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Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

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Re: Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

#51

Post by on_and_off »

JensRex wrote: post #34
digi_owl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would not surprise me that if you replaced the Google blob with MiniG that battery life would improve on Android. I keep seeing report after report that Play Services in particular can be a real drain.

>MiniG What is this? I tried searching for it, but got nothing useful. Only things related to crypto mining, and other unrelated nonsense. It sounds interesting.

I think op means micro-g

Soo on Android many non basic features are enabled through Play Services. It is basically a huge library from Google that auto updates itself.

Chromecast is a good example of a feature delivered entirely through play services.

Google login also works that way.

Many apps leverage Play Services in some way. It is common to check your play services version at startup and ask the user to update them if they are out of date compared to what your app targets.

Micro-g reproduces the Play Services API and tries to deliver an open source equivalent to some of its features.

I don't really buy the argument that Play Services nullifies AOSP in any way but it is interesting to see another alternative (amazon also has a similar project) that is open source.

Re: Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

#52

Post by on_and_off »

digi_owl wrote: post #16
zepearl wrote: post #2

I'm using Sailfish OS on an Xperia X since when it became available. My main reason to migrate from Android was "battery life" which was confirmed (battery now lasts ~5 days instead of the usual 2-3), but the OS has a lot of small and bigger bugs (e.g. carrier selection, 2G/3G/4G priority, stuck data comm for Android apps) and missing features (notoriously: tethering/wlan access point, bluetooth) that do not currentl…

Would not surprise me that if you replaced the Google blob with MiniG that battery life would improve on Android. I keep seeing report after report that Play Services in particular can be a real drain.

That seems probable but also misleading.

Play Services is choke full of features, so it tends to be very high in the battery useage list.

Replacing it with MiniG that uses the same API with way less features can only decrease battery consumption.

Re: Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

#53

Post by dingo_bat »

Instead of an alternative OS, we need a company that will make good hardware (comparable to Samsung) and not lock down their android system and provide open source drivers.

That will satisfy most tinkerers, since they can modify anything they want and even load their own images since the drivers are open source.

Android as an OS is good enough. Just that every single manufacturer has opted to lock it down.

Re: Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

#54

Post by stallmanite »

matte_black wrote: post #10
gue5t wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you were asking how it might be a problem, look at some of its effects on the status quo: Forced obsolescence, pervasive spyware/security problems, being locked into an "app" ecosystem, user-hostile antifeatures, lack of modifiability to deal with hardware degradation over time, etc.

All those are things a person can live with if all they want is a communication device that runs apps and browses the web.

Pervasive spyware is not a problem?

Re: Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

#56

Post by petecox »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #26
deanclatworthy wrote: post #11

It’s hardly an alternative. Having tried it twice, the gestures are completely alien to a new user and I gave up with our test device within an hour.

> Having tried it twice, the gestures are completely alien to a new user. When you buy a Jolla device, you are taken through a tutorial. The gestures aren’t that difficult to get used to. To me personally, they seem a lot more straightforward and intuitive than my wife’s Android phone. Incidentally, this winter I traveled in a couple of developing countries and bought local SIM cards from an office of the main teleco…

There's a, not insurmountable, learning curve for both Sailfish and Ubuntu Touch.

Quirky isn't necessarily better if you're trying to woo users who just want a familiar experience without learning new paradigms.

The lack of a back button in Firefox OS annoyed me! Instead of pressing a section at the bottom right of the screen with one's thumb, one had to 'click' on a web toolbar button all the way near the top left of the screen.

It's not that "gestures aren’t that difficult to get used to", it is more do they offer anything more than the tried and true?

Re: Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

#58

Post by squarefoot »

gue5t wrote: post #3

Companies providing operating systems is a clear conflict of interest. Evidence: the tragic state of the entire mobile ecosystem, where no hardware can be fully utilized by (or even make calls with) an open-source OS. This article also fails to mention Tizen. Has it been abandoned? It was absolutely terrible (millions upon millions of lines of the worst C code I've ever perused) but I thought it still existed, making…

"where no hardware can be fully utilized by (or even make calls with) an open-source OS."

Blame hardware manufacturers for this. If they released open specs (not even the drivers sources, just the specs would suffice) of their devices we could have full alternative OS installations in months after each device release, giving new life to old devices and much higher security to newer ones.

Re: Jolla is the last company with an 'alternative' mobile operating system

#59

Post by squarefoot »

stallmanite wrote: post #54
matte_black wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those are things a person can live with if all they want is a communication device that runs apps and browses the web.

Pervasive spyware is not a problem?

Those used to tell online everything about their life down to the details could even consider it a service.
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