
The /e/ Google-free, pro-privacy Android clone is now available - CrankyBear
https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-e-google-free-pro-privacy-android-clone-is-now-available/
======
csagan5
Bromite author here ([https://www.bromite.org](https://www.bromite.org) ); I
was contacted some time ago about the possibility to maintain a modified
version of Bromite with a customised /e/ home page and list of search engines.
Nothing particularly murky there, but after some Q/A I did not want to proceed
with this type of cross-branding because fundamentally I do not want Bromite
to be using or be affiliated with any cloud service and I concluded that /e/
invites users to swap Google for /e/ as a cloud services provider.

Now to the reason why I am commenting here: there is no GPL violation for the
patches used in their /e/ browser but I find it a bit disappointing that
nowhere it is mentioned that the browser is a complete Bromite build, minus
the logo and renamed to '/e/ Browser'.

Most users are assuming that it is a Chromium fork developed by /e/ and will
never reach the Bromite open source project, which is basically the way the
project is kept alive.

~~~
jeroenhd
I haven't looked into the compiled code but the source repository still shows
the Bromite logo and name:
[https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/apps/browser](https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/apps/browser)

The AUTHORS file also mentions being a fork of Bromite, but doesn't list any
authors that aren't part of the project:
[https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/apps/browser/blob/master/AUTHO...](https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/apps/browser/blob/master/AUTHORS)

It looks like your patches have been changed to renamed Bromite to Browser in
user-facing code though. Have you already asked them to add a reference to
Bromite somewhere in the about screen? Maybe create a pull request to make it
easier for them to accept your request if the devs themselves are lazy. They
obviously won't rename the browser shortcut, but adding a reference in the
"About browser" section shouldn't be too much to ask for.

Unrelated: I understand your position on cloud providers, but I think /e/ is
different from MS or Google in that it's possible to swap out most of the
integrations with your own servers (it's all a bunch of glued-together open
source services, after all).

Without cloud integration, I doubt /e/ would reach any sort of mainstream of
non-technical cult status at all. You'd be left with an app store on top of a
build of LineageOS. It's the services delivered with the system that a)
distinguish the project from LineageOS without GApps and b) provide basic
usability many normal users would miss otherwise.

~~~
csagan5
Yes, I am aware of the repository.

> Have you already asked them to add a reference to Bromite somewhere in the
> about screen?

I have not; I was expecting it, given the amount of modifications from Bromite
patches (which is zero, as far as I understood).

> I think /e/ is different from MS or Google in that it's possible to swap out
> most of the integrations with your own servers (it's all a bunch of glued-
> together open source services, after all).

It's that "most" that corrupts the intent.

> Without cloud integration, I doubt /e/ would reach any sort of mainstream or
> non-technical cult status at all.

Sorry, I will avoid discussing this, it has all the clues to become an endless
and inconclusive talk :)

In short: yes, I agree with you, and still do not care about "mainstream or
non-technical cult status" at all.

~~~
jeroenhd
> I have not; I was expecting it, given the amount of modifications from
> Bromite patches (which is zero, as far as I understood).

I won't lie, I would have expected the same if I were in your shoes. Thinking
positively though, it's possible that the /e/ people don't care much about the
attribution they themselves receive and don't realize what it means to others
to be recognized for their personal hard work. Asking nicely might show them
that other people in the open source community do care. The worst that can
happen is that the people behind the project do indeed not care about you and
are rude about it, but in that case nothing really changes anyway. Things can
only improve from here, I'd say!

Based on the changes I've seen, they basically replaced all instances of
"Bromite" and "Chrome" in the source code with "Browser". I don't see much
/e/-specific code in there at all, aside from a project description and some
links in the documentation. They did add a reference to the original project
to the AUTHORS file, so I'd like to believe in a variation of Hanlon's razor:
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by laziness.

> Sorry, I will avoid discussing this, it has all the clues to become an
> endless and inconclusive talk :) I completely agree :)

~~~
csagan5
> They did add a reference to the original project to the AUTHORS file, so I'd
> like to believe in a variation of Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice
> that which is adequately explained by laziness.

This would be all fine and agreeable if they had not contacted me first, see
my first comment :) of course I can still do contact them pointing out the
situation, but let me say that given the nice project manifesto
([https://e.foundation/wp-
content/uploads/e-manifesto.pdf](https://e.foundation/wp-
content/uploads/e-manifesto.pdf) ) and the large amount of open source
projects being involved...there _must_ be expectations of this type :)

I do not claim malice - but I feel like the exact bare minimum was done there,
which is not that surprising given that I declined creating/maintaining the
customised fork that then they created.

------
derision
The name of the operating system is actually "/e/"??? That's terrible..

~~~
tsukurimashou
I have to agree, the first thing that pop in my head is the /e/ board from
4chan which is for ecchi

~~~
rsynnott
I’m reluctant to google; what’s that mean?

~~~
krapp
hentai - pornographic manga and anime.

"ecchi" is Japanese for the English letter "H", standing for "hentai", which
means perverted or strange.

~~~
Smithalicious
Specifically /e/ is the board for softcore images of that nature, while /h/
(hentai) is for hardcore images (and /d/ is, well...)

~~~
westmeal
... Females with large phalluses.

------
zwaps
The advantage here is that they sell phones.

It is very difficult to install Lineage OS, as it is completely unclear which
phone one should buy to install it. There isn't a single viable answer online
for the question: "Which phone should I buy for Lineage OS". I am dead
serious!

The support is up to individuals able to produce ROMs, so for example a Galaxy
A5 is supported, while A6 and A7 used to be, but are no longer (!) supported.
So if you bought an A7 for Lineage OS, you are out of luck now.

Of course it is also difficult to install Lineage OS itself. For most of us,
it is probably at least possible. But there is no chance rest of the 95% of
the world will ever do this. Indeed, I would also feel at least anxious to
attempt it (alas, for my current phone no Lineage OS is available).

So this is great. You can buy a Samsung phone and get it preinstalled with a
good distro. I am not aware this is possible otherwise, let alone for less
than 300 euro.

Everyone who doesn't understand why this is better than "just install Lineage
OS with microG" has some serious disconnect going on.

I am fairly incompetent with computers, but I don't think I could fork my own
Lineage OS for my phone of choice. Therefore, having something preinstalled
and actually supported is a serious selling point for me!

Edit: Additionally, they will offer a service for you to send in your phone to
flash it. I really like this!

~~~
0-_-0
> There isn't a single viable answer online for the question: "Which phone
> should I buy for Lineage OS". I am dead serious!

Check out
[https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/](https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/)

~~~
zwaps
Yeah but that site had mentioned phones officially supported, and then no
longer.

It doesn't answer the question which of these phones is a viable one to get
now to have Lineage support. Clearly, its not better to get a newer one, it is
best to get the one with most support. Which one that is, I do not know.

~~~
oh_boy
I used the following site lately to choose a phone. I found it much easier to
understand than the device list of LineageOS.

[https://piotr-yuxuan.github.io/choose-a-new-phone/](https://piotr-
yuxuan.github.io/choose-a-new-phone/)

Still, individual research still required e.g. to find out that the fancy 48
MP camera mode is not supported in LineageOS.

------
zosterops
I don't really see the benefit in this. You can install LineageOS without
gapps and MicroG already distributes a fork of LineageOS that includes MicroG.
If you want full control of your device you will likely be better off going
with something like Librem 5 from Purism.

~~~
deno
/e/ is LineageOS + MicroG already. Seems like a LineageOS downstream distro
with bunch of defaults and some Cloud stuff (can be self-hosted) and an
Appstore other than FDroid. Oh and they’ll sell you preflashed phones.

So basically AOSP for less technical people interested in privacy. Seems
harmless so far.

~~~
_bxg1
The cloud integrations feel suspect. "Ditch Google! Use us instead! You can
_trust_ us!"

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nxrabl
“Google-free” in that the name is impossible to google? /s

I had not heard of Qwant before this. How does it compare to other privacy-
focused search engines e.g. Duck Duck Go?

~~~
tsukurimashou
Last time I read about it it wasn't very promising. If I remember correctly
their code is proprietary and last time I checked it was just aggregating
results from other search engines.

~~~
nerdponx
Isn't this exactly what DDG does? Closed-source, aggregating/proxying other
search engines like Yandex.

------
lrvick
If you want google-free android with some privacy defaults you can build/sign
yourself with a simple make command, see:
[https://github.com/hashbang/os](https://github.com/hashbang/os)

~~~
chopin
Nice, but works only on Pixel phones.

------
mkeedlinger
Seeing a lot of critical comments here. I get it, this isn't perfect, but
let's not forget that this is part of a growing movement towards something
better. That is to be commended.

Don't let perfect be an enemy of good.

------
Smithalicious
Me and my friends had a good laugh over this. You'd think that at the very
least _someone, at some point_ would've recognized "/e/" as following the
grammar of 4chan board names, right? People are still at least vaguely aware
of /b/ (and nowadays, /pol/), right...?

EDIT: Maybe they just googled it and assumed the name was free after finding
nothing....

------
mindslight
WARNING:

If you buy one of the S7/S9 preloaded models, the camera quality is likely to
be quite poor, especially under low light. This is the state of affairs under
microG (/lineage), as Samsung ROMs use a proprietary camera library that
doesn't carry over. Source: My main phone is an herolte (S7), as the Exynos
variants are one of the few phones with separate baseband and application
processors.

This should be prominently mentioned on the product page, as it's just going
to cause disappointment, regret, and ultimately backlash. Really they should
choose an additional model with good camera support to refurbish, and offer
the choice as an explicit tradeoff (better quality photos vs better baseband
security).

(And if I am completely wrong here because they've somehow fixed or
sidestepped this, please correct me. It just doesn't seem likely)

------
dreamcompiler
I applaud the effort but I'm buying a Librem _because I can google Librem_.

~~~
tyingq
Not intuitive, but:

[https://www.google.com/search?q='/e/'](https://www.google.com/search?q='/e/')

~~~
Smithalicious
>1 (foot / e) / foot = 0.367879441

Thanks Google, that's exactly what I was looking for.

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HocusLocus
Just what we need, a new system with the name of /e/ which will make
information and discussion of it unsearchable on the web. WTF.

I thought only Google did that, name things and projects for common dictionary
words. You'd expect a search company to know better.

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linusnext
I've been using this for over a year on multiple phones. The amount of
negative feedback here based on zero experience reads like corporate fud.

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tylerl
I see no reason reason to expect that this will fail to capture enough market
share to justify maintaining it, and then stop providing updates, leaving its
users with an insecure and unmaintained fork that offers no compelling benefit
over it's better-maintained alternatives.

None at all.

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AdmiralAsshat
I'd like to know what their support model is. Will phones pre-loaded with /e/
continue to receive security/version updates? Since this is a fork of
LineageOS, I'm guessing they don't get automatic updates from upstream.

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supercarson
Finally!! Ditch google to dirt.. and go with alternatives! Google is evil and
privacy abuser!

------
andred14
what's wrong with cyanogenmod?

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
For one thing, it hasn't been called "Cyanogenmod" for about three years?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineageOS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineageOS)

~~~
anoncake
To rephrase the question for pedants: What's wrong with LineageOS née
Cyanogenmod?

