Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi

What "normal OEM support" (like which company, for example?) has been good at regularly releasing security patches and keeping on top of various vulnerabilities? Especially past the 1-2 years after the release date of the device? Especially if you consider those companies that without any real consent from you install dozens of their own adware and spyware on each update that you can't even remove (like you can't remove system apps in android, only "disable" them, to make the phone nag you all the time to re-enable them).

Not having to rely on the joke of the "OEM support" from the big companies is the very reason to use these open phones.

The old fashioned way was using QPST/QXDM to modify the ESN/IMEI of phones but that was questionable enough. This also includes bluetooth mac address too and other UID's in the baseband. :)

This was made possible mainly because I have prepared for about a year for GNU/linux phones (thinking of the librem5 at the time) by replacing all my commonly used apps with similar webapps.

All in all, I don't have an advanced usage of my phone, so it may be what makes it possible to use the pinephone. I don't commute (no need for maps, games, durable battery), I don't often take pictures, my only real need for my phone is the hotspot (because it's my only internet connection) and calls/messaging.

The pinephone is extremely cheap hardware and it can be felt. Opening firefox takes a good 10 seconds, and browsing with it is a pain. Gladly, GNU/linux is very good at running on poor hardware. I just replaced the browser with elinks, which I run through tor, just like on my laptop, and it does the job. Lollypop works well to listen to music while I'm out. Calls and text messages are good enough.

The real cool thing, though, is how hackable it is. After a few months with the phone, I've played a lot around the idea : how to make apps that doesn't use much power? Because, the battery is very bad. And a few months after, my answer has been to build C applications that runs as CGI apps with html static interface rendered by nginx (the idea being to only run the program when I need it rather than constantly as a daemon). This is absurd, this is fun, I love it.

So, as far as I'm concerned, GNU/linux phones are validated. Now I'll want something with better hardware, so I'll wait for the librem5 to see if it delivers, then switch to it if it does.

EDIT: oh, I forgot to mention a step, it must not be clear that way : I made webapps on the phone rather than GTK apps, because that way I can use the apps from my laptop, using the IP address of the phone on the local network.

The N900 keeps its appeal today because it's fully programmable (even if toolchains are woefully outdated), and the community is still (after 10 years!) vibrant. It's also small, offers a hardware keyboard, has decent battery life, and has the usual gimmicks expected from a smart phone: camera, GPS, GUI package manager, etc.