say the same about a Kindle