/e/OS Review: This Operating System Is Better Than Android. You Should Try It Leave a comment

Whereas I just like the privateness options of /e/OS and have even taken to spoofing my geodata a lot of the time, the true killer characteristic to me is the /e/OS app retailer, which is called the App Lounge. Once I used LineageOS, I put in apps from a number of completely different app shops. There’s F-Droid, which hosts open supply apps, and Uptodown, which just a few apps I exploit help (Vivaldi being the primary one), after which I had just a few I might solely get by way of the Google Play Retailer. As anybody utilizing LineageOS can inform you, it is quite a bit to maintain monitor of.

The /e/OS App Lounge combines apps from quite a lot of sources, together with the Play Retailer and F-Droid, amongst others, making all of them accessible in a single place. (You too can decide to solely present open supply apps.)

Additionally good is the choice to remain nameless when connecting to any of the app shops, though you will have to be logged in to get the apps you paid for, since these are tied to your person ID. I’ve additionally had the nameless login fail just a few occasions, giving me token errors. This is likely one of the few locations I’ve had points with /e/OS.

The App Lounge makes use of a well-recognized design that appears like Google Play however provides just a few options. The primary is that App Lounge supplies privateness details about every app, grading it on a 1 to 10 scale, the place 1 is horrible for privateness and 10 usually means no trackers. The App Lounge additionally grades apps in accordance with which permissions they require. The less permissions (like entry to your pictures or geodata), the upper the ranking. It is a good approach of offering advanced info in a approach anybody can simply parse.

In a win for the bigger Android-alt group, /e/OS claims to be engaged on making the App Lounge accessible as an app that may be put in wherever. (Within the meantime, the Aurora Store is an in depth different.)

What Doesn’t Work

As a lot as I like /e/OS, it is not good. I’ve had some minor points with geodata. I reside on the highway, so my location modifications each couple of weeks. Typically /e/OS is sluggish to select up on this, and the Maps app will present me search outcomes based mostly on the place I used to be final week. The included Maps app itself remains to be tough across the edges (and makes use of some proprietary code). It is higher and extra correct than each different map app I’ve tried, nevertheless it is not pretty much as good as Google Maps. I do not care what you consider Google; its Maps app is unmatched. I nonetheless use it as a backup when the default /e/OS app would not discover what I want.

The opposite large lacking characteristic for me is speech-to-text. Proper now, /e/OS ships with out speech-to-text in any respect. There is a good summary of the options available within the /e/OS boards. None of them are excellent, however I’ve managed to get by with a mixture of Sayboard and the inventory /e/OS keyboard. The excellent news is {that a} built-in speech-to-text characteristic is on the road map for /e/OS in 2024. This may also open the door to an /e/OS assistant, which isn’t at present accessible. The challenge is unclear about what kind this would possibly take, given the privateness implications of interacting with a server to reply queries, however one chance is a big language mannequin operating domestically.