431–440 of 491 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have the Bixby button set to play/pause, and a long-press to turn on the flashlight. It works great.
Which you can only do if you agree to the tos...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Android apps are becoming more and more dependent on the closed source blobs that Google ships with Android devices, so some apps might not work without them. Although microG exists, it isn't perfect and some apps still won't run with it. A Linux phone can forgo Google's userspace libraries for Android, and if they're really needed, Android can just run in a container like with Anbox. Instead, it can ship with the ty…
Your comment doesn't describe any benefit for users. Maybe a benefit for some developers who consider ideological technology choices a benefit. But users gain nothing.
Read the question that was asked and then look at the address bar to see where it was asked. Most people on HN are familiar with Linux or are developers themselves.
But either way, I disagree entirely. On a platform like webOS or Maemo, users benefited greatly from running traditional Linux userlands. There were millions of users who got to enjoy a plethora of apps and the benefits of extensible, hackable hardware and systems.
Preware, for example, had thousands of apps, extensions, and scripts available to millions of users. Users were able to take full advantage of what their hardware and systems were capable of, instead of being limited to whatever Apple or Google allowed them to do with their APIs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Android apps are becoming more and more dependent on the closed source blobs that Google ships with Android devices, so some apps might not work without them. Although microG exists, it isn't perfect and some apps still won't run with it. A Linux phone can forgo Google's userspace libraries for Android, and if they're really needed, Android can just run in a container like with Anbox. Instead, it can ship with the ty…
You can write most of your app in any language, it's only some UI and startup code that needs to be in the javalike languages.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A compatibility layer for Android apps would really make it viable. I just don't want to fight my OS to be recognized and treated as its owner. In that respect I really like how I can run Windows games on Linux via Proton and Steam; an otherwise good game can ship with all kinds of crap (like having their own launchers stuck in the system tray), but when I'm done the whole Wine-sandbox collapses and I'm back in a Lin…
Sure, the stuff in the tray goes away, but Wine is not a sandbox. Software can still look into your filesystem and processes. You need Flatpak for proper sandboxing.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd be shocked if it took off. Its not about taking off - it's about having an alternative that is available even if it's just for 0.01% of users.
> just for 0.01% of users Who will develop it, why and most importantly what will it provide compared to alternatives?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Once you decide you need to do user testing and hardware testing, the cost shoots up. It is not so bad. Take three people who never used given software, ask them to do the most basic tasks. And fix the most common problems. Your (and mine) software is much harder to use than you expect. You do not need UI/UX people, massive scale testing to fix low hanging fruit.
Just my experience, three people is not a big enough sample size for most projects. You will get very biased opinions if you go with that. That may be ok if you have a very niche project and you only ask some people in that niche.
Your anecdote is atypical.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-w...
I don't understand the desire for a Linux phone as so described in the article as a daily driver. The Android platform represents an enormous amount of work that encompasses a more secure base kernel, an unparalleled selection of applications designed for mobile usage and written in a memory-safe language, fantastic sandboxing and user privacy features leagues ahead of any desktop operating system, and great diversit…
Yes, Android is mature and secure, but it's not private . No one seems to talk about this much, but there are a few Android "features" that had to be designed by sociopaths. The main one for me is the complete lack of control of network traffic. Other than a VPN loopback app, which is pretty janky, there is no way to disable network traffic per app. Even with a VPN loopback, there is no way to only allow network traf…
Latest LineageOS can do that in the same place you can restrict background data, it has options for restricting mobile, WiFi and VPN data per app.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I would love a smartphone-size universal computing device, to use on the go or plug into desktop/laptop docking devices when needed. Are you aware that it's a thing already? https://puri.sm/products/librem-5
I know, however it also costs $800 for middling performance at best and is backordered probably until early 2022. It's close and getting closer, though.
I'd be shocked if it took off. The FOSS development paradigm seems to be allergic to good UI design, and this is far more important for people on mobile than desktop.