I'm so excited to have finally installed /e/os ( @e_mydata ) on my old Nexus 5x.
I'm using Smart Launcher 5 so looks nothing like standard /e/os. Yay for android customisability
It's running an outdated android version but that's really no issue, the only thing I miss is swiping the fingerprint scanner to bring up notifications (there's a setting for it but it doesn't work).
Seems super fast so far which is great (pixel experience by comparison definitely had some stuttering).
The finger swipe for notifications randomly started working. Not sure what's going on there but I am unreasonable excited about it.
Now the only sacrifice I'm making moving to /e/ is Uber not working (it crashes on app launch). I guess it relies on google service? Weirdly Uber Eats works fine
@MonkeyMatt try Omega. It's in izzysoft's f-droid repo as well.
@surendrajat thanks for the suggestion it looks really cool. Unfortunately testing it out it's been crashing and needing a restart a lot.
Also the icon customisation isn't working fully and I sure love the quirky looking icons I've got on SL5. Maybe I just need to find a quality icon pack now too
@MonkeyMatt Yes. Forgot to mention it's quite new project and currently going through huge refactor.
I'm on v0.7 release for now and the number of crashes is very little(once I finished customizing it).
@surendrajat it definitely ticks a lot of boxes for me its really just the icons I want to play around with now. And who knows if it's a active project maybe I'll get the chance to fix some of those crashes myself (I probably won't but I love the idea that I could if I had time)
@MonkeyMatt I was a huge fan of Nova launcher and Omega is the only FOSS launcher which made me switch :)
When I realized that the developer is a nice person too, I donated instantly. Now trying to help with CI setup.
@MonkeyMatt I'm also looking for FOSS alternatives for all my android apps(PC too :).
Found most of them except a decent calling app & File manager.
Let me know if you can't find something.
@MonkeyMatt I'd try KISS, especially on an older device: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/fr.neamar.kiss/
@dajbelshaw that's so neat thanks for the suggestion.
I think I like seeing app icons (and having groups) rather than searching so not sure its a launcher I'll stick with.
Really cool that you can add any search engine you just need a URL. Why don't they all work like that
@MonkeyMatt It's a great launcher, and blazingly fast.
These days I use the Before Launcher, which isn't FOSS but is definitely awesome. I paid for the upgrade.
@dajbelshaw I love how different that is!
I can certainly see the appeal of an anti distraction approach. Been trying to be conscious of my own phone use recently. I'll definitely have to give Before a try
@MonkeyMatt @dajbelshaw Omega launcher requires android version 8 or above. They should try supporting older versions as well
Part of my mission is I want to start using as many open source alternatives to apps as possible. I immediate caved on the Launcher. Oops.
Are there any great open source android launchers out there? I believe there should be some that are quite standard but I want the weird and wonderful too