I just bought a new Fairphone 3, and the experience inspired me to write
the following on their official forum. I think I was called to do this
mainly because I really like th project and think it's a shame they
focus so little on free software, now they've apparently got so many
other things right.
"I just received my FP3, and it’s a lovely device, following suit on FP1
and FP2, both of which I’ve owned (the FP1 is bricked, the FP2 reboots
randomly and needs a new mike - I suppose the mike could be fixed, but I
dont know abt the restarts).
Anyway, I really like the device and the work Fairphone is doing for a
fairer production cycle and a fairer product in terms of repairability.
However, in one respect I believe the phone is /not/ fair: It comes
preloaded with Google’s Android including the full Google Apps suite -
i.e., with a proprietary OS and a set of proprietary and very
surveillance-heavy apps. Negatively, one might say it by default comes
loaded with spyware. I don’t get how that is fair. As a long-standing
free software activist and current member of the General Assembly of
Free Software Foundation Europe (talking here, though, solely in my
private capacity) I think that “fair” software is free - as in freedom,
i.e. with all source code available.
On the other hand, I get that many users want the comfort and efficiency
in the Google App suite. The FP1 came with only free software from the
AOSP project and a link to install Google Apps. I thought that was fair.
Alternatively, you - Fairphone the organization - could sell FP3s
preloaded with LineageOS or Sailfish OS or one of the other Google-free
alternatives.
I do realize that I can install one of those on the phone myself and
will probably also end up doing so. But honestly, I don’t think it is
reasonable by the standards of a project that declares itelf to be /the/
fair phone - to put it like that, I don’t think it is FAIR - that the
general, non-tech-savvy public can’t buy a fair and ethical phone that
doesn’t by default opt them in to Google’s global surveillance circus.
All the best and congratulations with all the cool things in the project,
Carsten"
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