Any one know a good custom rom for Fairphones? Is /e/OS a good option?
Are there downsides that arent realy known?
PostmarketOS has piqued my interest as the most promising Linux phone OS. I would give it a try if you can put up with an immature system, at least when compared to Android.
The lack of VoLTE in Linux OS phones is a dealbreaker for me, but otherwise, I’ve run pmOS with Posh and it works reasonably well now as of 25.06
I have a fairphone 4 with /e/OS. It’s been everything I’ve needed without being spectacular.
A big complaint is the way you get apps. I don’t add apps often, and often I use adb, but the App Lounge is slow af. I predominately use obtanium to get the apk’s directly. It has F-Droid built in, but if that doesn’t work I use F-Droid proper. This splits my apps into 4 separate bins which I absolutely hate.
The camera also sucks. Stabilization, quality of images, low light, images with motion. They are all bad. Luckily for me, I don’t take pictures of people often. This applies to most camera apps. The default camera app has been patched to eliminate some of these problems, but I haven’t applied it. I’ve heard past the fairphone 4, these problems have largely been fixed.
What could be a dealbreaker for some is something I haven’t verified nor use. (If this is important look into it. I don’t want to spread rumors) The voice typing on the default keyboard now has/will have telemetry. Potentially to Google? I understand Murena needs to make money, and it isn’t personally a dealbreaker, but it is opening a door to other privacy violations. Many people in the community see this as unacceptable and once you’ve violated trust, you never get it back. For me, I’ll hang in there until I see a more substantial reason to switch (same as Proton, but leave me alone about that)
Those are all the negatives of the Fairphone 4 and /e/OS I can think of, but there are many other positives that imho outweigh the negatives. And depending on where you are coming from (e.g. google/samsung android or ios), you have to realize that with phones like the fairphone and roms like /e/OS there are large pros, but there are often large cons. Here, I’ll gladly accept those for what I’m getting in return.
LMK if you have other specific concerns. I might have just left them out. There are also ways I better secure my privacy, but you didn’t ask about that 🙃
Are there downsides that arent realy known?
That is not known.
When CalyxOS starts getting reliable monthly releases again i would recommend it over /e/os but at the moment there isnt much else except for ubuntu touch.
I did prefer CalyxOS over /e/OS (and not only because it has a better name). I’m really disapointed about that situation regarding the OS. I hope it will come soon and stronger
Nobody ever mentions Iodé… Running on FP4, way happier than with /e/ or murena
In essence any de-googled Android fork is valid (/e/OS, LinageOS…). You can also use any Linux for Mobile, eg. Ubuntu mobile and similar, but there is the problem of compatibility if you need certain Android apps.
I have LineageOS installed on my phone. Without the app InviZible Pro from F-Droid, my phone connects to Google servers for connectivity checks, system webview and time adjustments. The disadvantage in terms of privacy of /e/OS would be the default presence of micro g, which is proprietary. In LineageOS it’s not present by default.
