5 ms·

New company called Eelo will give you de-Google-ized Android for your privacy

52 points by nuand999 9y ago

Operyl 9y ago
So, I’m sorry if I misunderstand: they’re taking LineageOS, installing it on preexisting devices they did not engineer, and are taking a rather large profit? They’re just reselling? Why can’t someone just do this themselves for significantly cheaper...
- djaychela 9y ago
  I'd think most tech-able people would be able to; I've had Cyanogenmod on most of my Android phones, and it's been fairly straightforward to install. It's not too difficult to install LineageOS (on which this is based, the successor to CyanogenMod) on most phones - indeed there are step-by-step guides to do it which don't require too much skill to complete - and it's possible to run it without any of the Google Apps. Not sure what this project is going to provide that isn't already available after an evening's search, but they seem to be charging a fortune for it.
  - mr_spothawk 9y ago
    i’m probably able to, but that doesn’t mean i want to... or that i want to spend the time to potentially brick my shiny new i/nexus/pixel
    - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
      My shiny new Nougatized phone doesn't have the LineageOS privacy guard or file manager and I'm thinking of switching just for that.
      - mr_spothawk 9y ago
        I support privacy focused upgrades!
    - djaychela 9y ago
      But they're asking about £800 for doing it? Seems steep.
      - mr_spothawk 9y ago
        I didn't even look at the pricing. That's quite a bit.
    - seba_dos1 9y ago
      If a device can be bricked just by a simple reflash of the OS partition, then it's a very good reason for me not to buy it at all.
- sowbug 9y ago
  Because everyone who trots out the "you're the product" cliché wants to be the customer, and this is what that looks like.
- eyeareque 9y ago
  Development work and qa isn’t free. They are probably selling that one at a profit to help raise funding to get this off the ground. It sounds like it will be open source for all though.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
basicplus2 9y ago
For a ridiculous price
- nugi 9y ago
  Unfortunately, privacy is turning out to be quite the luxury.
  - 659087 9y ago
    See Zuckerberg buying the houses that surround his and building himself a massive walled-off privacy compound in Hawaii for examples. "Privacy is dead.. unless you're the one trying to destroy it"
    - Fnoord 9y ago
      Reminds me of this story where Zuckerberg's laptop is on a photo showing he uses tape on his iSight camera and audio jack. [1] You can also read in the same article that he had 5 bodyguards whilst jogging in Berlin. My point is: "Some precautions are expensive, some are cheap." Or, put more extensive: "Some precautions are out of reach for the masses, some are within reach." Although more factors than price define whether something is within reach for the masses, such as ease of use. Your example is obviously (very) expensive, same with 5 bodyguards. That's reasonably expensive. Using tape on your laptop isn't though. That is cheap. Using cryptography or TorBrowser, for example, is also cheap. [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3653442/Paranoid-little-Mark-Zuckerberg-covers-Macbook-s-camera-audio-jack-pieces-tape.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3653442/Paranoid-lit...
FussyZeus 9y ago
Am I the only person who thinks Google specifically and the mobile app market in general combined with previously subsidized by carriers phones have completely destroyed the consumers perception of the value of software? It’s getting near impossible to find quality apps (even on iOS, but less so) available for a premium price, I have to constantly settle for IAPs to disable ads, or just free apps that are littered with ads, tracking, and god knows what else when if much rather just pay like $49 for a properly made application with a permanent license.
- nathanaldensr 9y ago
  You are not the only person; I've thought this for quite some time. Way back in 2007/2008, I remember telling my co-worker, who was at the time building what later became a very popular time-tracking app for iOS, that app prices would trend to zero over time. People simply want free and appear nearly completely incapable of asking the basic question "What am I paying with other than currency?" They think $0 equals free.
- Gigablah 9y ago
  20 years of warez and piracy will do that, no need for a mobile app store at all.
- foolrush 9y ago
  > Am I the only person who thinks Google specifically and the mobile app market in general combined with previously subsidized by carriers phones have completely destroyed the consumers perception of the value of software? Not entirely fair to Google here. No one would have purchased the original iPhone were it not heavily subsidized by AT&T. No one. One could argue that the same forces apply today regarding most phone purchasers. > and god knows what else when if much rather just pay like $49 for a properly made application with a permanent license. Except the numbers of downloads show that this approach isn't gaining traction. In fact, look at how many applications switched to a subscription model the moment Apple permitted it? On the side of development, subscriptions make sense. Software development isn't a one-off fee to make software these days, as 99.995% of the people here realize. Isn't subscription the only sustainable model?
avckp 9y ago
Collaborating with xiaomi makes it rather fishy.
- iamdave 9y ago
  Pardon my ignorance, but why's that?
  - UncleMeat 9y ago
    They were caught including a whole lot of additional bloatware that was collecting user data.
- fatwah 9y ago
  Indeed, given their Android One is preloaded with lots of bloatware and possibly spyware.
mlinksva 9y ago
The founder's blog is a bit more interesting https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/eelo-io-holiday-season-latest-updates/ https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/eelo-io-holiday-season-lat... with several posts prior on the project.
unicornporn 9y ago
https://copperhead.co/android/ https://copperhead.co/android/ is already doing amazing work and sell devices if you want to support them. I've been running it for close to a year and I can't praise it enough.
awiesenhofer 9y ago
$1-2k for a lineageos phone? A new Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 costs about 5-700 USD. What are they doing with the other 1300 USD?
IgorPartola 9y ago
How does this compare to the Purism (https://puri.sm/ https://puri.sm/) stuff? It seems that Purism is supposed to completely wall off the baseband processor. Does Eelo?

52 points by nuand999 9y ago

So, I’m sorry if I misunderstand: they’re taking LineageOS, installing it on preexisting devices they did not engineer, and are taking a rather large profit? They’re just reselling? Why can’t someone just do this themselves for significantly cheaper...

djaychela 9y ago
I'd think most tech-able people would be able to; I've had Cyanogenmod on most of my Android phones, and it's been fairly straightforward to install. It's not too difficult to install LineageOS (on which this is based, the successor to CyanogenMod) on most phones - indeed there are step-by-step guides to do it which don't require too much skill to complete - and it's possible to run it without any of the Google Apps. Not sure what this project is going to provide that isn't already available after an evening's search, but they seem to be charging a fortune for it.
- mr_spothawk 9y ago
  i’m probably able to, but that doesn’t mean i want to... or that i want to spend the time to potentially brick my shiny new i/nexus/pixel
  - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
    My shiny new Nougatized phone doesn't have the LineageOS privacy guard or file manager and I'm thinking of switching just for that.
    - mr_spothawk 9y ago
      I support privacy focused upgrades!
  - djaychela 9y ago
    But they're asking about £800 for doing it? Seems steep.
    - mr_spothawk 9y ago
      I didn't even look at the pricing. That's quite a bit.
  - seba_dos1 9y ago
    If a device can be bricked just by a simple reflash of the OS partition, then it's a very good reason for me not to buy it at all.
sowbug 9y ago
Because everyone who trots out the "you're the product" cliché wants to be the customer, and this is what that looks like.
eyeareque 9y ago
Development work and qa isn’t free. They are probably selling that one at a profit to help raise funding to get this off the ground. It sounds like it will be open source for all though.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

basicplus2 9y ago

For a ridiculous price

nugi 9y ago
Unfortunately, privacy is turning out to be quite the luxury.
- 659087 9y ago
  See Zuckerberg buying the houses that surround his and building himself a massive walled-off privacy compound in Hawaii for examples. "Privacy is dead.. unless you're the one trying to destroy it"
  - Fnoord 9y ago
    Reminds me of this story where Zuckerberg's laptop is on a photo showing he uses tape on his iSight camera and audio jack. [1] You can also read in the same article that he had 5 bodyguards whilst jogging in Berlin. My point is: "Some precautions are expensive, some are cheap." Or, put more extensive: "Some precautions are out of reach for the masses, some are within reach." Although more factors than price define whether something is within reach for the masses, such as ease of use. Your example is obviously (very) expensive, same with 5 bodyguards. That's reasonably expensive. Using tape on your laptop isn't though. That is cheap. Using cryptography or TorBrowser, for example, is also cheap. [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3653442/Paranoid-little-Mark-Zuckerberg-covers-Macbook-s-camera-audio-jack-pieces-tape.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3653442/Paranoid-lit...

FussyZeus 9y ago

Am I the only person who thinks Google specifically and the mobile app market in general combined with previously subsidized by carriers phones have completely destroyed the consumers perception of the value of software? It’s getting near impossible to find quality apps (even on iOS, but less so) available for a premium price, I have to constantly settle for IAPs to disable ads, or just free apps that are littered with ads, tracking, and god knows what else when if much rather just pay like $49 for a properly made application with a permanent license.

nathanaldensr 9y ago
You are not the only person; I've thought this for quite some time. Way back in 2007/2008, I remember telling my co-worker, who was at the time building what later became a very popular time-tracking app for iOS, that app prices would trend to zero over time. People simply want free and appear nearly completely incapable of asking the basic question "What am I paying with other than currency?" They think $0 equals free.
Gigablah 9y ago
20 years of warez and piracy will do that, no need for a mobile app store at all.
foolrush 9y ago
> Am I the only person who thinks Google specifically and the mobile app market in general combined with previously subsidized by carriers phones have completely destroyed the consumers perception of the value of software? Not entirely fair to Google here. No one would have purchased the original iPhone were it not heavily subsidized by AT&T. No one. One could argue that the same forces apply today regarding most phone purchasers. > and god knows what else when if much rather just pay like $49 for a properly made application with a permanent license. Except the numbers of downloads show that this approach isn't gaining traction. In fact, look at how many applications switched to a subscription model the moment Apple permitted it? On the side of development, subscriptions make sense. Software development isn't a one-off fee to make software these days, as 99.995% of the people here realize. Isn't subscription the only sustainable model?

avckp 9y ago

Collaborating with xiaomi makes it rather fishy.

iamdave 9y ago
Pardon my ignorance, but why's that?
- UncleMeat 9y ago
  They were caught including a whole lot of additional bloatware that was collecting user data.
fatwah 9y ago
Indeed, given their Android One is preloaded with lots of bloatware and possibly spyware.

mlinksva 9y ago

The founder's blog is a bit more interesting https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/eelo-io-holiday-season-latest-updates/ https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/eelo-io-holiday-season-lat... with several posts prior on the project.

unicornporn 9y ago

https://copperhead.co/android/ https://copperhead.co/android/ is already doing amazing work and sell devices if you want to support them. I've been running it for close to a year and I can't praise it enough.

awiesenhofer 9y ago

$1-2k for a lineageos phone? A new Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 costs about 5-700 USD. What are they doing with the other 1300 USD?

IgorPartola 9y ago

How does this compare to the Purism (https://puri.sm/ https://puri.sm/) stuff? It seems that Purism is supposed to completely wall off the baseband processor. Does Eelo?