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  <div class="page-header"><h2>About Replicant</h2></div>

  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-9">
      <p>
        Replicant is a
        <a href="//www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html"> fully free</a>
        <a href="//www.android.com/">Android</a> distribution running on several
        devices, a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on
        freedom and privacy/security. It is based on
        <a href="http://lineageos.org/">LineageOS</a> and replaces or avoids
        every
        <a href="//www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary.html">proprietary</a>
        component of the system, such as user-space programs and libraries as
        well as firmwares.<br />Replicant aims to be an ethical system: it does
        not ship nor recommend the use of non-free software.
      </p>
      <p>
        Many different devices are supported by Replicant, to an extent specific
        to each device. Basic features such as graphics, sound and telephony (if
        applicable) are supposed to be working for each device (if not,
        developers are confident they will work soon).
      </p>
      <p>
        Replicant is a community-led effort, currently driven by few developers.
        Not every piece of software in Replicant should be expected to be
        fully-featured nor entirely reliable, even though developers are trying
        their best.
      </p>

      <h3>History</h3>

      <p>
        Replicant was founded in 2010 as a way to gather initiatives aiming to
        free the system running on the HTC Dream, the first publicly-available
        Android device. The project was started by members of
        <a href="//libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Italia">
          LibrePlanet Italia
        </a> and
        <a href="//sfconservancy.org/">Software Freedom Conservancy</a>.
        The first usable version of Replicant was based upon Android 1.5 as
        released by the
        <a href="//source.android.com/">Android Open Source Project</a>:
        after some work, basic functionalities of the HTC Dream  were working.
        Starting from version 2.2, Replicant stopped using AOSP as a base and
        instead started using
        <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanogenmod">CyanogenMod</a>,
        which contains support for more devices.
      </p>
      <p>
        Over time, various initial members of the project retired, leaving
        Denis "GNUtoo" Carikli as the only active developer of the project.
        However, in April 2011 Paul Kocialkowski, a user of Replicant, started
        getting involved in development. After porting Replicant to version 2.3
        on the Nexus S and later on porting plenty more devices, Paul became the
        main developer of Replicant and was doing most of the work on the
        project for several years. In September 2015 Wolfgang Wiedmeyer started
        to contribute to the project. He ported Replicant to version 6.0 on the
        Galaxy S3 and later on ported more devices that were already supported
        by previous Replicant versions.
      </p>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="page-header" id="faq">
    <h2>Frequently asked questions</h2>
  </div>

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      <div class="panel panel-default" id="only-free-software">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Is my device only running free software after I install Replicant?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            While Replicant is a fully free system, other components run aside
            the system, such as bootloaders, firmwares and the modem operating
            system (if applicable). These components are usually proprietary
            software. Some devices can also run free software bootloaders:
            see the documentation specific to each device for more
            details.<br />
            For more information about these issues, read our
            <a href="freedom-privacy-security-issues.php">
              freedom and privacy/security issues
            </a> page.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="not-listed-install">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            My device is not listed as supported, can I still install Replicant?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            Replicant only runs on the
            <a
              href=
              "//redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/ReplicantStatus">
              listed supported devices
            </a>.
            Other devices have to be explicitly
            ported to Replicant: specific drivers and configurations have to be
            written so that Replicant can handle the device properly. It is not
            a good idea to try installing an image for a device that has a
            similar name: it will fail and may damage the device.<br />
            You are welcome to get in touch with us and start evaluating your
            device as a next target for Replicant!
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="safe-data">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Is my data safe when stored on a device running Replicant?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            While Replicant is a fully free system, some proprietary components
            that are not part of the system, such as bootloaders, may still be
            executed (the situation depends on each device). These proprietary
            pieces have access to the data stored on the device. Hence, they
            represent a risk for security.<br />
            On telephony-enabled devices, if the modem is poorly isolated from
            the rest of the device, it may also be able to compromise the data
            stored on the device and apply software changes.<br />
            Despite being fully free, Replicant may also be exposed to security
            issues that were not disclosed and/or fixed yet, like any operating
            system. Just as well, installing third party applications may bring
            security issues, especially if they come from untrusted sources. Of
            course, installing any proprietary application creates a risk for
            security.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="safe-communications">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Are my communications safe when using a device running Replicant?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            Communications made using the public mobile telephony network should
            be considered unsafe by nature, as the mobile telephony operator is
            always able to record and track these communications and is often
            legally allowed to do so. In addition, it was shown that in some
            cases, these can be intercepted as a result of the weak encryption
            in use. Safe communications can be achieved using encryption over
            the Internet (e.g. through mobile data networks).<br />
            However on telephony-enabled devices, if the modem is poorly
            isolated from the rest of the device, it may be able to access the
            microphone of the device or access the communications data
            unencrypted, making any kind of communication unsafe.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="missing-hardware-features">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Why are some hardware features missing on Replicant?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            Most of the time, hardware features are driven by proprietary
            software in LineageOS. While Replicant is fully free, these
            proprietary parts are either replaced or avoided in Replicant. Such
            parts being avoided instead of replaced is the result of missing
            free software support for that hardware. It happens because
            developers failed to write free software support for that hardware,
            as a result of incomplete or missing documentation from the
            manufacturer, lack of time to perform reverse engineering or
            generally speaking, lack of proper resources.<br />
            Keep in mind that writing free software replacements is a
            technically complex task that does not always succeed, especially
            when the manufacturer doesn't communicate how to use the hardware.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="replicant-different-lineageos">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            How exactly is Replicant different from LineageOS?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            Replicant uses LineageOS's source code as a base. It is rebranded to
            provide the Replicant look and feel (wallpapers, logos) and parts of
            the code are reworked to remove anti-features that can spy on the
            user. Most importantly, Replicant does not include any of
            LineageOS's proprietary components (programs, libraries, firmwares)
            and instead provides free software replacements for some of these.
            The rest of the system is also adapted so that the free software
            replacements can run correctly.
        </p></div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="replicant-based-omnirom">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Why is Replicant based on LineageOS instead of
            <a href="//omnirom.org/">OmniROM</a>?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            LineageOS supports more devices than OmniROM, which makes porting a
            new device to Replicant easier. On top of that, most if not all
            devices that are currently supported by Replicant are not in
            OmniROM. OmniROM's general position may be more friendly towards
            free software, but it still ships with proprietary software.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="shipping-proprietary-components">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Why doesn't Replicant ship with proprietary components when free
            replacements are missing?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            Replicant is a free software project and thus does not encourage nor
            enforce the use of proprietary software. Shipping proprietary
            software is a way of taking the decision for the user to use
            proprietary software, which is not an ethical nor respectful thing
            to do.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="installing-proprietary-components">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Why doesn't Replicant guide users through installing complementary
            proprietary components?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            Replicant is a free software project and thus does not encourage nor
            enforce the use of proprietary software. Providing instructions to
            install such components is a way of encouraging the use of
            proprietary software, which is not an ethical thing to do.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="panel panel-default" id="replicant-name">
        <div class="panel-heading">
          <h3 class="panel-title">
            Where does the Replicant name comes from?
          </h3>
        </div>
        <div class="panel-body">
          <p>
            One of the goals initial of projects like GNU or ReactOS was to
            replace nonfree operating systems, like Unix and Microsoft Windows.
            To do that they could not simply reuse the nonfree operating system
            source code as it wasn't free software, so they had to write their
            own code and reuse other available free software components.<br />
            <br />
            With Android the situation was much easier because even if many
            drivers were not free software, most of the operating system source
            code was available.<br />
            <br />
            So with way less effort, we could have an exact Replica of Android
            with the same graphical interface and so on. We just had to replace
            these nonfree drivers.<br />
            <br />
            When trying to find a project name, "Replicant" looked neat as not
            only we were Replicating Android, but the name was also loosely
            related to Android as in Blade Runner, Replicants are also Androids.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

    <div class="col-md-3">
      <div class="list-group">
        <a href="#faq" class="list-group-item active">
          <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-question-sign"></span>
          Frequently asked questions
        </a>
        <a href="#only-free-software" class="list-group-item">
          Is my device only running free software after I install Replicant?
        </a>
        <a href="#not-listed-install" class="list-group-item">
          My device is not listed as supported, can I still install Replicant?
        </a>
        <a href="#safe-data" class="list-group-item">
          Is my data safe when stored on a device running Replicant?
        </a>
        <a href="#safe-communications" class="list-group-item">
          Are my communications safe when using a device running Replicant?
        </a>
        <a href="#missing-hardware-features" class="list-group-item">
          Why are some hardware features missing on Replicant?
        </a>
        <a href="#replicant-different-lineageos" class="list-group-item">
          How exactly is Replicant different from LineageOS?
        </a>
        <a href="#replicant-based-omnirom" class="list-group-item">
          Why is Replicant based on LineageOS instead of OmniROM?
        </a>
        <a href="#shipping-proprietary-components" class="list-group-item">
          Why doesn't Replicant ship with proprietary components when free
          replacements are missing?
        </a>
        <a href="#installing-proprietary-components" class="list-group-item">
          Why doesn't Replicant guide users through installing complementary
          proprietary components?
        </a>
        <a href="#replicant-name" class="list-group-item">
          Where does the Replicant name comes from?
        </a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

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