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Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

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Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#101

Post by fractallyte »

z3t4 wrote: post #39

Nokia had Linux on their smartphone until Microsoft bought them and stopped everything, they even shut down the app store. The OS was called MeeGo. Part of the Nokia team however started their own company called Jolla and still produce smartphones running Linux, they call their OS Sailfish. (ignoring the fact that Android also uses the Linux kernel). The problem with alternative phone OS:es is that in the country I l…

Just a datapoint: UK banking apps work perfectly on my Sailfish phone.

Jolla's Android emulation is unreasonably excellent, one of their technological gems. If other Linux devices ever lift off, this will be one of the killer features that Jolla can license out. (And why not? I'm absolutely in favor of vendors selling Linux software.)

As for Sailfish - it still offers the best, most consistent, simplest UI/UX of any currently available mobile device.

Edit: and I don't have to root my phone. I can SSH into it (or use the included terminal emulator with my Bluetooth keyboard) and I have access to the full Linux filesystem. For app development, there are no hoops to jump through (like Apple's developer license).

Mobile Linux is already here, and it works!

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#102

Post by dimensionc132 »

A typical Linux distro ISO is about 2Gb in size and this distro has all the necessary drivers and hardware devices to run on thousands of different computers with different configurations.

Android "AOSP" however has to be customized for every single cell phone model because it doesn't have the device drivers added but it does use the Linux kernel.

Why can't AOSP just include all the necessary device drivers for all the mobile phone models, just like what Linux does for computers?

Then we could have a universal AOSP distro for phones

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#103

Post by nine_k »

realusername wrote: post #47
CharlesW wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones are not PCs/general-purpose computers. Do you want your TV to be a general purpose computer as well? (Having put my family through a Media Center PC and TV remotes with keyboards/trackpads for several years, I don't recommend it.)

> Phones are not PCs/general-purpose computers. That's just the opinion of the manufacturer, we don't have to agree. Phones have banking and government apps, they are general purpose computers from their usage alread

If something currently serves as a general-purpose computer for most people, it's an (Android) phone. It's affordable, it has integrated graphics, video, audio, trackpad, and keyboard, it has excellent networking, it's easily programmable and has a plethora of apps for all cases.

It does not have a built-in Basic-like language for immediate fiddling; this is sad, of course.

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#104

Post by dimensionc132 »

fractallyte wrote: post #101
z3t4 wrote: post #39

Nokia had Linux on their smartphone until Microsoft bought them and stopped everything, they even shut down the app store. The OS was called MeeGo. Part of the Nokia team however started their own company called Jolla and still produce smartphones running Linux, they call their OS Sailfish. (ignoring the fact that Android also uses the Linux kernel). The problem with alternative phone OS:es is that in the country I l…

Just a datapoint: UK banking apps work perfectly on my Sailfish phone. Jolla's Android emulation is unreasonably excellent, one of their technological gems. If other Linux devices ever lift off, this will be one of the killer features that Jolla can license out. (And why not? I'm absolutely in favor of vendors selling Linux software.) As for Sailfish - it still offers the best, most consistent, simplest UI/UX of any…

what phone do you use?

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#106

Post by rrdharan »

notmyaccountt wrote: post #29
NuSkooler wrote: post #18

It's mentioned already, but: Android. Discounting Android as "Not Linux" enough is a mind boggle to me. Perhaps not "GNU" enough, but certainly the spirit of Linux -- customized for the particular needs, stable, fast, works on a plethora of hardware, etc.

Google created an Android userspace that requires Google services to do anything meaningful. This violates everything Linux stands for.

Who decides what "Linux" stands for? Linus? RMS? "The community"?

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#107

Post by lifeisstillgood »

lrvick wrote: post #25
NuSkooler wrote: post #18

It's mentioned already, but: Android. Discounting Android as "Not Linux" enough is a mind boggle to me. Perhaps not "GNU" enough, but certainly the spirit of Linux -- customized for the particular needs, stable, fast, works on a plethora of hardware, etc.

Android is Linux but it has nowhere close to the fully open source freedom of a traditional Linux workstation. This is why I carry a tiny linux laptop.

which tiny linux laptop? I am in the market, especially if it can survive jogging in backpack!

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#108

Post by seba_dos1 »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #22
NuSkooler wrote: post #18

It's mentioned already, but: Android. Discounting Android as "Not Linux" enough is a mind boggle to me. Perhaps not "GNU" enough, but certainly the spirit of Linux -- customized for the particular needs, stable, fast, works on a plethora of hardware, etc.

Vanilla Android or AOSP might kinda have “Linux Spirit” but I’m not sure what gets shipped on most consumer devices does… lots of random things locked down (including boot loader, sometimes), crapware all over the place, drivers and kernel changes that aren’t upstreamed making it difficult to install anything but carrier/manufacturer-flavored Android, etc. I think most people rooting for “smartphone Linux” are lookin…

Each AOSP version is just a big code drop from Google. It's really far away in the spirit. Not even talking about how difficult it is to patch some component as a user.

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#109

Post by NavinF »

zekica wrote: post #36
Havoc wrote: post #16

Inclined to say no - mainly because of the camera. The gap between ability to mechanically take a pic and what the flagships are doing with AI driven post processing seems not only big but growing. Short of die hard linux/FOSS fans noticably worse pics is going to be an absolute show stopper

Look at what Intel is doing with MIPI IPU6 webcams. The solution already exists.

Oof looks like it’ll take over a year before Linux supports those webcams and their chipset ISP: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Greg-KH-No-ADL-Webcam-Laptop

I also don’t know if these cameras are any good. I’ve yet to see a laptop webcam beat a 5 year old iPhone 8 recording at 4K 60fps let alone a modern phone.

Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]

#110

Post by seba_dos1 »

NuSkooler wrote: post #18

It's mentioned already, but: Android. Discounting Android as "Not Linux" enough is a mind boggle to me. Perhaps not "GNU" enough, but certainly the spirit of Linux -- customized for the particular needs, stable, fast, works on a plethora of hardware, etc.

So have you watched the talk? It's mentioned there and the talk describes pretty well why it's not what many people are looking for. You may want to watch it after all.
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