I’ve tried to search for supported Samsung devices, especially the S20 FE, and it’s a nightmare to find anything relevant using Google. Google Search ignores /e/, making it all but impossible to find anything about the /e/ project.
I can relate to the OP, /e/ is nit a very handy name for Google searches. It’s like it doesn’t exist. What’s the point of a name you can’t Google, or pronounce?
In case someone might have the same question: the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is not supported. In fact all recent Samsung devices are not supported. Support for new Samsung smartphones seems to have halted, most recent model in the S-family is the S10, released more than 3 years ago.
Does anyone know why recent Samsung devices are unsupported? After all, Samsung is one of the biggest smartphone makers. It seems odd to ignore such large user base.
In recent years, Samsung phones sold in the U.S. generally have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked, so it's not possible to flash other OSes onto them.[1] The Samsung devices that can be bootloader-unlocked tend not to be mod-friendly. For example, Samsung phones permanently disable the Knox security feature when the bootloader is unlocked, and it is not restored even if the bootloader is relocked after a factory reset.[2]
/e/'s lead developer is based in France, so /e/ does support some non-U.S. Samsung phone models.
I think it’s pretty clear now. The answer is that some people like the person you replied to think it doesn’t matter. The truth is it actually matters a lot.
It matters if you equate success with total domination, or think that something is only worth doing if it can create a huge gathering of people blindly supporting it.
What if we simply don't care about that? Here we have a system that works well, that can do all the things that I need and that respects my freedoms. I've mentioned it to other people already, all of them simply said "ok, cool" and went on with their lives.
Do you think that the name was the reason that it stopped them from changing it, or do you think that the main thing was "wait, but I want to continue using Google/Apple"? Do you think that their indifference made the product any less useful to me and the other thousands of people who use it? Do you think that my identity is tied to the OS of my phone?
Honestly, can you make a solid effort of explaining what matters so much about marketing, and why?
I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that /e/ should rebrand itself, if the new name makes /e/ more accessible to potential users who are searching for it. Good marketing doesn't necessarily mean "total domination", but it can help /e/ fulfill its mission by extending its reach.
Being accessible has nothing to do with being popular.
> I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that /e/ should rebrand itself
Unreasonable, it is not. It is just vapid bike shedding. It is the kind of discussion topic that I would expect from corporate MBA types and useless hacks who never built anything in their lives, not something worthy of so many comments here.
Who said that is hard to find it? Is it hard compared to what? How much does it cost (in times and resources) to make it "easier" to find it? The people working on it are doing it for free (as in, it cost me literally nothing to download and install /e/OS on my phone) and you think you still feel entitled to get "good marketing" on top of it?
If you think that the product is lacking in some part, how about you CONTRIBUTE to make it better instead of just diminishing the work of others?
It's like if your buddy created an awesome website that provided a great free service and then called it jflasdjfjasdfjkereifsd.yzy
You'd wonder they shot themselves in the foot like that. It would've been easy to give it a good name but instead they severely limited the potential of their hard work for seemingly no reason.
I don't need to type the address to use it. If the site is "awesome", I will use it regardless of the name.I DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE NAME, I care about what it does and what are the guiding principles.
I am confrontational because your "confusion" is just stupid concern trolling. Do you think that it is important to get more people to be less dependent on Big Tech? Then here is an operating system that works pretty well. This is what you need to be telling people, not how you think that the name is bad. Stop worrying about the "marketing", and just use and promote better alternatives. By being and acting self-conscious about something that does not matter, you are not collaborating at all.
> I will use it regardless of the name.I DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE NAME
Your preferences are not consequential. We are concerned with how the public behaves. And names matter a lot for discoverability.
If you really cared about more people using /e/, you should be concerned that the name is needlessly reducing its reach. I plan on trying /e/, but you are not doing the project any favors with your attitude.
Speak for yourself. I am not "concerned" about anything so abstract as "public behavior". All I am "concerned" about is my personal ability to keep my freedom and my choices, and by extension I am concerned about others having the same freedoms. Being concerned about "behavior" is the last of my worries.
> And names matter a lot for discoverability.
It didn't stop you from finding out about it, did it?
> you are not doing the project any favors with your attitude.
Why? Are you worried that if people see you using a phone with /e/OS you will be associated with grumpy rude graybeards?
> How do I tell people about it?
"hey, the website is https://e.foundation, here is the link"
That was not so hard, was it?