that is so much not true. My jolla died and I'm usiog AOSP on old moto x-play since sailfish is not good enugh.
And I have zero gapps there, not even google account, no whatsapp (just telegram, that works unlike those sailfish versions).
There's F-droid, there's Aptoide, there's Apkpure, there's even a way to use google play store without account if none of the above doesnt do. There's "plugn a play" free working navigation solutions. There's Via browser that is 736827 better than sailfish one.
Bottom line is, android can be used without google just fine if one does not use/need google in the first place.

OK guys, I stand corrected.

Tbh, i needs gapps tho (best if minimal), people who only have a set of apps to use may not need gapps, but even then they'll need some kind of other market or search for apks so in the end android does equals to it's app base. As for gapps, you cant get your answer from a handful of people, especially who only use a few app. There will always be people fine with and without something, but majority on android need gapps (afaik mostly just playstore/playservices/gmail/youtube/playgames) so much that its a deal breaker if they cant get them and will just choose another device with gapps on it, or rather the deal breaker is playstore the others are installable from playstore. Thats one of the reasons almost all vendors these days ship android with playstore.

Lack of playstore is the easiest thing to come around. The only real issue is if you need something that simply doesn't work without play services. While a lot of apps will say that the device does not have them they will still work just fine. But some just won't work.
The second issue is if you need some kind of car integration. While basic stuff like phone/contacts/A2DP work just fine in AOSP and problem is usually on a car side. mirrorlink is not avalilable on custom ROMs. But it's not there in sailfish so...

For French readers:

https://www.ouest-france.fr/journal/...-duval-5486080

I am not sure how people do not trust google. but can install app from store where anyone can upload anything and there is no code audit. Not even talking about pirated apps in Aptoide that probably were modified

Regardless of other things, maybe it is still better than sailfish, but it's not usable as normal android with all the things out-of-box.
Not that I'm fan of android, but this is most usable OS after maemo's death

Nearly all the native "OS"s in China are android without Google, because Google was blocked in China. So what's the difference between them? They are still Android.

Or what's the difference between this and Lineage without GApps?

Too many Android varients already.

So, /e/ (former eelo) has moved forward, there is out the first beta version of the OS and since November there are already several ninghtly builds based on oreo: https://community.e.foundation/t/lea...-and-more/1036

https://ewwlo.xyz/evil
What I found about eelo. Apparently they're not as great as they claim to be.

I don't want to defend /e/, but it seems that the author of that webpage has some personal "hate" relationship with the /e/ and some statements there are sort of fun to read
I think the /e/ project just needs some time to sort the problems out...