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I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

runarcn.no

101–110 of 539 posts

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#101
post #67

This read like a lot of pain and suffering. I've tried this for kicks myself. There's a lot of sacrifices to be made. But I'm rooting for anything Linux on smartphones.

I've been daily driving a Linux phone for three years. The suffering was real. It's mostly gone now, I love it and will definitely never go back.

I've been daily driving Linux phones for the last 18 years and I would never switch away. Sure, at the beginning it required you to make it your hobby, but you were being rewarded for it. Sometimes when I'm looking at Android/iOS devices being used over someone's shoulder I'm quite horrified at what I see and what people consider normal these days and so glad that my phone works for me rather than anyone else.

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with just Android?

There's a powerlessness to using Android. It's difficult to just do things. Even windows feels more "free." Phone OSes are built like prisons. Ideally Android would let you drop into a real shell, without having to deal with android sandboxing. Regardless, I use termux and tasker to get my automations done.

What are the main things you can do in a real shell versus termux for instance?

It's a pretty big sandbox in my experience.

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#103
post #8

Google Play Services ruins dream of this. I've noticed that automotive digital keys don't work with Graphine OS due to how Google Wallet works.

Or most banks, government apps, and so on. Which all require an app to login, rather than support any open and actually secure standard.

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#105
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t this GPS data to see where Covid has spread? Even if your name is anonymous, a GPS point that every day goes to your work and then your home is surely you?

Most probably, yes. But how would you know who I am and where I live? And if you do know both of those things, are there other ways of figuring out my routines? Yes, there are. Keeping the name out of that data does a lot for privacy. With a name in there, you could use the data to find my name and figure out my address. Without the name in there, you don't know which point I even am without knowing some of my locati…

Correlating data with another source is half of what data brokers do, so I wouldn't really say that is any level of privacy protection.

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#106
Windows Phone was a great idea and worked so well. But it was killed by the fact that people didn't want to maintain apps for 3 platforms. Nowadays when most of the things runs on web/electron anyway, isn't this the time to rediscover that idea?

Make something novel? RTOS like response like blackberry, secure, fully opensource and such? With the era of LLM accelerated developement (don't crucify me), this wouldn't be such unreachable goal.

We would have to sacrifice bank apps but imho still worth it.

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#107
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Librem 5 or one of the other recommended mobile Linux devices: https://linuxstans.com/linux-phone/

Wow, $150 vs $2000 for ~ the same thing ~

For starters, the Librem 5 costs $799. The Liberty Phone is a version manufactured in the USA, which is not something everyone will care about.

Also, PinePhone is so much slower than Librem 5, which in practice feels closer to the (now discontinued) PinePhone Pro. Their specs only seem similar on paper, and only if you don't dig into the details. Though of course, Librem 5 being a 2019 design isn't a speed demon these days either - but I'm still using one and it's manageable.

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#108
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, $150 vs $2000 for ~ the same thing ~

For starters, the Librem 5 costs $799. The Liberty Phone is a version manufactured in the USA, which is not something everyone will care about. Also, PinePhone is so much slower than Librem 5, which in practice feels closer to the (now discontinued) PinePhone Pro. Their specs only seem similar on paper, and only if you don't dig into the details. Though of course, Librem 5 being a 2019 design isn't a speed demon thes…

> PinePhone is so much slower than Librem 5

They're the same specs. Pinephone Pro has more cores, ram, and storage.

> Their specs only seem similar on paper, and only if you don't dig into the details.

What do you mean?

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#109
post #80

I really want to love mobile Linux, and have given it multiple shots before. But I just don't see how it will catch up with iOS/Android in the same way it caught up with Windows/Mac: - OEMs have poured an enormous amount of resources into the camera software, Linux cameras are years behind from what I understand. - Android/iOS have thoroughly optimized the UX in all sorts of subtle ways, the big one being their keybo…

Linux cameras can be made to work well, it's a matter of software. Case in point, newer Ricoh/Pentax cameras actually run an a Linux firmware. (See: GR IV and K-3 Mark II/III). Parts of the software stack are already there, but noones had the will to glue it together correctly for a mobile device usecase, yet.

Re: I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

#110
If they ever figure out how to get Linux onto a phone with a good camera, I'd pounce on it. I would be willing to put up with app issues and weird bugs and all the jankiness that comes with early adoption, but I simply can't give up being able to take really good photos with my phone.
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