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I've been using /e/ as my primary smartphone for a couple months now. It's certainly usable: The experience is more pleasant and integrated than stock LineageOS
by ForHackernews 6y ago
I've been using /e/ as my primary smartphone for a couple months now. It's certainly usable: The experience is more pleasant and integrated than stock LineageOS + MicroG, but there's still quite a few rough edges.
I hope they can make a go of it, but I think it'll take adoption by a deep-pocketed sponsor (Samsung? Huawei? The German government?) before it would be polished enough to be a real contender for non-technical users.
But I do think the idea of an Android fork that maintains some compatibility with existing apps is more likely to find success than something like Sailfish OS, that's entirely distinct.
- artvark11 6y agoHow well does it work with Waze? That is the only app keeping me on stock Android.
- ForHackernews 6y agoI haven't tried Waze. The (nonfree) mapping app it ships with works pretty well, as does Maps.me (frontend to OSM data).
- artvark11 6y agoI like Waze because it tells you where speed cameras and cops are. I've used osm+ and maps.me before. They are decent but google maps and Waze have much better routing and directions.
- javierseballos 6y agowell it doesn't work, like half of the apps on this OS :)
- aspyct 6y agoCare to elaborate on the "rough edges"? Is it a reliable day to day phone?
- ForHackernews 6y agoIt's mostly a reliable day to day phone. Rough edges I've seen: - Occasional "X app stopped unexpectedly" messages. - Font sizing is really weird on the built-in email app (a K9 Mail reskin) - System webview sometimes (maybe once a week?) starts rendering blank white pages until I reboot the phone.
- severine 6y agoFWIW, I have experienced all those things with different Android versions, and mainline K9.
- veridies 6y agoI have been using it for I think over a year now as my only phone, on a Samsung Galaxy S9+. It's honestly not much different from Android (although a little out of date), and the only real issue I have is that installing software is a little inconvenient. (The built in app store doesn't work reliably.)
- Tijdreiziger 6y agoI assume in-app purchases are also a no go, right?
- veridies 6y agoRight. It's fine for me since I use free software as much as possible anyway. The only applications I've sideloaded are WeChat, Teams, Discord, Target, Instagram, and WhatsApp, all of which work fine. Edit: and Google Maps. The built-in mapping software doesn't have good enough traffic estimation.