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"