Proton offers the service of downloading most APK’s directly from their website, bypassing the play store. They do this to help people get their apps in countries where it isn’t accessible. Take a look at protonapps.com and they also have a lot of information on how to set up their apps on different operating systems

Haha well the battery life sucks and the camera is fine, not great

To be fair, the Fairphone is not the greatest in terms of specs, its more middle of the road but on the expensive side. But its has a way longer life. So I get that you want to think on it, because it’s more of a commitment to justify the cost

I’d say the paid plan is definitely worth it. The VPN is awesome. Very fast and with a lot of servers around the world. The drive is solid and they keep adding more features like automatic backup for you photos and secure file sharing. Lately they added a Docs to the drive, similar to google docs.

I have a family plan with my wife and brother in law and we share the costs, that makes it even more worth it.

I use a Fairphone with e/os, which works fairly well as an os. Regular updates and they listen to user feedback. And e/os has an app lounge where you can download apps from the play store (without a google account) and f-droid, which is very easy. And the fairphone is great with interchangeable parts.

For maps I use a combo of organic maps and Magic earth. Magic Earth isn’t Foss but is privacy focused and has traffic alerts for driving.

YouTube - Newpipe

And for mail, passwordmanager, VPN, calendar, and drive I use Proton.

The transfer into proton is indeed very easy and with their family pack you also get Mail, Drive, VPN, Calendar and they keep working on adding more. Very happy with proton and their fight for privacy

While I do agree that Tolkien’s work is exceptional, The Wheel of Time shows us that studios have no problems with fucking up good source material. So it can probably go either way

Sure, but results in the past give no guarantees about how successful a future endeavour can be.

I’m not trying to take a side here, but just reserving judgement.

Why?

I live in the Netherlands and I learned to make my own lunch from an early age. Can’t say for certain at which age, but 6 or 7 sounds about right. I made lasagna when I was 11 and cooked other stuff regularly. My parents always stimulated me being self sufficient. And I saw the same happening with my friends.

I’m on a Fairphone 4 with e/os, maybe it’s just not quick enough

I tried using Magic Earth and especially the driving mode is great and sometimes it worked flawlessly but I regularly had freezes and crashes. Do you have any issues with it?

People also should be able to pay the artist directly and not some billion dollar company who continue to try to squeeze the artists and limit creativeness all in servitude to the almighty dollar (or any other currency)

Quite interesting to see them trying to live without a car in a society where cars are such a necessity. I live in the Netherlands and many of my friends don’t have a license or own a car, but over here the infrastructure is build around accessibility for people without a car. For example, I live in a small town and I can hop on my bike and reach 5 supermarkets within 15 minutes. But it’s interesting to see people trying out different modes of transportation where it’s not so easy.

Just out of curiosity, what’s the benefit vs having the VPN on all the time?

I have the Fairphone 4 and I’ve been very happy with it. It’s not as fast as the top models, but I have no use for a fast phone and every app I need works perfectly. It’s been such a relief knowing I don’t have to buy a new phone because the battery or the port died. And I tend to drop my phone regularly, so it’s great that I can switch out the screen. I’ll definitively buy another Fairphone when the time comes.

Interesting, I’ve gone through the process and whilst I do have an account to track the order I haven’t been forced to do anything else. I also use the phone and the app lounge without logging in.

Edit: I just looked at it and I only have a shop account to track the order. No cloud service or email address

Murena (the company behind /e/ os) also sell smartphones with /e/ os installed. They’ve also partnered with Fairphone if you’re looking for a more sustainable model. I bought the Fairphone with /e/ os a couple of months ago because I was looking for a phone with replaceable parts and it works well. They also sell some refurbished models I believe.

Don’t know what country you live in, but I worked in HR and I would’ve had the company’s ass if they’d tried to fire me because I supported a co-worker. And that’s why this generalization is so sucky. In my opinion generalization is one of mankind’s worst diseases we have. So be terrific and be specific.

Awesome generalization. This is so wholly dependent on the country, company, HR policy and HR person, that it’s a pretty useless statement.