Sailfish OS showed me what Linux phones could actually be, and we need more of it
(www.xda-developers.com)
Honestly wish they just supported us bands. The ui is, IMO, the best you can get.
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If it's not open source as much as reasonably possible, it's ultimately no better than Android. Kind of annoyed that distinctions need to be made between "real" Linux and "fake" Linux.
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The biggest hurdle for a Linux phone is proprietary drivers. On a PC you can swap parts, you can add a USB wifi or sound card on a laptop, but on a phone you are kinda stuck with all the stuff on the phone, so the problem with binary blobs is so much worse, and untill we don't have at least the full drivers source or datasheet as an normal part of phone releases it will always be an impossible to win catch-up race.
At least phones are not getting that much better anymore so is starting to be feasible to floss hackers to fully port Linux to some phones in time for them to still be usable (battery problems a part).
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I get (and share) the purist hate on saOS's non OSS UI, but to get linux phones up and running you need app support1 and market adoption (people buying phones) to make it a viable switch from the walled gardens for more people to use it, to get more hardware made and so on. Chicken and egg deal, bootstrapping. As such anything that gets people in front of linux phones should be embraced at this point, as long as it can run linux native code2 . When the snowball is rolling, then push for full OSS.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good (enough for now).
1: There's plenty of linux apps but few are designed for small touchscreens. Android emulation often takes us back to non open source anyway, even as it helps adoption.
2: and preferably can be re-flashed with something better later, which is becoming rare as bootloaders get locked down.
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could actually be
But unfortunately aren't currently...
Nice to see the UI hasn't changed much in the last 10 years.
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More than a phone, I want a good 7-10" Linux tablet. Something like a Samsung Tab S7 but pure Linux, not Android. Full-fat USB-C (video out, etc) with a slim keyboard cover. I seem to have a lot of low-level hacker-y needs while out and about but I don't want to always carry my laptop.
These days a tablet is a luxury, a phone is a necessity. You can iterate a mobile UI on a tablet slowly. Shooting to replace a phone means you need to hit a much higher bar of quality. It seems like an easier path to adoption.
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No thanks.
14 comments in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ca view that post
I agree, and I desperately want a Linux phone, but the really problem with Linux phones gaining traction is that is the developers are DEVELOPERS.
"I make $200,000 a year... how much should a good smartphone cost... how about $700? It's a bargain!"
I get that making hardware is expensive, but asking people to jump into something with a learning curve and real sacrifices at a premium price is just guaranteeing it stays niche - especially when asking an audience that by and large has to have an Android as a backup for some apps anyway.
And this is coming from someone with no fewer than 16 machines running various Linux distros in his house. You can't ask someone to spend that much on a secondary phone to play with until they get comfortable enough with it to switch completely. You just can't. It's barely working for the Linux OS, and that's free.
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