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Will Linux phones stay around this time?

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Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#301
post #294
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design I'm having a hard time understanding what it is about the development paradigm that's allergic to good UI design. In good faith I'll assume you meant that "FOSS projects seem to lack good UI design". This I'll agree with, if we're talking about G UI design (others have pointed out that the CLI interfaces are usually great). I really don't think th…

Good UI design usually comes from one person knowing what they are doing and the programmers willing to follow. In OSS people are often motivated by full control.

Really? In many-person collaborative OSS projects, there seems to be a decent amount of belief that others can do better work than oneself.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#302
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, Android/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, Android plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning Android system made useful by the Android corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Android runs Linux. Android is not GNU/Linux.

Wow. So normally we say: Linux is the kernel and GNU is the userland. (Remember GNU/Hurd?)

So, what is Android? Does Linux run the Android userspace, or does Android run the Linux kernel...

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#303
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern UI on the phones makes discovering features really hard. One often ends up with searching obscure forums just to know very useful feature like IPhone trick with holding the space bar to move cursor. I can understand that on 4” inch phones there were no space for extra buttons, but with 6” screens this became ridiculous. So much for “good” design.

I agree with you, but I think discoverability for me is a lot more critical for software I use infrequently versus something I'm glued to several hours a day.

I learned about the space bar trick after 2 years of using iPhone after my son showed me a post on a forum. This made fixing typos much more quicker.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#304
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't be 100% sure, of course, however both Purism and Pine64 phones are slowly but steadily getting better every month. I can only imagine that Nokia could have allocated a lot more resources on making their Linux phone.

Nokia + Microsoft poured more resources into Windows Phone than Nokia would ever have poured into Meego. And they failed, despite both WP 8 and 10 both offering a really great mobile OS experience.

The windows phone experience was terrible, don't kid yourself.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#305
post #298
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone at all, as long as there are millions of them and they want to actually buy those phones, not just rant about Android and Apple online.

What consumer problems this solves depends on who the consumer is. For me as a dev/consumer and a long time Linux user it solves a lot of usability issues. For people used to Android, who don't want to develop anything, or don't care about software licenses, or being able to debug and control their devices when issues happen, it solves little, compared to a random locked down Android phone. For people who just want t…

[deleted]

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd much rather use any Linux than Windows 10.

Why?

Not parent poster, but the interface works as a plaster that obfuscates the stuff I need. Add to it the many mobile imports pushed onto the user (don't care about cloud? Well, W10 cares, and it will push it at every turn) and you get a product that's built to push how Microsoft thinks you should use your computer.

My aging father has used Microsoft OSes since dos, and W10 is the first product he's having real trouble moving to. The reason for that is that he's always been a pc user, and W10 is pushing mobile ux, with a very hard opt-out.

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#308
post #304
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nokia + Microsoft poured more resources into Windows Phone than Nokia would ever have poured into Meego. And they failed, despite both WP 8 and 10 both offering a really great mobile OS experience.

The windows phone experience was terrible, don't kid yourself.

I had a Nokia Windows Phone. The core user experience of WP10 is the best I've ever experienced on any phone. What mainly let it down was first and foremost the lack of quality third party apps (and as time went on lack of support of the first party apps).

Re: Will Linux phones stay around this time?

#309
post #300
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern UI on the phones makes discovering features really hard. One often ends up with searching obscure forums just to know very useful feature like IPhone trick with holding the space bar to move cursor. I can understand that on 4” inch phones there were no space for extra buttons, but with 6” screens this became ridiculous. So much for “good” design.

thank-you, I didn’t know of this feature. And I am using iPhone for over a year now. It was such a pain to get cursor to correct spot up until now. Please share if know of any catalog of such tricks.

Me too. Long time IOS user, have been continually frustrated by the somewhat recent cursor redesign (what was it, IOS 13?). Knowing this is a game changer for a lot of phone use, and it was completely unknown to me: a motivated tech-literate IOS fan. There really is something wrong with UI discovery here.
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