Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

thefoggiest.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 237 posts

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#11

Post by carpenecopinum »

mpol wrote: post #9

Anyone using PostmarketOS on a phone? And I mean as a daily driver, with no other phone. I have been following it for years and would like to switch someday, but that moment hasn't happened yet. Currently I use Sailfish from Jolla on a Sony phone. For a linux phone, it serves my needs. I would be open to change.

I have a OnePlus 6 becoming "free" soon and I will definitely give PostmarketOS a shot (I had a glance at their compatibility list and noticed the OP6 is on there). Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#12

Post by quotemstr »

forty wrote: post #10
Tepix wrote: post #8

Isn't every Android phone a Linux phone? OK, i guess we want something that is less encumbered and more transparent with more digital sovereignty for the user than the Android that we get from the various big phone vendors. What's the difference between an AOSP Android phone and a Linux phone? For me, there is no substantial difference. The Android based phone is likely to be way more usable the various "Linux phones…

GrapheneOS only supports a few specific Google phones, so it's not an option for most cases

It still makes zero sense to take the XDG/dbus/whatever stack and make it run on a phone, suboptimally, when AOSP is right there and has already solved all the thousands of integration issues you'll run into --- plus, it's already free software.

NIH is the only rationale for the "Linux" phone thing and it's why it will be forever fringe. People working on "Linux" phones as anything more than a diversion (why not play Factorio instead?) are wasting their time.

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#13

Post by d3Xt3r »

OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #3

This website is hostile to scrolling on mobile, I've never seen a worse UX pattern in my life. But for me, I see so much potential in Linux phones, but after waiting decades for the Linux desktop to pickup, I won't hold my breath.

> after waiting decades for the Linux desktop to pickup

Linux desktops are very much usable now, especially if you choose a competent DE like KDE, and a decent distro (ie, not Ubuntu).

Is there anything particular you find the Linux desktop still lacks majorly, preventing you from switching?

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#14

Post by turtleyacht »

mpol wrote: post #9

Anyone using PostmarketOS on a phone? And I mean as a daily driver, with no other phone. I have been following it for years and would like to switch someday, but that moment hasn't happened yet. Currently I use Sailfish from Jolla on a Sony phone. For a linux phone, it serves my needs. I would be open to change.

Here is one recent report after using PinePhone with PostmarketOS and Phosh for a few years:

Daily Driving a Linux Phone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43750756 - 2 days ago (3 points, 2 comments)

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#15

Post by amaccuish »

Nux wrote: post #7
Animats wrote: post #2

I run an older Android phone without a Google account. All apps are from F-Droid. Google services are all turned off. Mail is Thunderbird, browser is Fennec. Is it still possible to initialize an Android phone without a Google account?

Yes, I do this routinely. Check devices supported by 3rd party distros like LineageOS which out of the box have no Google services. Ironically Pixel phones are very well supported. Xiaomi, OnePlus, too. There are quite a few: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

It should be said though that only Pixel, Fairphone, and maybe some Motorolas support relocking the bootloader with a custom OS.

Without that ability, anyone can plug in to your phone and write whatever they want to the internal flash and your phone will be none the wiser.

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#16

Post by vmaurin »

mpol wrote: post #9

Anyone using PostmarketOS on a phone? And I mean as a daily driver, with no other phone. I have been following it for years and would like to switch someday, but that moment hasn't happened yet. Currently I use Sailfish from Jolla on a Sony phone. For a linux phone, it serves my needs. I would be open to change.

I do, a Oneplus 6, PMOS "edge" with OpenRC + Phosh. Everything is fine, except I still need to reboot the phone after each call to be sure to have the audio working

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#17

Post by lawn »

Animats wrote: post #2

I run an older Android phone without a Google account. All apps are from F-Droid. Google services are all turned off. Mail is Thunderbird, browser is Fennec. Is it still possible to initialize an Android phone without a Google account?

Lookup LineageOS and CalyxOS. I use CalyxOS with MicroG and can download apps from the app store without a Google account or Google services (although some apps won't work without them of course).

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#18

Post by hnlmorg »

quotemstr wrote: post #12
forty wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GrapheneOS only supports a few specific Google phones, so it's not an option for most cases

It still makes zero sense to take the XDG/dbus/whatever stack and make it run on a phone, suboptimally, when AOSP is right there and has already solved all the thousands of integration issues you'll run into --- plus, it's already free software. NIH is the only rationale for the "Linux" phone thing and it's why it will be forever fringe. People working on "Linux" phones as anything more than a diversion (why not play…

I agree with your overall point but the following comment is unnecessary:

> People working on "Linux" phones as anything more than a diversion (why not play Factorio instead?) are wasting their time.

People are free to spent their free time however they want. Some people view building things, whether it’s furniture or software, more enjoyable than playing computer games or watching TV.

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#19

Post by greatgib »

If you want a Linux phone that could be your daily driver, I would highly recommend the furiphone of furilabs (https://furilabs.com/).

I got one from the Fosdem and it is truly amazing! Contrary to previous things I tried, like the pinephone, this one is really totally usable for everyday with everything that you could need (phone, SMS, 4g/5g, ...). Especially, for one time it has a very good camera, on par with some Xiaomi phones, that is really ok when you like to take pictures.

Basically, it is a kind of a debian, but there is something very amazing, waydroid, that allows to run Android apps like if it was native apps but with full control other their rights, like being in a sandbox.

The only issue that is not really solvable is that a lot of apps are requiring the Google integrity verification shit, so your are forced to connect with your Google account to the play store or Google services to be able to use them. Like these shitty OpenAI and Mistral apps...

Re: Daily driving a Linux phone, but why?

#20

Post by d3Xt3r »

vmaurin wrote: post #16
mpol wrote: post #9

Anyone using PostmarketOS on a phone? And I mean as a daily driver, with no other phone. I have been following it for years and would like to switch someday, but that moment hasn't happened yet. Currently I use Sailfish from Jolla on a Sony phone. For a linux phone, it serves my needs. I would be open to change.

I do, a Oneplus 6, PMOS "edge" with OpenRC + Phosh. Everything is fine, except I still need to reboot the phone after each call to be sure to have the audio working

How is 4G calling (VoLTE) these days? Last I heard it needed quite a bit of a manual work to get it going.
Post reply on HN