What are the technical obstacles to be overcome,

Its not a technical obstacle preventing me from having one.

The companies that make the ones that do exist won't offer them for sale on my continent.

Interesting pod cast (1.5 hours, but can read the transcript too)

Essentially we stand in the early days of linux on phones - they say it's like Linux on the desktop was 20 years ago. As the guest makes clear, there are a myriad of issues starting with getting a list of the devices from the bootloader (as no ACPI), a lack of drivers for hardware as manufacturers don't feed into the mainline linux kernel, a lack of software that can use that hardware to it's pull potential (the camera being an obvious one) and a lack of phone apps as the big popular apps aren't built for linux mobile.

But it seems like things are moving slowly in the right direction, and its interesting to hear how much is going on in so many different areas.

Been using a Linux phone as my main phone since January; after, like, 5 years of wanting to get off Android, I'm not ever going back, if I can help it.

I don't think I would try that on my main phone. Maybe another phone. That'd be fun.

As most of us in this group probably already know, there's Ubuntu Touch, which I've seen on some phones, even being sold on ebay, on Pixel 3As. There's LineageOS & PostmarketOS, but they only run on certain phones, and the setup learning curve is challenging. And finally, seemingly the most popular one, GrapheneOS, only currently works on certain Pixel phones, but there is a partnership with Motorola, so we'll see how that goes. I don't know if any of these except Ubuntu Touch are considered Linux, though.

Last I checked they were pretty bad for the price, but that could be outdated by now?

No good small phones for Linux. The few phones I’ve seen that I’d get only take custom roms, no good for security or longevity if the maintainer decides to get a new phone…