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Comment by opan | Hacker News Reader

I'll never use a custom ROM that includes microg by default. LineageOS with no gapps of any kind is my preference. I can get apps from f-droid or even aurora store, and everything I need works. I don't want any google stuff on there, not even a slightly less sketchy version.

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Sure, but, unfortunately, a lot of apps require Google Play Services to work at all, so microG is the only sane alternative. The fact /e/OS includes it pre-configured OOB is a positive for my use case.

My primary device runs GrapheneOS, but a secondary device with /e/OS is the next best thing for apps that refuse to work without Google Play Services. Or those that I just want to keep off my main device.

I might be misunderstanding it, but microg is not (like the name suggests) a stripped down version of the google services. It is a reimplementation of the APIs that the google services provide to installed apps. It doesn't reuse any code (it couldn't, because the google services are not open source) and doesn't connect to google servers, afaik.

As per their motto, MicroG is "A free-as-in-freedom re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries". They absolutely do connect to Google services, just not with the proprietary Google implementation of the softwares, but with a reimplementation. I think this is very similar to NewPipe for example. Google's proprietary services, with an open source frontend.

> doesn't connect to google servers

Microg optionally supports Firebase Cloud Messaging for apps that require it for push notifications.

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