121–130 of 225 posts
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Why is Linux Desktop viable (I'm certainly very happy with it at least) but phones are too much work?
Developing open source hardware is much more difficult.
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This is one of the things I worry about - a duopoly not just backed by two wealthy and shady megacorps but also effectively by law as it mandates a mobile app for some things yet the app only exists for iOS and Android & no public API is available.
Shouldn't they at least support the Web?
The phone app is effectively used as a hardware security token.
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Why is Linux Desktop viable (I'm certainly very happy with it at least) but phones are too much work?
Even Linux desktop suffers from a lack of contributors. Even many core-infrastructure projects are shockingly dependent on 1–2 devs who have been unsuccessful in attracting more contributions. One example of where the manpower just isn’t there for both Linux desktop and the PinePhone is a solid maps app. All solutions are little more than tech demos compared to OSMAnd on Android. Yes, OSMAnd itself has grown through…
Unpopular Opinion: I don't want a Linux Desktop (XFCE, KDE, etc) on my phone. I don't care about being able to run terminals or `chown -R user xyz` or `htop` on my phone. I want a phone with a decently polished OS, smooth (given hardware constraints) that can run apps that I control (deny ads, location info. etc) and provides an alternative to the Android/IOS duopoly. I just hope that the Pine Community will realize…
By comparison, the toolchain isn't so bad for Desktop, the copies are mature or experimenting in their own ways, and there's wine (Wayland is unfinished, but most users can still use X for now). Still Linux Desktop has a minute marketshare.
Why not just use android on such phone, and remove google dependencies? Android is open source. Android is already using linux. I really don't get it. I wish somebody could answer this question with convincing arguments, because writing another mobile OS doesn't seem like a trivial task.
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I'm not convinced. I'd love a Linux phone but there must be some standard that ensures apps are easy to develop and the apps must grow significantly for this to catch on. Otherwise it'll be just like Linux on the desktop. It'll become a mess of 15 different standards and apps devs will not bother with that. I really hope it'll work out, but we'll see.
I'm curious, what apps do you use day to day that need to be native? For me, 99% could easily be web-based, which makes "mobile web" the standard, and not necessarily "linux-phone."
Some can be operated via the web but they tend to require a hardware authentication token, which is as inconvenient as carrying a second phone (each bank requires a different token or card reader).
Some can be operated via the web but use their phone app as an authentication token for web access.
And some don't provide full functionality via the web at all.
Plus, the apps are way more convenient than logging in via the web in practice.
The problem for me with a non-(Android, Iphone) mobile is that the apps I use for banking are unlikely to work.
What sandboxing/app-deployment systems does Linux offer today, and which one is the most promising? Are they secure, and do they offer fine-grained permissions?
In general I really like that this is a low-end device, affordable. I feel like phone prices have gotten totally out of control, but meanwhile we have very low cost pretty excellent chips available. It feels like ARM has let their low end cores languish, which seems to be changing, and I'm hoping we see some natural, logical follow ups to this phone in ~2023. That said, Snapdragon 845 is inching towards becoming a go…