this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Privacy
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Afaik /e/OS isn't completely Google-free. It just uses some anonymization stuff to make Google services a bit less invasive and I think it has proprietary software too. For a complete Google-free experience you probably want something like LineageOS or GrapheneOS
/e/OS is based on LineageOS with microG. They did make a choice for Magic Earth as maps app which is not open source. For "normies" /e/OS seems a fine choice to me to De-Google.
At least Magic Earth has good policy though, no?
Yes.
It isn't google-free in the sense that it ships https://microg.org
Unless you enable SafetyNet, none of Google's code runs.
Aw shucks, the porter moved on from Lineage to develop more on e/os
Any alternative custom ROMs that are generally considered complete Google-free other than those 2?
Idk about completely Google-free ones. Most of vanilla ROMs (such as crDroid, ArrowOS, CherishOS etc) do have some pre-included fixes for Google apps because most of the users flash them and I think they use the proprietary version of Monet theming (there are 2 versions of it). Usually LineageOS is what you go for if you want a completely vanilla ROM. I heard they're considering adding some fixes for Gapps too but I don't think it's going to be anything bad or proprietary
Should I be concerned if I am not going to be installing Google Apps (or gapps) or microG?
Depends on the exact ROM (I think they're only really tested with Gapps) but usually you should be fine. It might be relatively easy to identify a user of ROMs like this because of mismatching device fingerprints (done to unlock Pixel features such as unlimited Google Photos storage and high FPS limit in games) though
Here's a comparison of the main ones. They are all good projects in their own right so take a look at their features and which phones they support. Some are focused more on hardcore security and privacy, while others are more casual in their implementation. Some only support Google Pixels while others support a pretty wide range of new and old devices.
Have other comments made you dislike /e/OS ? microG, which /e/OS uses is not using Google but a replacement for the Google Play framework if you would for example need location feature for some of your apps.
Not really dislike, but was wondering if there were any better choices
DivestOS:
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/android/#divestos
https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
Thanks, looks promising but unfortunately unavailable