A reasonable article I feel. I am looking forward to trying mobile Linux on a secondary phone, but it's likely a long way off from being ready as a daily driver for most people.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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I am still hopeful Linux is the future of mobile devices. I really dislike that on android 5 years of feature updates is really good and only the best phones can strive for this, where as a 10 year old laptop or desktop computer can usually run Linux without any problems and expect both security and feature updates as long as you want. Not even mentioning the limited choice in software that works in an android environment.
I currently use Sailfish which isn't what most people mean by mobile linux and does have a lot of problems, but hopefully my sailfish device I have now will see me through until mobile linux is at the point I feel like I can move across.
You can run Linux on computers much older than 10 years. The kernel still supports the Intel 486, which was released in 1989. The developers only recently started talking about dropping support for it.
It's ridiculous that a typical smart phone is e-waste within a couple of years.
Phones right now are where computers were about 15-20 years ago.
Just getting to the point where you can keep one for more than a couple years before it's too old and slow to do anything.
Never considered anything other than Android, but it's an excellent idea. It's a shame none of the options are good. Anyone have any insight as to why things suck?
Lack of funding. Throw enough money at this problem and it will be solved.
I'd say wildly variable hardware configurations with poor driver support.
The situation would improve if hardware vendors would upstream the code, but I just don't see it.
As much as Alphabet sucks ass, I have had very good results with Nexus/Pixel devices and LineageOS. All the hardware seems to be supported right down to high-framerate mode on the camera on the Pixel2.
It's frustrating that we're still not there (with even one daily-drivable phone), but it's getting closer and closer.
I also think it's possible to get a lot of value from these devices in the meantime- when used as pocketable tablets. I have to carry a light backpack around pretty often anyway, so it's easy enough to just throw an old Android in there for calls / SMS and tether a OnePlus 6 (with pmOS) to it for everything else.
Unless one of those Linux OS's can run Android apps through emulation with the same speed and reliability as an android device its probably not practical yet.
Have you tried the French edition /e/ OS? I'm on it ATM and it has a few good integrations like an app store that gives apps an privacy respecting rating and better calendar, contacts and tasks connectability with nextcloud
I've heard a lot of people have a good experience with GrapheneOS as well on the Google Pixel phones as well. Might be my next phone and OS to try