Hopping Linux phones gets a spot this decade.
We need to talk about them more. A lot of the time when developers go through the efforts of actually building apps rarely do they receive attention. It causes the feelings of “why continue this if nobody else cares.”
Artists want their works appreciated.
I Hope you are right. A european "Android" would be nice.
I'm beginning to think that my next phone will be a (relatively) dumb phone that can do bluetooth + wifi tethering to a small linux tablet.
What about dumb phone hardware that can be connected to micro PCs? Like literally a basic as basic can be phone. Then jack that into a basic small computer to supply data/SMS connection. Think the size of a clutch, wallet or smaller?
I know it's not the most practical option, but it would be a literal computer. Linux, Windows or otherwise. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Could be cool. Idk. Like a gun shoulder holster or something.
Or maybe I'm dumb.
i'v been considering just getting a steam deck and carrying around some gsm router or something to turn it into my own hotspot/phone
Please let me know viable options.
There are no realistic linux options for your phone. These memes are pipe dreams by people that haven't actually looked at how utterly incapable linux currently is at powering a smart phone for normal daily use and how these apps that they're complaining about android and apple are removing won't run on the linux phone in the first place.
Sounds like switching will mean we will lose everything we're already losing. Might as well go ahead and quit cold turkey.
Yeah... I'm rapidly approaching the point of just learning to live without a smartphone altogether as it becomes more and more frustrating to find one that has what I want.
That is correct, currently, moving to a linux phone will lose you more than what you're losing with Google and Apple changes.
Apps are just part of the problem. Running a full linux OS on a phone with all the normal mobile phone capabilities is also an exercise in frustration. Taking Ubuntu Touch as an example, the OS has been around since 2011, was released in 2014 and it's list of approved phones is still minuscule. If you're a person on VZW, that list grows even smaller as VoLTE is problematic enough to be considered impossible to get working reliably.
I truly hope that the linux phone landscape shapes up but in it's current form, it's actually losing ground as it's development is slower than the hardware development and at it's current rate, will never be a viable option.
At this point I'd rather keep my freedom and lose the convenience. If it means losing apps and horsepower, fine by me. I'm already half resigned to going back to a dumbphone. I'm also looking at options to assemble my own phone with off the shelf parts if that's what it takes.
When you abandon freedom to achieve security, you lose both and deserve neither. - Thomas Jefferson
That's funny I've had several Android apps run fine under Linux mobile OSes.
I'm not going to say they're ready for general public daily use but there's no reason they one day couldn't be? There's a foundation there. With a good enthusiast community we could get it to the point that it's at least useable for power users and grow from there.
Get a Pixel 8 or 9 and install GrapheneOS. The recent changes to AOSP aren't some death knell for the project. Even if it were: using GOS on an older Pixel for the next five years or so is going to be way safer than alternatives.
I'll grant that whether or not this matters to someone depends on their personal threat model. My counter argument is to gesture broadly at the state of things. If they think the computing device they use most often shouldn't be their most reasonably secured and trustworthy computer then I'm not sure there's much else to discuss on the topic.
I want to be able to recommend any of the Linux phone projects or even something like Murena's new partnership with HIROH but they don't solve the problems GrapheneOS does.
The best breakdown of current options I've found is here: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
Moving to phones made by google as a protest against google really seems weird. Sorry, but I will stick to the less secure options
This position misses the point entirely and introduces personal risk for no benefit. Buy a used Pixel if it makes you feel better about it. Then you're upcycling.
By less secure I mean lineageos or /e/os. How does it miss the point entirely?
Why not much development with newer hardwares? Most devices are 2021 or older
I think because how the older devices function is more well documented.
i don't think they are ready though.
It's sort of a paradox. Low adoption leads to less resources, bug reports, developer interest, etc. and that in turn leads to low adoption.
What works for me is daily driving my linux phone, and having a used regular smartphone sitting in a drawer, turned off, until I absolutely need to run an app that is not compatible with Waydroid.
maybe for enthusiasts, but the average person isn't making bug reports.
It's been years, and I still miss windowsphone so much. I knew we were fucked when they axed it and iPhone and android were already starting to stall out with a duopoly.
At one point, we had blackberry, some form of meego, Windowsphone, android and iOS, as well as niche things like jolla and sailfish.
Eh? Microsoft and Windowsphone basically killed the only real alternative to Android and iOS when they did their hostile takeover of Nokia, and Windowsphone itself was an atrocity that luckily died rather quickly.
Windowsphone itself was an atrocity that luckily died rather quickly.
"Tell me you never used Windows Phone without telling me you never used Windows Phone"
My plan going forward is to either make or buy a basic small cyberdeck type system. Using my phone as basically little more than a glorified cellular modem. Or for isolated calls or SMS.
Looking at investing in and setting up some mesh halow infrastructure at home and a couple other places to reduce the need for the cellular modem part a bit more.
Linux Phones
The Discussion on Linux-based Phones.
Benefits:
- Hardware freedom.
- Perfect operating-system competition.
- Full utilization of specs.
- Phone lifespan raises to 10+ years.
- Less e-waste.
Linux Mobile Distros:
- Postmarket OS
- Ubuntu Touch
- Mobian
- Sailfish
- Manjaro Arm
- Pure OS
- Plasma Mobile
- LuneOS
- FuriOS
- Nemomobile
- Droidian
- Mobile NixOS
- ExpidusOS
- Maemo Leste
- Tizen
- WebOS
Linux Mobile Hardware:
- Fairphone 5
- Volla Phone
- Librem 5
- PinePhone
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