The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
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The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
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Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#2The N900 is an interesting piece of hardware, perhaps a phone based on an Allwinner chipset with a fully separate baseband processor would be the way to go for an N900 replacement?
I guess the major impediments I see are getting an LTE baseband at a decent price point, and providing Signal Private Messenger and other apps that you can get on iOS & Android, as we have seen, developers won't go for a 3rd development target (Windows Phone).
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#3Sadly... The compromise is AOSP or copperhead OS, CM equivalents. With daydream tightly controlled by Google/Play perhaps genuine FOSS lovers need to live in 2D world.
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#4The N900 is an interesting piece of hardware, perhaps a phone based on an Allwinner chipset with a fully separate baseband processor would be the way to go for an N900 replacement? I guess the major impediments I see are getting an LTE baseband at a decent price point, and providing Signal Private Messenger and other apps that you can get on iOS & Android, as we have seen, developers won't go for a 3rd development ta…
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#5Three days ago, a Jolla C replaced an iPhone 5S as my main phone. To be fair, me using iOS was just a kind of an experiment. Before that, I was using a CM build without Google Apps using FDroid as unique app repository.
I must say that, while still needs some polishing, Sailfish OS (which is not 100% free, but is quite there, and provides a complete Linux experience), does the job. My Pebble works, my BT car kit works, and I have all apps I need. In fact, my biggest complain is about the hardware, being underpowered and with an atrocious camera. An official port from Jolla to some mid level device would make me _very_ happy.
In some countries, like mine, the FOSS mobile OS killer has a name: WhatsApp. Without official support for FFOS or Ubuntu Touch, and being very aggressive against third party apps (banning their users), most people can't even think of them as an option for daily usage.
Jolla goes around this bundling a commercial Android Dalvik emulator. Not the best solution, but one quite pragmatic.
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#6The N900 is an interesting piece of hardware, perhaps a phone based on an Allwinner chipset with a fully separate baseband processor would be the way to go for an N900 replacement? I guess the major impediments I see are getting an LTE baseband at a decent price point, and providing Signal Private Messenger and other apps that you can get on iOS & Android, as we have seen, developers won't go for a 3rd development ta…
https://neo900.org/
That might be the first hardware crowdfunding I ever buy into. I've got a seething rage at just about every aspect of current phones and a huge nostalgia for Nokia's early smartphones.
Physical keyboard? Yay. Messages in natural language are one thing, ssh'ing into a machine or writing code is an entirely different topic.
Open systems thrive with exactly the kind of software I use almost exclusively. I can live without any mobile games - srsly, get a handheld or build one yourself[1] - and I don't use many other services I couldn't find alternatives for.
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#7Three days ago, a Jolla C replaced an iPhone 5S as my main phone. To be fair, me using iOS was just a kind of an experiment. Before that, I was using a CM build without Google Apps using FDroid as unique app repository. I must say that, while still needs some polishing, Sailfish OS (which is not 100% free, but is quite there, and provides a complete Linux experience), does the job. My Pebble works, my BT car kit work…
What do you notice about the 'complete Linux experience'? I cannot find too much on the Sailfish OS homepage; going to Mer shows it's a minimal Linux with QT on top. For me a complete Linux experience would be xterm and sudo apt-get install build-essential. Is their anything like that? I would buy a phone/tablet device that runs Ubuntu (or Debian) smoothly (all hardware supported) in a heartbeat but seems nothing is there yet so I currently have to go for the Pyra which has all that and a keyboard and replaceable batteries.
Also; the Mer wiki mentions an Android compatibility layer and you manage an Android emulator; would either or both not solve the Whatsapp issue?
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#8My OpenMoko is still (free)running fine. It pre-dates the N900, and Nokia's previous "internet tablets" were WiFi-only, so weren't really 'phones.
When Android came out I installed it, but wasn't a fan. Been with Qtopia ever since.
I've since been given an N900, but it doesn't boot. Looking forward to the Neo900 (I'm scared to install a GTA04 board myself :P ).
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#9Three days ago, a Jolla C replaced an iPhone 5S as my main phone. To be fair, me using iOS was just a kind of an experiment. Before that, I was using a CM build without Google Apps using FDroid as unique app repository. I must say that, while still needs some polishing, Sailfish OS (which is not 100% free, but is quite there, and provides a complete Linux experience), does the job. My Pebble works, my BT car kit work…
What do you notice about the 'complete Linux experience'? I cannot find too much on the Sailfish OS homepage; going to Mer shows it's a minimal Linux with QT on top. For me a complete Linux experience would be xterm and sudo apt-get install build-essential. Is their anything like that? I would buy a phone/tablet device that runs Ubuntu (or Debian) smoothly (all hardware supported) in a heartbeat but seems nothing is…
> For me a complete Linux experience would be xterm and sudo apt-get install build-essential. Is their anything like that?
Pretty much yes. With developer mode on you gain access to a terminal with bash and other expected utils. There is a mobile terminal application with custom keyboard which is more or less usable, you can also ssh into the phone without any problem. As for the package manager there is pkcon (probably some alternatives are also available), you can install build utils without any problem.
I've been using Jolla for some time before moving to iOS. It was a very cool experience. I really liked having a phone that I could hack and mess around with. The gesture based UI was nice, it was amazingly comfortable after getting used to it. The main drawback was the lack of apps and the reliability of the phone. The Android apps work poorly, they are sluggish and plenty of apps are not going to work due to lack of Google Play Services. Also with Android apps you get the old flawed Android permission model. The phone crashes from time to time, sometimes in the least suitable moment (stability varies between updates).
Re: The Rise and Fall of the Open Source Mobile (2014)
#10Obviously this publisher hasn't heard of the Ubuntu Phone.