when they eventually found a new name "murena" it appears they then decided to use it as a brand for the phones that they themselves sell instead, keeping /e/OS as the name for the operating system
I just checked and Murena is an eel, too. Imho, one of the ugliest fish one could choose as a mascotte :S
curiously i always thought morays look cute.
Astroturfing kills any trust I had in e/OS.
"I wanted to add a perspective from an LLM sockpuppet, because I know you're all not deeply cynical and mistrustful yet."
Revolut stopped working for me for a while with the error that the bootloader wasn't recognised and rooted phones aren't supported. After about a month an OS update solved it.
/e/ on FP3 has been my daily driver for 1.5 years and my daughters run it on their FP4s with no problems at all.
Its not only Fairphones. I'd say they've got an interesting mix of tech there. I think they even sold refurbished pixels flashed with /e/ for a while.
I do not understand all the negativity, I think it is a solid alternative in the ecosystem, and choice is a good thing.
I used to only really speak about node.js topics because that was what I had real fighting experience with, at a scale beyond what most webdevs had ever seen. Those were also my most upvoted posts by far.
However, if you haven't already, I'd encourage you to read over their past comments. They all read almost identical to the start of this thread. Before this post they had something like 3 other comments on HN and they were all about how great /e/OS is. All of them have a blurb about the privacy focus of /e/OS. They all read like copy from marketing.
That is bizarre commenting behavior for a niche OS. And these weren't comments about using /e/OS, but rather comments speaking positively about using it.
Your posts on node.js, I assume, weren't all "Node.js is the greatest programming environment I've ever used. It's so smooth and fast." Instead, I'd wager your highly upvoted comments contained useful information about using node.js.
I'd also say, that there are people that work for various software tech companies who post here. The best comments I see almost always start with "Full disclosure, I work for X". Those are far better received.
This is behavior of an astroturfer, that's so what. Which is why you are being accused of that. It looks suspicious.
> should I ask for permission to discuss something?
Nope, the opposite. If you want to look like a non-astroturfer then engagement with other topics on the site would do that.
If you only engage with a single topic over the years and the only thing you contribute is "This is the absolute best working OS I've used, everyone should use it. I endorse it fully". People are going to be, understandably, suspicious of your motivations.
> it's crazy how omniscient people are aggressive on the internet.
We live in an internet filled with advertisements. Most of us have seen astroturfing. That's why we suspect you.
> Is that your normal behaviour IRL??
Absolutely it is! If someone knocks on my door telling me about the wonders of pest control, you'll forgive me for not taking their endorsement for the program they are selling as being solid. Same thing happens in churches. I'm instantly suspicious of someone that starts singing the praises of a product in church and, magically, starts hosting parties where they talk about the wonders of said product (see MLM).
This is a fact of living in a capitalist society. There's always an incentive to sell which makes everyone suspicious of product endorsements. Especially when that seems to be the only thing a person is capable of doing.
Engaging in an argument with people accusing them of astroturfing? Absolutely not.
I’ve been using a Murena/Fairphone running /e/OS as my primary phone for a while now, and honestly the experience has been much smoother than I expected. My banking apps work, GPS/navigation works reliably, messaging and everyday apps behave normally — I’m not constantly fighting the device or giving things up. After the initial setup, it just feels like a normal smartphone, except noticeably quieter in terms of tracking and background noise.
What surprised me most is that this isn’t a “privacy experiment” anymore. It’s a usable, stable daily driver. I still get the convenience people worry about losing, but with far fewer ties to Google services by default.
I think a lot of people hesitate because they assume moving away from stock Android means breaking essential apps or living with constant friction. That hasn’t been my experience at all. If you’re curious but unsure, it’s genuinely worth trying — the barrier is much lower than it used to be, and you might find you don’t miss as much as you expect.