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The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

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Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#21

Post by pinkybanana »

georgeoliver wrote: post #18

My Pinephone doesn't work for me as a primary phone (yet), but I think it's still a very capable device at home with good integration (via KDE connect). Without millions of dollars in corporate support, hardware vendors like Pine64 and Linux on mobile developers need user support to make progress. If you want a performant Linux phone, put some skin in the game.

> If you want a performant Linux phone, put some skin in the game.

The reality is that this ain't going to happen. There will be never enough volunteer-based work to enable the level of effort that it requires to develop consumer devices like smartphones. Commercial actors have so much money and power, and people have bills to pay. This is something where full open source model just doesn't work.

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#22

Post by gentleman11 »

It’s all about killer apps for me. My phone is for anki, taking notes that my other devices can read, using authy, and for podcasts, and a password manager app. A discord app would be convenient but optional. A step counter. Once pinephone or librem can do all those, I’m sold

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#23

Post by grawprog »

tetrisgm wrote: post #5

I want the PinePhone to work. The Librem too. In fact I had preorders for both. I canceled them looking at the performance. They’re excellent toys. Great effort to ship such a difficult product. But if your phone is going to struggle with running things besides terminal, it’s not going to be a great daily phone. I’d love them to be on par with the latest Android flagships in terms of power. Cost is not an issue. I ju…

Personally, I'd rather something equivalent to a mid-range android phone. Something that works decently well, but still affordable enough adoption isn't limited only to the wealthy looking for toys. I see most flagship phones that way myself.

For me, i need more than what the pinephone offers, but it doesn't need to have all the features of a high end phone. A decent processor and RAM would make the pinephone a lot more appealing just by itself.

if it was equivalent to a $300-$500 android phone, you still wouldn't have all the bells and whistles, but it would be a lot more viable for daily use.

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#24

Post by jraph »

pmontra wrote: post #20
CogitoCogito wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be totally fine using such a phone for almost everything I do. The only big gap would be using Sweden's identification app BankID and the money transferring app Swish. Unless these were ported to the phone, I would unfortunately lose one of it's most important functionalities for me. Of course I could just have an Apple/Android phone sitting at home for such purposes, but it is definitely less convenient.

Same for banking apps here in Italy and the OTP generator of our id system. Plus some apps I don't strictly have to use but I want to: WhatsApp (to use the web app I should run the android one somewhere it can receive messages with my phone number, cough), Telegram (probably OK), OSMAnd, NewPipe as a YouTube adless replacement (YouTube web is not OK), Google Street View and satellite maps (the web app is vastly worse…

> NewPipe as a YouTube adless replacement (YouTube web is not OK)

Actually, Invidious and the likes (viewtube?) are quite good for this. SponsorBlock even works there.

FreeTube makes the phone very hot and is very slow, unfortunately.

Something like NewPipe would be neat though.

> OSMAnd

Something like this is sorely missing. A-GPS isn't integrated in current distros too (a script can load AGPS data in the Phone's modem)

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#25

Post by suby »

pinkybanana wrote: post #21
georgeoliver wrote: post #18

My Pinephone doesn't work for me as a primary phone (yet), but I think it's still a very capable device at home with good integration (via KDE connect). Without millions of dollars in corporate support, hardware vendors like Pine64 and Linux on mobile developers need user support to make progress. If you want a performant Linux phone, put some skin in the game.

> If you want a performant Linux phone, put some skin in the game. The reality is that this ain't going to happen. There will be never enough volunteer-based work to enable the level of effort that it requires to develop consumer devices like smartphones. Commercial actors have so much money and power, and people have bills to pay. This is something where full open source model just doesn't work.

Why is Linux Desktop viable (I'm certainly very happy with it at least) but phones are too much work?

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#26

Post by gentleman11 »

smoldesu wrote: post #2

This is probably gonna come as a shock to some people, but I wholly think I could live with a Linux smartphone today. I really only use my phone for two things: text/calling and staying connected to my desktop/laptop. As long as it supports the KDE/GDE connect protocol (I doubt it doesn't), I could see myself actually being one of the early adopters here.

I have never heard of kde connect. Remote Desktop?

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#27

Post by llaolleh »

asah wrote: post #7

Recently went to a security conference and really wanted a secure low-feature phone to coordinate with friends and keep up with email/web... Speed and features don't matter, don't need games or even video. Can't imagine I'm alone... is this a niche market for a linux smartphone to take off?

You are not alone!

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#28

Post by [deleted] »

pinkybanana wrote: post #21
georgeoliver wrote: post #18

My Pinephone doesn't work for me as a primary phone (yet), but I think it's still a very capable device at home with good integration (via KDE connect). Without millions of dollars in corporate support, hardware vendors like Pine64 and Linux on mobile developers need user support to make progress. If you want a performant Linux phone, put some skin in the game.

> If you want a performant Linux phone, put some skin in the game. The reality is that this ain't going to happen. There will be never enough volunteer-based work to enable the level of effort that it requires to develop consumer devices like smartphones. Commercial actors have so much money and power, and people have bills to pay. This is something where full open source model just doesn't work.

[deleted]

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#29

Post by Ar-Curunir »

suby wrote: post #25
pinkybanana wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want a performant Linux phone, put some skin in the game. The reality is that this ain't going to happen. There will be never enough volunteer-based work to enable the level of effort that it requires to develop consumer devices like smartphones. Commercial actors have so much money and power, and people have bills to pay. This is something where full open source model just doesn't work.

Why is Linux Desktop viable (I'm certainly very happy with it at least) but phones are too much work?

Because state-of-the-art desktop hardware tends to work with Linux, due to the historical origins of the PC as a relatively non-proprietary technology. The same cannot be said of modern mobile phone hardware.

Re: The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life

#30

Post by testific8 »

midwestemo wrote: post #12

I would buy a pinephone at the moment but the performance is just not that much compared to Android phones. It's not good for a daily phone to use at the moment. Until then, I'll stick with my OnePlus 7 Pro until there's a linux phone with good performance, even if it costs more.

If you are interested in postmarketOS linux, I think there are some faster phones that have been bootstrapped: http://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
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