A notable mention is https://ubports.com/en/ which is different from postmarketos in a sense that ubports uses old kernels with heavy patches. That means: good support for things, but difficult future.
PostmarketOS uses the newest kernels and tries to integrate their patches into mainline kernel, so that the reliability is maintained with all kernel developers.
I can’t wait for Linux phones to be stable enough for a daily driver.
that has been said since before the nokia n600. lol
And we’ll keep saying it until we get there.
2026 will be the year of the linux phone
Given that Win10 is getting deprecated this year and Win11 has specific hardware requirements, I think 2025 could be the year of the linux PC. I’ll be curious to see how massive corporations for which this would mean millions or billions in hardware upgrades to stick with Win will square that circle.
Enterprises just lease desktops / laptops and replace them with the latest version of Windows… my team used to be after reasons to get the latest OS / laptop, now IT have to prise them out of their hands
I only use my desktop for gaming now but it’s old and won’t run Win11. I’m going for a SteamOS general release then I’ll just drop windows on there altogether
Please stop. I can’t get my dick back into my trousers.
XD
The FuriPhone, which runs the FuriOS Linux distribution (based on Debian), has a polished enough user experience that it can be used as a daily driver by many people.
I somehow only recently saw this (few weeks ago) but man it looks awesome. I’m curious how well the android layer works as I haven’t used waydroid in a long time.
It’s not cheap enough to take a lark on is my only qualm.
Here’s a demonstration of Waydroid on FuriOS and the accompanying blog post from 6 months ago. I’m obviously not a fan of X (Twitter), but the video shows that the app works in the Android container.
Yes, I also hope to see the price go down.
It seems like Linux-compatible android handsets stopped around 2021. Except a few bespoke models that are hard to get your hands on outside of Europe.
I have a OnePlus Nord N10 flashed with Ubuntu Touch as a tinker device, unfortunately in the US it’s not daily-able because we shut down 3g and 2g networks and they still haven’t managed to get VoLTE working on Ubuntu Touch yet (though it may be coming in the next year!) so phone calls don’t work.
There’s also the Pixel 3a/3a XL which are plentiful and cheap but I like the N10 a bit more because of the additional RAM. Makes it feel a little less old compared to the Pixel.
If you can get your hands on a Fairphone, Pinephone or Volla those are great but hard to get outside the EU.
Sorry but the pinephone is not great. I have one and its extremely underpowered to the point of uselessness.
Its like trying to use a 486 to as a current desktop.
Are you saying I could get Linux running on my Fairphone 3+?
Mind you, yeah, 3G switch off would then make life difficult…
Sure. Looks like on Ubuntu Touch the only thing not working is the fingerprint reader
https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/fp3/
The OS in general isn’t ready for daily use though. It’s maybe doable if all you need is text, calls, camera, and a browser. And the calls only work in some countries. But it’s fun to play with.
Good luck, phone hardware changes very fast though.
I’m okay with an older phone, I just want basic features to work consistently and well. Maybe support a newer phone every 5 years or so to provide an upgrade path.
Basically, I’m okay with the GrapheneOS strategy of sticking to one product line.
My Xperia z3c from 2014 would be perfectly fine to use right now if Google didn’t absolutely bloat the crap out of their products and it had an easily replaceable battery. If companies would just support their products for longer or release the sources when it’s out of support i probably would have skipped several phone upgrades. But that’s probably exactly why they don’t.
I was just thinking about my moto x play still working. Shame about updates
Same. I still have my previous phone, but I don’t use it anymore because it’s insecure, not because it’s broken. I’m still using a laptop that’s even older precisely because it gets security updates since it runs Linux.
I’d absolutely lay a premium for longer support and it’s a large part of why I got a Pixel this time around, they advertise 7 years of support and I hope to hold them to that.
So does pc hardware but Linux can breathe new life into even an old PC since the bloat does grow at the same rate as the hardware unlike other OSes
New PC hardware is mostly compatible with the old stuff or at least somewhat standardized except at the lowest end. Phone stuff is much worse about that. Idk what a Linux phone would mean anyway.
Yet the performance basically peaked already. They are doing 15% increases at the top end and less for the cheapest phones.
There are significant features being added too. Like satellite messaging in areas with no cell coverage can be pretty worthwhile. You’re right though, most other stuff is meh. I’d like wireless charging for my current phone but can do without it. I have a $250 phone from 2023 and don’t understand why anyone buys a flagship.
Maybe whenever slider phones with full keyboards come back. Typing in the terminal would be a real chore otherwise.
You do get used to it to some degree, but yes please bring the keyboards back
I mean probably never? You’d have to design hardware specifically that’s compatible with Linux, which would cost a fortune, in the hopes of selling a whole bunch of them, and they can’t even get large numbers of people to use Linux for free.
You’d have to design hardware specifically that’s compatible with Linux
What makes you think that?
I don’t know how to answer that. Because most hardware is not compatible.
It isn’t fundamentally incompatible, there is just a lack of drivers.
You don’t need new hardware, you need driver support.
I think they meant you’d have to design a combination of hardware that’s all compatible with Linux - that is, that has Linux driver support.
I’m not really so concerned with how it’s incompatible…
The only thing that is lacking for compatibility is drivers. If that’s what you meant you should have said so instead of saying hardware needs to be designed. If that’s not what you meant then you don’t know what you’re talking about.
I see that person everywhere. 2k comments in 3 months. They genuinely do not know much of anything. I tagged them as “bad faith actor/unintelligent”. Best to avoid engaging with them.
Yeah probably lol
If the hardware doesn’t have drivers then it’s incompatible 🤷
You’re just embarrassing yourself at this point.
Explain how I’m wrong or go away.
They are already. My Redmi Note 7 runs Droidian perfectly.
Can Linux mobile OSs install apk apps?
Yeah
Really? I’ll have to do some searching online. I have a Mi 10T around here somewhere.
I also have a mi10t! Broken, that is. Idk if you want to know bout it, but it falled down from my bycicle when I was at Sanremo and a car passed on top of it. Screen broken. Tankfully you could still see things and the touch was working, so I managed to get back home (≈100km). But then the next day it wouldn’t boot. His soul left me… He just stayed with me enought time to help me get home…
🥹
Likewise, brother. But at the current rate, we are still a few years away. :-(
give me ANYTHING that’s open-source and not tied to google or apple. i don’t care if it’s shit. i’m old. i just need a phone and maybe some pics and browsing.
GrapheneOS is an open-source Android fork lots of people like, it’s what I’m planning on using once I get a new phone
While I’m a fan of GrapheneOS, I think it could still be considered “tied to Google” both due to it being based on Android, and also because it only runs on Google Pixel phones. Graphene focuses more on security, then on privacy, but not so much on reducing our dependency on Google’s software and/or hardware.
Yeah those are things on my mind too, especially since Google moved Android behind closed doors.
My understanding is that AOSP is still and will continue to be a thing. That’s Android. What Google has done though is put more and more new capabilities into Play Services, which are not open, rather than AOSP.
I hope someone will correct me or add better nuance though.
No. The latest changes by Google means all incremental work is now no longer visible to the public until a release is done. For most people and developers this shouldn’t make a difference.
As an example lets say I implemented features A, B and C and then did a release to v2. Before the changes you would see A get added, then B then C and then the release. With Google’s changes you will see nothing for a while and then all of a sudden see A, B, C and the v2 release all at once.
What reason, they are doing this?
In the current world when they are done with a release they have to reconcile their internal trunk (main branch) to the external trunk which is the one that everyone can see. This is because currently google do some development internally while other development is done on the public trunk. This reconciliation process can be annoying due to things like “merge conflicts” (ie. A disagreement between two versions of changes about what the final change should be). By doing all work on the internal trunk it should make this reconciliation process much simpler.
SailfishOS is fully functional and usable if you do not need any playstore-only apps. Even then they have now implemented microg in v5.0
Pinephone. Daily driver of you have low expectations. Not great for pictures.
Do you live in the US or Europe? There are some possibilities out there, but it’s kinda region dependent.
Phone functionality is the least of my problems, I need an open source replacement for Android Auto / Apple CarPlay.
Not sure how that would work, you’d either have to emulate it to talk to the infotainment system, or get all the infotainment producers to add an open source layer… Sounds like a nightmare either way.
That was the purpose of MirrorLink, but I think it’s dead now. I only ever saw Volkswagen support it.
We had the AUX jack but they axed it to sell earbuds.
I have heard that Apple removed the headphone jack to kill compatibility with those Square credit card readers.
And yet here I am supporting people who use square credit card readers with Ipads as one of my job responsibilities… They just switched to bluetooth
Eventually I’ll try one. I feel like it can be like desktop Linux where it take a very many many long years until it starts to chip away at single digit values of market share
It’s worse. Linux desktop is only possible because of the relative consistency and openness of x86 PC hardware. Phones are nothing like that. At best we will have retro Linux handhelds with phone functionality.
There’s x86 socs. You can buy a linux tablet right now.
Yes the HW isn’t comparable to a modern phone though.
This is the reason I haven’t given it a chance.
Not that I’m unwilling, but with no common hardware, I’m reluctant to go out and buy something.
I can go buy a pinephone for postmarket, but won’t work for sailfish. I can get an Xperia for sailfish, but I’m out of luck for postmarket.
Not to mention, I’m reluctant to drop a chunk of cash on aged hardware, whose successor doesn’t look to be as well supported.
It’s much less effort to have something based on Android open source project though.
It’s also less interesting.
Using regular Linux means you can do a ton of stuff you currently can’t on Android:
- plug in a USB hub and use it like a desktop - Steam Deck does this
- run regular desktop/server software - want a portable Minecraft server? Go for it!
- do things w/ btrfs snapshots so you can restore phone state if you mess something up (e.g. I accidentally uninstalled an app and lost settings)
- keep getting security updates long past when anyone in their right mind expects to get them
Android is already FOSS, and you can get phones with minimal stuff on top of the FOSS core. That’s cool I guess, and I use one such distro (GrapheneOS), but it’s still Android at the end of the day. I want something different, but I still want basic phone stuff to work (calls, SMS, MMS, camera, etc).
I think the problem is there’s just too much work that needs to be put in these things and people don’t really think about it. Android has at this point almost 2 decades of refining the experience for phones, so it’s a good starting point.
But the most important thing I guess is software. People often neglect how much time and effort is put to refine software to the point it becomes polished and bug free. Android has a mature stack to build apps that is very difficult to replicate.
But to be more clear I didn’t mean just getting a degoogled Android and settle with it. Android could also evolve in other ways that aren’t in Google’s interest, such as allowing you to have a sort of Dex that’s actually a Linux Desktop Environment.
The thing is, I don’t really care about Android apps, and honestly supporting them probably adds a bunch of limitations since they have a lot of expectations on the system.
I just want an immutable base system w/ flatpaks, a basic dialer, a robust SMS/MMS app, Firefox, and good enough battery life (15 hours w/ moderate screen on time). Basically, openSUSE Aeon or Fedora Silverblue with phone-specific apps.
I’m happy to help port the various software I want to use, but I need the phone to work as a phone first.
Realistically, I would probably try a google free Android long before I’d try a more pure linux phone
Ive tried a couple of times, ended up bricking a phone and had to re-do another. Linux phones are hard to get set up (for certain models).
I am sorely tempted, but its unlikely my banking apps and very specific work 2fa app is anything but Apple and Android compatible. I am almost at the stage of getting a second phone for day to day, and keeping my old for specific apps
You should consider changing bank if they don’t provide a regular website with at least the same functions as their app.
Ah yes, so easy. Just change banks bro.
Sometimes I wonder if there are any acual adults using Linux. Lol
Actually, what is hard about changing banks? I give my bank info to as few entities as possible. And almost all of them would take a few clicks and possibly a few days to verify some tiny transaction and I would be done. Changing credit cards is far harder. But also. Why are you using the banks app on your phone. That phone is probably the least secure electronic you own. The attack surface on that thing is absolutely huge.
Have you considered that maybe not everyone is like you?
We are all unique, just like everyone else.
But it was a serious question actually. Probably doesn’t read that way though. I’m on the older side, so I might not know about what the kids are doing with thier bank accounts these days.
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The new bank will happily organise anything for you, and if not, it is not the right bank, because they clearly don’t want you as customer, like this.
Customer support generally gets worse as you are longer at the same bank because you are more and more less likely to switch your bank staying at a bank. They invest in the customers they see risks of loosing or see a change of winning the most.
Most banks these days need their app as well to log in to their website because of forced two factor authentication
just give us a headphone jack and removable storage and you’ll have a customer for life.
I wouldn’t mind easily swappable batteries
Check out the Fairphone 5
Good specs for the price. No headphone jack tho.
True, but replaceable everything. And as sustainable (environmentally and socially) as smartphones come.
Xperia 1 VI?
Be nice if Linux phones could be like how Samsung phones used to be before they started removing features to directly compete with Apple smartwatch markets. I don’t understand how competition=downgrades because they wanna stretch features out to sell more products than how it used to be when both companies were all about being the One Phone That Does it All. I can afford the one gadget, always have and always will, but especially now when everything is so expensive I can only ever afford the Samsung A-Series not their main marketed S line.
But, do you ever need anything more than a A series phone? Or just want?
Only way I’ll want a different phone brand is if it comes with ZERO bloatware and has an excellent internal memory/storage cleanse that has nothing to do with Google’s Files or a random app I’m not sure I can trust without paying or rooting. So far my A series phones do what I need mostly and in my opinion is superior to the Motorola’s my fiancé prefers minus the phone-phone charge ability his has, everything else I’m just glad I have enough control to tweak things to my liking, however these days Samsungs seem to be infested with Google bloatware and apps that insist on opening themselves back up regardless of the widespread battery restrictions I’ve assigned (even was sent a “Stop Closing my Apps” notif that sent me to an article 😂) short of Disabling many unnecessary apps bc fully rooting my devices is something I rarely do anymore. I have a random Chinese brand tablet where I actually have more control over the apps than either of my A series phones whee Force Stopping STAYS that way when I tell them to! I hate being listened to for ads and the unwanted draining my battery life and data (I live off-grid and pay data rates because “Unlimited” is some throttled BS) so my ability to control what’s going on in the background matters a lot to me, enough that I’m anti Meta-apps and avoid all non-essential Google apps. I can’t afford topline phones and the largest data plan, so I work with what I can afford and I’m sad refurbished A lines seem to be getting more expensive while giving away my control to companies. Last A line I bought that was supposed to be my first 5G phone was network locked, so I got ripped off, but it still serves me well in off-grid life.
Only app that actually regularly malfunctions when I Force Stop it’s background presence is Roku, which I find to have very an almost insidious presence in our lives. Google Play, Chrome, and Spotify never acts incompetent in any way no matter how I have to open the setting every single time I turn Airplane Mode off. Don’t need Gmail with Chrome and DuckDuckGo has been awesome at intercepting self-loading ads. I hope one day DDG gets better bc Google seems to be terrible lately and I even caught their AI contradicting itself when asking about if Homo Florensis is considered Human (yes) and then asked the oldest age of human remains, and was fed the outdated narrative of 300,000 years versus 700,000+ years bipedal pre-humans have been carbon dated outside of the Cradle of Humanity in South Africa. SO sorry to go off-topic, but I’ve got a big gripe with Samsung’s partnership with Google, especially considering the launch of Quantum Computed AI that is still being fine-tuned with company-approved censorships.
Can i play minecraft on it though? Ive got a horse ranch that I’d really like to continue
Java is inherently cross platform, and works well on linux. So assuming the phone is powerful enough, you should be good to go even if it’s linux.
Definitely worth checking out Minetest/Luanti though, it has promise.
How do you tame a horse in Minecraft?
I need to know for… Reasons.
Just try mounting it, if you get bucked, try again.
Finally, my TV is unlocked!
Absolutely! The controls might suck and regular phone features might be iffy, but you could totally run the Java version of Minecraft if you wanted. No guarantees about performance though.
Government should make standards for banks to support different operating systems. Not particularly well known OS.
I mean I’ve been using /e/os for a while now and it works like a charm!
I’m so sad it doesn’t seem to work with my country’s digital solutions or I would’ve switched right away :(
Like you can’t get to their site?
The integration for the apps like digital ID don’t work at all
Cool, does it run on a Galaxy Xcover6 Pro with a Verizon plan? I bet it doesn’t, nothing does besides the big-2 OS’s it seems.
Cool, does it run on a Galaxy S10 series phone?
it does, but not particularly well
