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

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71–80 of 142 posts

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

#71
post #39

Half a year ago in September, I left Sailfish OS and Jolla after I had exclusively used "alternative" mobile operating systems. I started with the Nokia N900, after that I had the Nokia N9, and then both the Jolla and Jolla C with Sailfish OS. The UI concepts of Sailfish OS were great, the gestures were simple and intuitive. However, it lacked so many other features. The Android emulator was only compatible with apps…

"parts of the UI stayed closed source" If anything is closed, except drivers they'd likely be forced to accept binaries for, I wouldn't even consider the OS. Who do they think their target audience is? I imagine most people looking into an alternative mobile OS are well aware of the slippery cliff that is proprietary software. It's the whole point of looking around. I'm looking for full control so I don't get stuck w…

How about another angle: Android is Open Sourced and much powerful than SailfishOS. It's much easier for their target audiences to targeting Android than their OS.

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

#72
post #28

all I want to know can I run say the latest version of Firefox & WhatsApp on it ? I would love to support these guys

According to some people above, any Android apps that support Android 4.4 or below can be emulated on it. So, I'm pretty sure that does include these two, and Firefox in particular has been confirmed to work.

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

#73
post #24

I backed their tablet and was disappointed when I learned they would never ship it - Jolla's handling of the whole fiasco was very suboptimal. Pinning hopes on the purism now for a hackable mobile device.

They gave me half a refund, which is honestly more than I expected. I wish them well, but they're not getting any more of my money.

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

#74

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.

What about Lineage and rooting your phone? https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

Another problem with Lineage OS is that the firmware and kernel drivers on your phone cannot be updated once the OEM ends support. Here'a a page that lists all of the CVE's that are not patched on Lineage OS builds by device:

https://cve.lineageos.org/devices

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

#75
post #17

... and these idealists have finally found a backer! They've become preferred suppliers of the Russian and Chinese governments. :-~

If you were the Chinese or Russian government, would you rather trust Google or Apple with a camera and mic on all your employees? While I don’t personally like the policies of either government, if they throw money at FOSS, that’s still (probably, see Android) a good thing.

Apple of course. They've already handed the operation of their Chinese iCloud data centers to a Chinese state run company so they already have a relationship.

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

#78
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jolla had some profitable months last year and started issuing refunds to people who backed its tablet on Indiegogo. The company won't say how many are left, however. "It's not that many," Pienimäki claims. "Some of them are a bit noisy, but it's not really that many anymore." Jolla has promised to issue more refunds every time it has a profitable month. These, Pienimäki hopes, will happen at a "steady pace" by the e…

Keeping money for not delivered product, while spending cash on other parts of the business, sounds like fraud.

That isn't really how it went down, at least as far as I could tell following their updates from the outside.

It seemed more like they ran out of money entirely, and their options were either give up completely and no-one gets anything, or keep working on Sailfish OS to hopefully get new business going, then make a profit in the future that they can use to pay tablet backers back. And they have been paying backers back as promised when they're able to.

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

#79
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 o…

Sailfish would work brilliantly on an all-screen phone like the iPhone X IMO. No need to emulate any on-screen buttons.

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

#80
post #39

Half a year ago in September, I left Sailfish OS and Jolla after I had exclusively used "alternative" mobile operating systems. I started with the Nokia N900, after that I had the Nokia N9, and then both the Jolla and Jolla C with Sailfish OS. The UI concepts of Sailfish OS were great, the gestures were simple and intuitive. However, it lacked so many other features. The Android emulator was only compatible with apps…

"parts of the UI stayed closed source" If anything is closed, except drivers they'd likely be forced to accept binaries for, I wouldn't even consider the OS. Who do they think their target audience is? I imagine most people looking into an alternative mobile OS are well aware of the slippery cliff that is proprietary software. It's the whole point of looking around. I'm looking for full control so I don't get stuck w…

I imagine the market sector that cares and actually understands the issues is not too small in itself but in the scope of potential users of smartphones quite tiny.
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