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# **/e/ product description - a pro-privacy Android ROM and online services**
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# What's in /e/?
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/e/ is an a mobile ecosystem (ROM + onlines services) that:
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- is **open source**
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- is **pro-privacy**
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- is compatible with most existing **Android applications**
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- cares about **usability**
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- already exists!
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It's the **alternative to the Apple/Google duopoly** on the smartphone.
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It consists of:
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* an installable mobile operating system for smartphones, which is forked from Android and strongly "ungoogled"
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* a set of sorted and improved default open source applications
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* various online services that are linked to the mobile operating system, such as: a meta search engine for the web, drive (with synchronization), mail, calendar, notes, tasks.
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## 1. Description of the /e/ ROM (installable mobile operating system)
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The /e/ ROM is a fork of Android (and in particular the LineageOS flavor of Android). At the moment, two versions are supported: Android Nougat and Android Oreo. Android Pie will be supported in a near future.
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### "Ungoogling"
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- Google default search engine is removed everywhere and replaced by other services (see below in default apps and services)
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- Google Services are replaced by microG and alternative services (see below for more details)
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- DNS settings can be enforced to a specific server
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- Geolocation is using Mozilla Location Services in addition to GPS
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- CalDAV/CardDAV management and synchronization application (DAVDroid) is fully integrated with the user account and calendar/contact application
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- Google servers are not used anymore to check connectivity (ongoing)
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### User interface
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- A new launcher "BlissLauncher" was developed to offer an attractive look & feel. It includes a set of icons that were designed for the project. It has application widget support and is using /e/ search engine by default.
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- Changes have been done in settings to offer a better looking interface
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### Services
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- A specific file synchronization service has been developed for multimedia and file contents. It can use [/e/ cloud services server at https://ecloud.global](https://ecloud.global) or [self-hosted /e/ cloud service](https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/infra/ecloud-selfhosting)s (beta).
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- The weather provider is the LOS weather provider using data fetched from Open Weather Map
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- Account Manager has been modified to support /e/ user accounts, with a single identity, thus providing /e/ email, /e/ sync, /e/ calendar, /e/ contacts, /e/ notes, /e/ tasks to users. /e/ cloud server is either at ecloud.global, or self-hosted by the user (ongoing)
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## 2. Description of /e/ default applications
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All pre-installed applications are open source applications but the Maps app (read details about this in the FAQ).
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- Web-browser: an an ungoogled fork of Chromium, built from Bromite patch-sets with specific /e/ settings
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- Mail: a fork of K9-mail for better user experience, some bugfixes and support for oauth, with OpenKeyChain for PGP encryption support
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- SMS: a fork of QKSMS
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- Camera: OpenCamera
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- Dialer: default Android dialer application
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- Calendar: a fork of Etar calendar, that fixes crashes with calendar invitations
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- Contact: default Android contact application
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- Clock: a fork of Android deskclock application
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- Gallery: default Android gallery3d application
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- Filemanager: Android documentsui application
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- Sound recorder: default LineageOS sound recorder
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- Calculator: default Android calculator2 application
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- Keyboard: default Android keyboard
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- Android application installer is /e/ application installer
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Other preinstalled applications:
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- Maps: MagicEarth (read the FAQ about its license)
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- Weather: a fork of GoodWeather for a modified user interface, using data fetched from Open Weather Map
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- PDF reader: MuPDF
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- Notes: a fork of NextCloud Notes to support /e/ online accounts
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- Tasks: OpenTasks
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- Light: a fork of Simple-FlashLight
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## 3. Description of /e/ online services at ecloud.global
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- /e/ "spot" at https://spot.ecloud.global search engine is a fork of SearX meta-search engine, with major look&feel improvements and peformance improvements
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- /e/ online drive, mail, calendar, contacts, notes, tasks is using NextCloud, Postfix and Dovecot. It's been integrated to offer a single login identity. Users can retrieve their data online at [https://ecloud.global](https://ecloud.global) services, or [self-hosted](https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/infra/ecloud-selfhosting) on their own server (ongoing)
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# /e/ Development status
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## Status
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## Next majors milestones:
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- in the future /e/ will be available in two versions:
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- standard /e/ with default applications
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- /e/ with minimal number of default/pre-installed applications
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## Status of ungoogling & pro-privacy features
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- we are currently [addressing a number of issues with ungoogling](https://gitlab.e.foundation/search?group_id=&project_id=&repository_ref=&scope=issues&search=Infosec+Handbook+Review)
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## What to expect in futher releases?
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In 2019 we also plan to:
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- introduce more pro-privacy features (VPN...)
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- add the capability to uninstall most pre-installed applications
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- add several user profile to impact the choice of default applications installed during first-time usage wizard
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- add Progressive Web Apps to the application repository, and corresponding Google-free SDKs for app publishers, because we believe that web apps is the future for most mobile applications.
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# Want to give /e/ a try?
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[Install it now](https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/wiki/en/wikis/devices-list)! |
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\ No newline at end of file |
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Our wiki moved to doc.e.foundation! Please find our device list [here](https://doc.e.foundation/what-s-e). |
