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I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

runarcn.no

261–270 of 539 posts

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

#261
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…

Honestly, I just want a hardware keyboard. I still miss the slider htc touch pro 2

some small company licensed the blackberry brand and sold really good devices with physical keyboard. They had support up until 2 or 3 years ago. Gone now.

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

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got an iPhone as a secondary phone and hate the keyboard so much. How are people putting up with this BS?

Just disable the autocorrect and predictive text to make it usable again.

I have autocorrect and predictive text on on the iPad and off on the iPhone and it is fascinating how much better it is on the iPad. One of the things that particularly killed me was the iPhone correcting three or four words away from the cursor. There's an option for it to highlight when it does that (which it really shouldn't) but something about iPhone apps the highlights never work. iPad apps they actually work. (Maybe because every phone app thinks it needs to implement their own half-baked text boxes but iPad apps have fewer "designers" doing stupid things like that? I don't know, it's weird.) Still frustrating that there isn't a way to turn off "don't touch anything too far behind the current cursor), but being able to actually spot them when they do change is a big deal.

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

#264
I introduced myself to this space a couple of weeks ago with a PineTab2. I bought it for reading but some tinkering. I am running Plasma Mobile on it. It's rough, but OK (and can't expect much from the hardware.) I don't know what the user experience out-of-the-box though. While I can run some 'important' apps in Waydroid (e.g. bank app in Norway), smartphones are not that interesting. I never wanted one, but it's increasingly something you have to have anyway and I usually don't realize it became so integrated in life (funny this comes up - I had a dream forgetting my phone and not knowing what to do next)

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

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter-evidence: Repos such as AUR That blast radius coupled with (non-Android) Linux's atrocious security is a far worse option

>Repos such as AUR AUR isn't a traditional repository but more functions like a paste bin for package build scripts you have to go out of your way to enable and use at your own risk. It is not how actual Linux repositories work which are way more safe than google or even apple app store.

> way more safe than google or even apple app store.

Probably because of how people submit directly to the commercial app stores and the app store staff are expected to accept them as long as no malware or other problems are detected. Such problems are generally explicitly listed on Terms of Service and app submitters may be able to dispute rejections. Meaning problems generally need to be concrete and justifiable. Also, because of the sheer number, problems are likely scanned for, rather than each app being personally considered by a developer.

FOSS distro package repo maintainers generally don't have any such pressures. They get their absolute pick of what to include from the wild, only taking as much as they're able to handle.

Also, distro repo maintainers handle the building from the source code themselves, while app store apps are closed source to the app stores. Their ability to inspect apps is very limited.

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

#266
post #198

If only a few techies will be able to use Linux phone, banks will freely lock payment services access down to two platforms: ios and android. No way out, it's happening right now (in the name of "security", of course, but surprisingly it does not stop scam from happening). Web will be locked down too, via secureboot stack browser integration (not -s, it's already actually monopolised to chrome only, as FF lives on fu…

Banks are only a part of the larger issue. Imagine traveling somewhere, and run through the things you'll need to work without tinkering. Camera, eSIM, GPS/maps, more "exotic" messaging apps that for some reason people use instead of Whatsapp. It seems like most Linux phones are barely suitable for someone that just goes home to work 99.999% of the time.

I don't have to imagine. I've already traveled internationally with the Librem 5 and it can do what I need it to do. Esim is supported with an adapter like those from JMP, but I use a local SIM card from that country. Whatsapp I never use, Signal and Delta Chat work fine.

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

#267

I would love to do this. It's shocking how little Android offers for the hardware it uses. Recently I was thinking if I could install Windows 98 on my phone, even that would be better. At least I could have more than one app open without it burning all my work just because I dared to check info on a web page while filling a form.

Oh yes, the endless joy of "We have sent a one time code to your email." Yes, but if I switch to my email then I will lose my browser session and thus the code is useless. So you have to get out a laptop to open your email just so that you have 2FA on your phone.

Tap the dots menu, and select “Open in Chromium” once the WebView loads.

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

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe at least the banks website won’t function if you don’t auth with their app.

I also live in Europe, and can use my bank in a webbrowser. I used their App previously, and can just switch back to using the website, after authenticating via both sms and e-mail.

Huh, a Dutch one? ING perchance?

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

#270
post #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…

Surface Duo 2 tried to rediscover it.

Next one will probably take a while, but be a relative hit.

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