I have to update a phone that currently has LOS, and degoogle it at the same time. If I just upgrade to the latest version (by flashing) and not install mind the gapps, is it basically a degoogled phone? It seems that installing /e/ over the current LOS would require me to flash stock rom first, which takes more time. The current LOS version on the phone was just 1 or 2 iterations below the latest version, 20 or 21 I don’t remember.
TIA
If we’re talking about standard LineageOS, without gapps, it will lack basic tools that some apps need to function. If you want Lineage without gapps, your best bet is LineageOS for MicroG which replaces various Google backend components with free alternatives.
/e/OS does this by default, and what also mainly sets e apart is that it also includes various Nextcloud-based cloud services as alternatives to Google’s cloud services. If you don’t want e, these tools can still all be setup yourself, though with less convenience.
Personally I did not have a good experience on /e/OS. But I’m not so sure that was a fault of the system itself. At the time I was using a Teracube 2e, which didn’t have a good user experience to begin with.
If you have a compatible device, I’ve found Iode to also be nice. Any of these options would be much better than stock Google malware.
Hey thanks for the info. Are you saying that just standard LineageOS without gapps or MicroG will be unable to have a functioning OsmAnd (for example)? I remember a few years ago you had to install Mozilla location services seperately from F-Droid to get OsmAnd to work without Google stuff, but I’ve personally been out of the loop for a while.
Anything you get from f-droid or Izzy will work fine. OsmAnd is on F-droid. Anything from play store will expect google push notifications, etc., so you need microg or equivalent.
I found that google voice is working with LineageOS with MicroG. The last time i checked a year or so ago, it didn’t.
To answer your technical question with perfect accuracy:
I don’t know.
To answer your privacy question:
Yes. You’ll get roughly the same privacy benefit.
Standard disclaimer: to gain full privacy from Google also requires regular use of a VPN, strict 3rd party cookie blocking, regular clearing of any mystery cookies that show up, and some luck.
Thanks, and is there one DNS provider that is better than the others in terms of privacy and degoogling?
Google’s DNS is 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Public_DNS)
Most of the alternate Android builds will have already replaced it with a better option.
In theory it’s possible that any DNS provider is selling your browsing behavior, but that sold traffic would still need to be correlated back to your purchase, political or religious behaviors to be useful. And that correlation probably relies on either tracking cookies and or whatever Google app can do to track you.
So I don’t stress about DNS provider as long as I think my tracking cookies are under control and my VPN configured.
That said, if you want to confirm the Privacy of your configured DNS provider, this guide may help:
Thanks for the info ❤️
You might be missing some of the advance privacy features. I’m not sure… I’ve been on e/os for a few years now and haven’t checked out LOS recently. Have a read of this
I get those with Magisk/LSposed, but having it by default is nice. Maybe i will check it out sometime.
Does it have parental controls?
Looks like you’re right about that, thanks.
I thought eOS had some apps that were only specific to that distro, so they would be missing from LOS
I know a few are on F-droid, so he could get those at least
