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SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

sailfishos.org

41–50 of 173 posts

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#41
post #33

Funnily enough the only viable deployment was AuroraOS in Russia , which they cut ties with after the war started (pretty shortsighted IMO) as the equivalent US ops merely paused their operations with options for future return. I think Google only stopped monetization of play store from Visa/MC CC ban , while maintianing their operations there. Meanwhile the sailfish guys set their largest successful deployment on fi…

It's an open source project that nobody is getting rich off of, so voluntarily cutting ties with the Russian market doesn't present the sort of moral dilemma that TAM-obsessed, locked-down, for-profit OSes worry about.

Not fully open-source though, as far as i understood it some of the important GUI, android compat bits are propreity and thus need licensing so no easy way to function without them as opposed to the linux kernel.So i think they are in a very similar postion to android techstack wise , its just their biz model requires direct licensing rather than the ad subsidised android. On another note i think this was the rationale for risc-v moving to europe (avoid the geopolitical) so anyone regardless can utilize its designs.

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#42
Many years ago I backed the Jolla Tablet, which never shipped and they never gave me a refund. At the time the company kept pretending like things were perfectly fine with every update right until they let everyone know that the project was being cancelled. There was zero transparency and accountability, and from that day I vowed to never support this company ever again. I would've been fine if the project had failed and they had been transparent and honest about their ongoing struggles with every update, but the complete lack of transparency was too much for me.

I don't know if the values and leadership at Jolla have changed since then, but it's not a company that I would trust to deliver and communicate honestly in good faith.

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#43

Funnily enough the only viable deployment was AuroraOS in Russia , which they cut ties with after the war started (pretty shortsighted IMO) as the equivalent US ops merely paused their operations with options for future return. I think Google only stopped monetization of play store from Visa/MC CC ban , while maintianing their operations there. Meanwhile the sailfish guys set their largest successful deployment on fi…

I suggest reading a bit about the brotherly relationship between Finland and Russia- it has not been exactly a Winter Wonderland.

Not to mention the most bloody war on European soil in a century - started by Russia.

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#44
post #6

As cool as this is there won't be an European alternative as long as all the apps you'd want to use on a smartphone require either Google Play or the Apple App store.

Aren't you basically describing a chicken and egg problem?

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#45

I am not a fan anymore I used it for over a year on a XPERIA XA2. It's usable but barely so. The Android layer usually craps out with heavier apps or crawls to a halt. Most of the native apps are really basic I would compare them to early Windows Phone apps in functionality and UX. The UX itself is an odd mix of really intuitive and absolute horrible. It seems like they are missing focus and the felt development stal…

Man I wish more dev work was put into the mobile Gnome Shell. It's so, so close to being there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6vCWFleBHk

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#46
post #11

SailfishOS and the Jolla One were good (awesome usability) But the integration of Android was a horribly failure. It is like WINE, half working applications preventing native ports of quality. I left the boat. After that Jolla failed with the tablet. Then they didn’t deliver a successor device for Jolla One and provided SailfishOS only as aftermarket OS. You remember the Android problem from above? The hardware of ot…

Proton is based on Wine and is a major factor behind the success of Steamdeck and SteamOS.

Also Sailfish OS Android emulation is quite good, good or even the best one I used on the Android emulation front.

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#47
post #35
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It runs Android apps. Presumably, it has access to the Play store in some capacity, or a viable alternative.

Access to the Play Store requires the proprietary Google Play Services code, so I doubt this has it. The alternative would be installing apps via APK files.

According to Wikipedia,there are apps that provide an emulated Android environment ("Easy Abroad", "Droitong"), they're incomplete and glitchy, and a lot of important apps won't run at all (including banking apps and streaming services).

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#48
post #28

I used Sailfish ten years ago or more, and loved it. But I gave up hope on getting it to run on many devices, as well as access to a good Android emulation layer that I could use for "utility" apps like Uber or whatever. My impression was that this platform was only becoming less and less viable. Other problems: it's proprietary and only really runs well on any phone you've ever heard of if it's on top of an Android…

The Android emulation layer is quite good and it runs on many mass market Xperia phones from Sony:

https://docs.sailfishos.org/Support/Supported_Devices/

It is not using Android kernel - it uses a Linux kernel with android features enabled and compile time & runs Android binary drivers for hardware that has no native Linux driver via a binary adaptation layer called libhybris (also used by some Ubuntu Touch devices).

The Android emulation layer nowadays runs in a container that talks to the Android bits in the kernel and to the blobs via libhybris.

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#49
I tried this briefly on a pine phone ~2 years ago as I was going through the different options trying to see if there was something viable. It was useless then, the phone barely worked, and I’m pretty low maintenance, I basically just wanted mobile date, wifi, email, and browser. I don’t really remember sailfish specifically as I was quickly cycling thought the options but I know I tried it and found it unsuitable.

P.S. unless there is a sailfish browser that ships separately with a different OS and I’m remembering that.

P.P.S. I would love a Linux phone that lets me take calls and has mobile data, wifi, web browsing and GPS/navigation. I don’t care about apps other than navigation. AFAIK there is not currently something that fits the bill and works out of the box.

Re: SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes

#50
post #49

I tried this briefly on a pine phone ~2 years ago as I was going through the different options trying to see if there was something viable. It was useless then, the phone barely worked, and I’m pretty low maintenance, I basically just wanted mobile date, wifi, email, and browser. I don’t really remember sailfish specifically as I was quickly cycling thought the options but I know I tried it and found it unsuitable. P…

The Sailfish browser is using Firefox rendering core BTW, so you might have used it elsewhere. ;-)
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