List of all Linux phones https://linmob.net/resources/#smartphones
That's a neat resource list! I don't know why anyone wants to torture themselves porting void to mobile, cool nonetheless!
Few weeks ago I saw a really cool presentation about the history and current state of Linux phone. It is unfortunately in German, slides in English though: https://youtu.be/JeFoRE72Gu0
I put PostmarketOS on a spare device recently. PostmarketOS describes itself as currently being in a state suitable for Linux enthusiasts to try out, not for wider use. That seems about right to me.
On the fun side, it's proper desktop-style Linux. I can SSH to it from my laptop. I can compile software on it. I can run programs that have no business running on a phone. On the not so fun side, the cameras barely work, data over USB doesn't work at all, and battery life is not good. Desktop Firefox on a phone screen is pretty bad. Rumor has it there's some support for Android apps, but I've been looking at Waydroid's splash screen for a long time now with no progress.
Epiphany browser works well on phones
Why not use something like Angelfish instead of Firefox?
This Angelfish?
Welp, I guess it needs some more development time.
PostmarketOS makes no claim that it is ready to be a daily driver, Linux phones are pretty experimental right now. That's why there is so much tension over the custom ROMs that manage to function on such locked-down hardware
I wouldn't consider any Linux phone ecosystem developed enough to consider a "daily driver" phone yet. If you need a phone to be functional at pretty much all times as a phone, but you don't want to give into smartphones, I honestly would suggest a VOIP landline (that you potentially roll out and serve yourself, depending on your level of technical ability and available resources).
not yet
They all have issues. The OS portion is just ramping up again brought on by the Google coup on Android.
Honestly, you'd be better off getting something that runs a better Android OS for now versus running a Linux derivative.
The main issues:
No.
ubports was pretty good last I tried but there were basically no apps. that was on xenial so it may be a bit better now especially with waydroid.
The closest to a daily driver you can get to is Sailfish OS on a supported phone. There's a lot if amazing work in the linux phone space as the bar for daily driver is fairly high.
Maemo on the N900 was close, but MeeGo on the N9 was there. The Ovi store even had the hot apps of the era.
Fuck Microsoft for killing that dream.
Agreed. Tho we have unfortunately moved from that golden age
I daily drive Ubuntu touch and like it very much, but I can see how that would be hard in certain situations. Keep doing some research, and pick one that seems to fit your needs to try it out! Only you can decide if it is good enough for your particular circumstances.
Maybe you could write a bit more about your experience?
Why I love it:
What is sometimes difficult:
Awesome, thanks for the info! Great insights.
How do you mean running stuff in waydroid is hit and miss. Stuff just doesn't work? And you mentioned signal not working and needing alternatives? Signal is my main chat app...
Does it feel cool to use it? Or is it still more troublesome than cool? 😎
The Waydroid container runs Lineage, a degoogled android based os. Many apps require Google play services to run, or they do other checks that fail in that environement. Most stuff from F-droid will run.
Signal does not have a native UT app at the moment, but some use Matrix bridges to send and receive messages. Others run it in Waydroid, or do experiments with the cli version. The first works very well, but you need to find/make a bridge host that you trust.
Oh, it feels very nice to use! Most of my troubles these days stem from me experimenting and running the devel version of the os. I can go days between serious issues, and the issues that do appear are never deal breakers as they don't tend to affect basic phone functionality. It feels great and it is way too much fun.
I’d be interested in hearing more! I’m thinking about making the jump, myself.
Have a look at my other answer in this thread! If you are a tinkerer with a bit of patience, UT could be a good OS for you.
I would love to try Mobian and PostmarketOS too, I bet that there are some really good ports out there.
If you're coming from a feature phone - it's great!
If you're coming from a modern smartphone, you probably won't be happy with it as a daily driver.
I'm voting with my feet, but carrying two devices.
if you're coming from a feature phone you probably expect the modem to work reliably and support volte
I had a pine phone for a while and it was sufficiently developed to use it as a daily driver… if you could put up with dropped calls, and texts, and burning thru ur whole battery in one hour cuz sleep didn’t work.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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