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Are Linux phones ready? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/linuxphones@lemmy.ca
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Starting September 30th, there's going to be a tsunami of Android users looking for an alternative system fleeing this developer verification malware.

In your opinion, are things like post market OS and the rest of the Linux phone ecosystem ready to take on these new users?

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[–] 12 points 4 months ago (13 children)

As of right now, I think mobile Linux still needs some more time before it's ready for mass adoption. For the developers and tinkerers, it's a fun project and, depending on your needs, it can be usable as a daily driver as your main or side phone, but it's still a little unstable with many missing conveniences compared to the duopoly. App support is already good enough in my opinion, especially with Waydroid being a thing. As for device support, I think if you do want to try mobile Linux, get a well-supported device to start, like a used OnePlus 6 or Pixel 3a series, and just play around with it. I found it very fun, and there are lots of cool things you can do with mobile Linux too! I particularly enjoyed the lack of microtransactions in all the games...(Animatch, Ultimate Tic Tac Toe, Pentobi, a few desktop games are playable with mouse and keyboard)

A good alternative right now is to recommend a degoogled Android ROM for people who want to keep the openness of Android but don't want to go all in to Linux phones just yet. iodeOS, GrapheneOS, e/OS, and now CalyxOS (they're back!) are all great options that won't have the same restrictions as stock Android. Fairphones, Pixels, etc. are all great devices to be recommended for this purpose.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    While I'm also asking for myself, I'm currently running Lineage OS with no Google apps or services, but eventually I think I'll be forced off of an Android-based system entirely.

    Besides installing malware on devices with Google Play services, Google is also doing things like making AOSP less frequent updates and stuff like that too. Eventually, I'm figuring I'm just going to have to leave and go to a Linux phone entirely, whether I want to or not.

    For me personally, the things that I absolutely need to work are the touchscreen, calling, texting, cellular data, microphone, speaker, bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    From my testing with pmOS and a used OnePlus 6, one of the best supported devices + the potent SD845 chipset: touchscreen, cellular data, microphone, speaker, bluetooth, and Wi-Fi all work. I have not tested calling or texting, as I mainly focused on using its cameras, listening to music, and playing fun (awesome native Linux) games, and from reading the wiki, it will kind of work with some weird quirks (audio dropping out, that sort of thing). Pretty interesting though.

    I enjoyed playing around with the cameras a lot, it was kind of a case where they were so bad they became good again, looking almost film-like with lots of grain and blooming

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  • [+] -13 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    It depends, are you someone that thinks 16-year-old Wayland is ready? Or Linux is ready for desktop? How much broken-ness and insecurity is acceptable?

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    I will not lay down the oil to start the firery debate between X11 and Wayland, but I run a Wayland desktop with no issues. Mint works well for a lot of people while being X11 based.

    Desktop Linux is definitely ready for the masses, most of the big distros (Mint, Fedora, etc.) and desktop environments (GNOME, Plasma, Cinnamon, etc.) are very usable on most hardware and are much more stable than it was many years ago. I don't run into many large issues, and this is with the rolling release EndeavourOS (Arch-based). When I was using Mint for a bit, I had no issues at all!

    For now, mobile Linux still needs to grow more before mass adoption, but it's a fun project if you're a developer and want something new and interesting!

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  • [+] -19 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    I run a Wayland desktop with no issues

    Useless anecdote that ignores all the factual issues still present in Wayland.

    Mint works well for a lot of people

    Mint forums and discussions say it doesn't for many more.

    are very usable on most hardware

    I don't see how fetch, htop, and screenshot make a computer 'useable'. Useable for reddit karma farming?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Useless anecdote that ignores all the factual issues still present in Wayland.

    Again, I don't want to provoke a fire. Yes, some work needs to be done for certain features (I believe progress has been made on multi-monitor/desktop stuff), but it's stable enough for both GNOME and Plasma to fully switch to it, and Cinnamon is working hard to implement it too.

    Both X11 and Wayland have their place. I don't think it's helpful to start burning bridges

    Mint forums and discussions say it doesn't for many more.

    Typically, forums are for people to discuss troubles that people have had to find help, minor or not, not for boasting how well your system runs usually. In my own experience and that of many people I know, Mint is a very smooth experience that is easy to pick up.

    I don't see how fetch, htop, and screenshot make a computer 'useable'. Useable for reddit karma farming?

    Now I think you're trolling. I never mentioned any of those, and I don't currently use Reddit either (or really ever, I'm not the social media type. I mostly use Lemmy to seek and offer help in various topics of my interest). I daily drive EndeavourOS and I can do web browsing, document editing programming, CAD, photo editing, video editing, and gaming (both PC titles and emulation run excellently!)

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  • [+] -12 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Problems are punished on Reddit, stupid 'I just switched to Mint' posts rewarded.

    You MUST be aware that document editing, CAD, photo editing, video editing, and gaming suck on FOSS. -It's an objective truth. Your propaganda has been debunked so many times.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    You MUST be aware that document editing, CAD, photo editing, video editing, and gaming suck on FOSS

    Well, turns out it doesn't. LibreOffice is really nice to use and automatically works with my theme which is always nice. You also have OnlyOffice if you want something with a different UI , though, it is Russian owned and has weird licensing issues going on.

    Photo editing is also really easy, there's lots of good stuff out there. Rawtherapee is great for processing photos from my camera, but Inkscape is AMAZING for vector work (what I usually deal with)

    Video editing with Kdenlive is very smooth, I don't do too much if it but if you need additional functionality you can also use Davinci Resolve.

    Games on Linux runs fine and dandy, Hades, Hollow Knight, Hearts of Iron IV, Minecraft (p.s. the cross-platform Prism Launcher is awesome for managing versions, shaders, and mods!), and Balatro (all of which I installed as Windows games) run really well (Proton/Wine is awesome!), and there's also a few neat native Linux games that are fun, quite basic, nothing graphically intensive, like 2048 and puzzles. Xonotic is an exception though, but it's pretty old now. STK is getting a new release soon and I'm excited for that!

    As for emulation, Retroarch and all the cores run fine, no weird compatabilities here! I can run my favourite GC, PS2, GBA, DS, etc. super easily!

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