March 2, 2026
Pick your privacy fighter
/e/OS is a complete "deGoogled", mobile ecosystem
Privacy phone wars: /e/OS vs GrapheneOS, who do you trust
TLDR: /e/OS promises a de‑Googled Android with its own apps, privacy tools, and Murena cloud. Commenters are split: GrapheneOS fans call it the better, faster option, while critics say /e/OS feels tied to Murena and struggles with banking apps—raising a bigger question about real-world, usable phone privacy.
“De-Googled” Android? The crowd’s split. /e/OS just rolled out its privacy-first pitch—no Google apps, its own ethical search, cloud, and even a tracker scorecard—but the comments instantly turned into Team /e/ vs Team GrapheneOS. One camp says /e/OS is a clean break from Big G with open-source goodies, parental controls, and a Murena cloud that backs up your life. The other camp? “Why bother—GrapheneOS exists,” they say, waving around this comparison chart like a referee’s whistle.
Skeptics side-eye the “Murena Workspace”—/e/OS’s email, storage, and online tools—calling it a softer, friendlier cloud that still means lock-in. A user who ran /e/OS on a Fairphone for a year calls the experience “fine, not great,” with banking apps hit-or-miss even with microG (a Google-compatibility stand-in), and updates lagging behind GrapheneOS. Others bring the popcorn: the timing, right after the Motorola–GrapheneOS buzz, had folks cackling.
Then the doomsayers arrive: “Tinkering with Android is delaying the real exit,” comparing it to Chrome’s ad-blocker crackdown—no matter how good the fork, Google calls the shots. Still, privacy romantics love /e/OS’s ad blocker, tracker warnings, and IP-hiding tricks. The vibe? Privacy utopia vs. practical headaches, with snark, sighs, and a lot of “which freedom do you want?” energy.
Key Points
- •/e/OS is an open-source, “deGoogled” Android-based OS with no Google apps or services accessing user data.
- •Google’s default search is replaced by Murena Find; connectivity, NTP, and DNS do not rely on Google servers.
- •The system offers curated open-source apps, App Lounge access to F-Droid and free Android apps, and app tracker/permission scoring.
- •Advanced Privacy widget lets users manage tracking and hide IP/geolocation; browser ad blocker is enabled by default.
- •Murena Workspace provides cloud services (1GB storage, email, encrypted Murena Vault), self-host options, parental controls, and account syncing.