I think future is to use hypervisor as operating system , samsung actually did research on porting xen hypervisor to smartphones ,but was abandoned
Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
221–230 of 282 posts
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#222Nokia 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…
Sailfish could have been great, but Jolla apparently tried to overextend themselves making hardware and software for their products and almost died trying. It's a shame because the Jolla phone had a swappable back part and could have things like a slideout keyboard that looked really sweet. Now they're on the enterprise and government contracting grind and market their OS on their site with all the bs enterprisey jar…
You can still buy a supported Sony Open Devices phone ( https://static.developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-s... ) and a Jolla license ( https://shop.jolla.com/ ) to install the OS on it just like we do with desktop / laptop computers.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even AOSP is running something quite far from a mainline kernel, although they've been gradually reducing the delta with Linux proper. It really is a fork.
But why is a fork still not Linux? Every major distributor runs a fork.
Because Linux kernel is an implementation detail in what Android userspace is concerned.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
You underestimate the size of the opportunity. The mobile game market was $119 billion in 2021.
Exactly, maybe they could do a "gaming phone" like Nokia tried before. The Steam Deck is very impressive.
The taco phone was hardly a success, or the n-gage variants.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Plenty of options on the respective stores.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fair point, but I was responding to "GNU runs on many OSs", saying that GNU is actually part of the OSs (and not something that runs on top of it), regardless of how much GNU there is in any particular OS.
That's not really true, in broad strokes. To my knowledge, Linux distributions are the only place where GNU forms of core part of the operating system, whereas it is frequently installed as an optional component on top of, say, Solaris, AIX, or a BSD. Termux, amusingly enough, marks a return to this on top of Android on top of Linux.
That's missing my point. What I mean is that where GNU tools are installed, they are a constituent part of the operating system as opposed to running on top/despite the OS. I never said it runs on all operating systems or on all *NIX operating systems.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#227Earlier 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.)
I run termux on mine and wish termux wasn't so restricted by google/android.
Maybe Termux can learn to code against Java APIs instead of forcing themselves through the Linux layer that is considered a private API on Android.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#228It'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.
Yes, articles like this illustrate that RMS had a point, as annoying as he can be about it. Android is obviously Linux. What's missing is all of the things GNU and BSD brought to the party.
Linux kernel is an implementation detail on Android.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#229Before answering that question I'd ask: why would we want that? My answer is no, it didn't work on the desktop, it won't work on the smartphone, for more or less the same reasons. As much as I like Linux and FOSS, Linux is just a bad OS for the average consumer. For hackers, makers, DYI enthusiasts, etc. Linux is wonderful, however, what's the market size for a Linux smart phone for this people? I bet it's tiny.
That's not really true. The main problem with Linux on the desktop is that it is not preinstalled. There are commercial vendors like Canonical where you can get support, if you want to. Now, 20 years ago we could have argued about application support, etc., but these days average consumers just fire up a web browser.
Ah, that is why Linux Desktop apps are mostly Electron nowadays.
Re: Is there hope for Linux on smartphones? [video]
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
They need to embrace how Android works instead of pretending to be a Linux distribution, if not, well that is what happens.
But this is just not feasible for something like termux. Termux is the equivalent of a Linux distribution on Android. If they would let that go there would be no reason for it to exist. The Android way would be to publish all packages individually on the app store. Termux has tens of thousands of packages. This would simply be insane and Google wouldn't permit it.
It is, there are Java APIs for most of the stuff they want to do, use JNI instead of Linux syscalls.