Its sort of a thing. Pine phones use open source linux. I think the main problem is development of apps to run on a linux phone isn’t popular so its pretty bare bones as a system. Havent used one myself though.
clonedhuman@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’d love to see a user-friendly, easily-implemented FOSS alternative to the entire Android system.
The options that exist now often can’t get past all the defenses that Android and phone manufacturers put into systems to secure their own data collection/revenue. I have an older Motorola phone that I literally can’t install another operating system on.
We desperately need a stable, user-friendly, and hardware-adaptive replacement for Android. I don’t want that shit on my phones any longer.
Screen_Shatter@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yaky@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
You might be interested in postmarketOS They try to mainline older Android devices. It works pretty well on the PinePhone, too.
As far as I understand, the hardware-adaptive part is difficult to implement because ARM systems do not have automatic hardware detection like x86/x64 PCs do, so the hardware list (tree) has to be known for each device, that hardware is mostly proprietary and requires proprietary drivers. All of which results in Android phones using different per-phone-model kernels.
EnsignWashout@startrek.website 11 months ago
A manufacturer phone pre-installed with LineageOS would be awesome.
ParetoOptimalDev@lemmy.today 11 months ago
Pixel + GrapheneOS is a dream.
Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
And they’re even working on releasing phones that come with GrapheneOS preinstalled
EnsignWashout@startrek.website 11 months ago
Ooh, neat.
timmytbt@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Who is? Google? Do know if I’d be able to trust that
megrania@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
My first ever smartphone (in 2015) was a BQ Aquaris 4.5 Ubuntu Edition that came with Ubuntu Phone pre-installed … a lightweight, 4.5" smartphone … there wasn’t much of an app ecosystem at the time but I didn’t miss it because up to that date I used a dumb phone, and the smartphone allowed me to do eMail and use a browser, which was enough for me.
At some point I accidentially dropped it on a hard floor and it broke, and I was quite unhappy that the company didn’t continue that line :(