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<p>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.<br>
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<p>"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). </p>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>However, in one respect I believe the phone is <em>not</em>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you - Fairphone the organization - could sell
FP3s preloaded with LineageOS or Sailfish OS or one of the other
Google-free alternatives.</p>
<p>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 <em>the</em> 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.</p>
<p>All the best and congratulations with all the cool things in
the project,<br>
Carsten"</p>
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