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I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux

runarcn.no

421–430 of 539 posts

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

#421

Although I'm supportive of your cause I find it ultimately futile. Developing and maintaining a mobile operating system is a hugely expensive endeavor. Only a wildly profitable company like Google could do so and give it away for free. Linux simply isn't up to the task despite there being some touch-enabled user interfaces available for it. There's so much more people expect from their mobile these days. The best opt…

There are actually some people using a GNU/Linux phone as a daily driver for years. I'm one of them.

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

#422
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…

[deleted]

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

#423

I've come to the conclusion that I actually really like Android as an operating system, the internals seem remarkably well thought out and ideal for the mobile use case (so long as you're running a userdebug build with the ability to adb root in when needed), most of people's issues aren't really with Android (although Google reducing the AOSP release schedule isn't a good sign). I think the real problem is Google Pl…

what about an android android hypervisor

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

#424
post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What banks care about is complaints volume and account closures. If you can't use your bank on your phone, go complain in person to your bank. Just do it even if you think nothing will happen. Best case they unlock the website for your account, worst case nothing happens but they still got a complaint and will have to do something if they get enough similar ones.

Don't go in person. That just wastes everyone's time as corporate will never hear about it. Instead, call them. Insist to talk to a human. Corporate really doesn't like call center calls, and they usually have monitoring set up to track why people are calling.

Doubt that. They care about average call metrics but not why people are calling, and the call center operators have absolutely no ability to fix anything and will just work to get you off the call as quickly as possible.

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

#425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What banks care about is complaints volume and account closures. If you can't use your bank on your phone, go complain in person to your bank. Just do it even if you think nothing will happen. Best case they unlock the website for your account, worst case nothing happens but they still got a complaint and will have to do something if they get enough similar ones.

Not in my experience. My bank wouldn't even talk to me when they discontinued support for a phone I had. They don't even have anyone to complain to, which is by design. You can complain about non-technical stuff, but there's nobody to report problems with their Android app. They know full well that it's more important to you to have it working than it is for them to make sure it works for you. You will throw away alm…

Yeah so show up to the branch and be like "let me access my money or close my account"

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

#426
post #355

I've been using Sailfish OS since the first Jolla phone came out in EU and Canada both. It has some hurdles but if you pay for the android subsystem it works fine. There are a lot of great native apps and you get the full linux experience.

The Jolla 2 is said to be "sold out". Apparently, they produce the phones in batches, not sure when the next one is due?

Just received mine. Sure, the interface is far, far slicker than what is available on the Librem 5, but there are already hints of "you are not really the owner of the device" (for instance default "safety" contacts in the contact app that you cannot delete, the inability to easily use "reverse tethering" (getting Internet by USB through a computer) and so on) that will make me keep the Librem 5, with all its own issues, as my daily driver for the foreseeable future.

(And the Jolla's "hardware privacy switch" feels like a bad joke: yes, the switch is hardware. What it does (if anything) is fully handled in software.)

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

#427

I've tried a few times over the years to make Ubuntu Touch work. God how bad I wanted it to work here in the US. The lack of apps and VoLTE support really soured me on it ever working here. If you're outside of the US, the availability of useable mobile OS's outside of Android and iOS is pretty abundant compared to the situation here in the US.

I've just switched over to Ubuntu Touch again recently. We'll see if I stick with it, but... at least on my device (Fairphone 5), VoLTE works now!

This is great to know, thank you for the update!

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

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Linux need another "Wine" moment, but for android/ios.

In theory, Waydroid exist. In practice, I've failed to ever get it running on several attempts so far.

How so? To make it work on Librem 5 I had to fix some issues in Waydroid's gralloc and hwcomposer implementations, but that was back in 2022. It has just worked out-of-box ever since.

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

#429
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…

What banks care about is complaints volume and account closures. If you can't use your bank on your phone, go complain in person to your bank. Just do it even if you think nothing will happen. Best case they unlock the website for your account, worst case nothing happens but they still got a complaint and will have to do something if they get enough similar ones.

> If you can't use your bank on your phone, go complain in person to your bank.

At my non-existent bank branch?

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

#430
post #61

I have thought about buying one of the Pinephone things, because I want to actually own the computer in my pocket, but I have always hesitated because the hardware is always kind of ancient for these things. The Pinephone doesn’t even have 5G, so I am not even sure that my phone service will let me activate it now. What I would like is to take my existing iPhone 13 Pro and install a real Linux on it so I could guaran…

Librem 5 has an experimental support of a 5G modem: https://forums.puri.sm/t/librem5-5g-is-here-modem-sim8202g-t...
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