Finnish company Jolla started out 14 years ago where Nokia left off with MeeGo and developed Sailfish OS as a new Linux smartphone platform. Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the past number of years now has been offering their software stack for use on other smartphone devices. But now it seems they are trying again with a new crowd-funded smartphone.

Sailfish OS has supported a number of Sony Xperia smartphones and a variety of OnePlus / Samsung / Google / Xiaomi devices and more maintained by the community. Last year Jolla also announced an "AI computer" as part of the AI hardware craze. Now though they are apparently trying again at their own in-house smartphone.

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[–] 87 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

I hope they succeed, it's a very tough market.

They probably need a lot of ducks to line up in a row. But the current privacy wave and the push for digital sovereignty in Europe might help.

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  • [–] 21 points 11 months ago*

    Kinda. But also kinda not. The cost of getting a phone made has decreased and there are many, many manufacturers who can make one for you these days. From that perspective, if you have small niche where people are alright with paying a bit of a premium, it may in fact be easier to make a phone for them than say in 2012.

    The total device cost will be 499 EUR or 599~699 EUR as the "normal" price with the voucher deducting from the phone's cost if/when available.

    This price for a low volume device would have been completely unachievable in 2012.

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  • [–] 41 points 11 months ago (11 children)

    Get me a linux smart phone with a headphone jack and I will buy it in a heartbeat, but I don't think very many other people will.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    It's so bizarre that all the user-repairable phone startups are refusing to put in a headphone jack. Like, the entire point is to limit e-waste, so why are they expecting me to throw out my wired headphones to buy Bluetooth ones or get an adapter that will stop working in a year?

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    What makes you think a USB-C to headphone jack adapter stops working after a year? There's the same circuit in there that does the DAC like in a phone headphone jack.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    I despise any earbuds/cans that you can't replace the battery in and prefer a wired set of headphones. so much e-waste every year or multiple times a year when they get lost. I've never lost a corded headset lol.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    you can also buy a nice USB/Bluetooth dac instead of the inline ones that tend to be more fragile. better quality than an internal one and the flexibility of Bluetooth if you want it. generally a little bulky but if you already have wired headphones I don't think it's significant

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago

    And I could care less about a headphone jack (I'm an Android user and I'd say Apple's USB-C DAC is better than 99% of cheap built-in phone DACs - change my mind) but since we're making requests I'll take a phone that's <5.5" please!

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    headphone jack is dead. Its pointless to add it to new devices.

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  • [–] 23 points 11 months ago

    I was at a bar in Tampere (a city here in Finland) last week and met a guy with a phone running Sailfish OS. I've been interested in them for quite a few years so I asked him to let me see it and he did. Even though it was a 6+ year old phone it was running smooth as butter, the initial UX was awesome.

    I really hope this becomes a reality and that the phone isn't just another cheap chinese touchscreen device. I am making the switch when the time comes.

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  • [–] 38 points 11 months ago

    I hope they succeed. Given Alphabet/Google's recent moves to try and lock Android's app ecosystem down and them just generally becoming more Evil every day, GrapheneOS and LineageOS etc. may be living on borrowed time.

    I watched a video reviewing some phones smuggled out of North Korea a few days ago and it's truly scary what the endgame of locked mobile phones looks like and given the trends worldwide towards authoritarianism, we're frogs being boiled slowly toward the same situation.

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    That design looks AMAZING.

    Is there anything I need to know about the political affiliations of Jolla / past products / sailfish os before I pre-order this thing?

    Edit: nvm, no global shipping

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

    Is there anything I need to know about the political affiliations of Jolla / past products / sailfish os before I pre-order this thing?

    They worked with and in Russia for a while before the big Ukraine invasion but left immediately after that. If I remember right.

    They're based in Finland, mostly, and some of the founders are ex-Nokia mobile phone people.

    If they have any sort of politics, they have been classy enough to keep a sock on it.

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago

    Hmm... Gimme a headphone jack option and I'll try getting in on that crowdfunding, if they let me do it from the US.

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago* (4 children)

    So does this mean that a 5" is possible, or that they are going to make it? The 6" model is way too big for me.

    Is the 99 € refundable? Yes. Fully.

    Well ok, I think I'll put my money in and we'll see if they manage to make that reasonably sized model.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (3 children)

    Kinda off topic, but now I'm wondering whether Europeans think of phone size (and laptops and screens) in terms of inches rather than centimeters?

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago

    I'm wondering whether Europeans the other 96% of humanity

    There, FTFY.

    And yes, the other 96% of humanity would very much like to see Imperial measurements die.

    Hell, as a Canadian born after 1970, I wouldn’t understand almost all Imperial measurements even if they smacked me clear in the forehead. About the most I have ever used are inches, feet, and pounds, and only because they’ve hung on in tightly-linked-to-America blue-collar industries and (until about a decade ago) grocery stores. I would have zero clue how much a cup or a Florida Ounce is.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago

    I want this. I don't think its available in The US though. Someone please make a good linux phone! I like grapheneOS but its still based on android, which hasn't had a great track record of late.

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  • I am really excited. I don't think it will really have much of a market in the US but I think it could have a chance in Europe.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    I really want one. But I'm not buying any tech product until my existing one turns to dust and no amount of solder can put it back together. So maybe in five or six years?

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  • [+] 12 points 11 months ago* (2 children)
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    I hope they also make a larger screened device, I am tired of the smaller 6.3 inch screens. I’d love for them to make a 6.7 inch screen phone (also make it international version with a lot of carrier compatibility for maximum adoption potential).

    That's really interesting. I'm kind of over here hoping for a good Linux phone that's like 4 inches, like the iPod Touch used to be. I hope we get more large and small phones though, as long as they're not stock Android.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Is buying a smartphone with a properietary OS from an EU company really a smart decision after chat control?

    I think I'm going to be sticking with Graphene

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    afaict the OS is fully Open Source. that's a claim on their website.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    It's proprietary with some open source components.

    They've said they aim to be fully open source some day

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Rather the opposite: it's Free Software, aside from UX components.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    Why make your own phone? Why not partner with Fairphone? Fairphone seems to be the only vendor out there that sells phones with an alternative ROM (/e/ OS), they might very well be open to an alternative OS like Sailfish.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    I learned C++ just to write apps for my N95, haven't used it since it broke.

    I would pick it up again in a heartbeat if I had a new Jolla phone in my hands.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    i wish i hadn't just replaced my Note 20 Ultra now

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Nice. I put in the down payment of 99 €, let's see what happens.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the past number of years now has been offering their software stack for use on other smartphone devices.

    This sentence took me so long to decipher. For others struggling, read "has been offering" as "has been to offer". It's saying they tried hardware, but ultimately they've been offering their software stack to other hardware instead of making their own.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    if you arent trying to develope for existing phones, you are part of the problem

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    Until we have affordable fully open phone hardware specifications, the current phone hardware oligopolies will continue to gate keep with brittle proprietary drivers to ensure that people stay inside their walled surveillance garden.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    There's a reason even GrapheneOS is looking to build their own phones. You pretty much need a published device tree and that's becoming rarer than hen's teeth in current phones. Even Pixel's are starting to get locked down.

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