Comment on Breaking: Google is easing up on Android's new sideloading restrictions!

• A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  FWIW I’ve been daily driving SailfishOS on various Sony Xperias for 5 years now. It’s not fully OSS, but it is a fully valid Linux OS.

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  • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m curious: I’m currently evaluating mobile Linux OSes to transition away from Android. What I got going right now is Ubuntu Touch on a Fairphone 5, but there’s one big drawback with this one for me: the lack of a decent native Signal client.

    I’ve always planned to give Sailfish OS a spin, and I’m almost certain I can install it on the FP5 easily. But I’m not all that keen on ruining my Ubuntu Touch install, and possibly not being able to reinstall it if I want to go back.

    So before I install Sailfish OS on it, can you tell me if it has a decent Signal client? If it doesn’t, then maybe it’s not really worth investigating in the first place for me.

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    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      nlnet.nl/project/Whisperfish/

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      • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I meant have you tried it? Do you know if it’s any good?

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• tal@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I mean, you can run a Linux phone now, but you aren’t going to have a large software library optimized for touchscreen/phone use, and the hardware options are pretty disappointing compared to Android.

  !linuxphones@lemmy.ca

  I still haven’t been pushed over the edge, but I’m definitely keeping my eye on it. I’m just not willing to develop software for Android. I know that GNU/Linux phones will stay open. I am not at all sure that Android won’t wind up locked down by Google at some point, and over the years, it’s definitely shifted in that direction.

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• ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Linux on phones or desktops suffer from one major problem as I see it, to much choice.

  You make a Windows app it has to work with the latest couple versions, same with Mac.

  Make one for Linux and you have to test it against dozens of popular distros, package it in multiple ways, and hope the dependencies are gonna match.

  It's an awesome system for IT people and server admins, but for the end user, ehhh... That seems to be the problem things like snap and flat packs are aimed at fixing, which could transition to phones but first you gotta herd the cats into an agreed state.

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  • Illecors@lemmy.cafe ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s not really the case. Have a look at AUR or GURU repo - most proprietary software is installed by simply applying the same steps an apt, dnf, whathaveyou package manager would.

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• exu@feditown.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  AFAIK Faiphone 4/5 and OnePlus 6 are in a very good state on PostmarketOS and continually improving. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say we’ll have fully working devices in half a year - year with the amount of progress that’s happened since the PinePhone and was boosted again by the original Google announcement.

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  • DrDystopia@lemy.lol ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Having no call audio on FP5 is a dealbreaker to me, but if it’s only 4g/5g calls and BT audio and mic works I’ll gladly use IP comms only. Need to dive a bit deeper I suppose, and the incentive will come from Google.

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  • balsoft@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Fairphones are probably not daily-able for now, sadly. E.g. on FP4 GPS doesn’t work at all and there are issues with charging/battery reporting AFAIR. OnePlus 6 is definitely more promising ATM, but there are camera issues and you need to do a weird reflashing dance to get GPS to work. Otherwise it’s… passable as a daily phone.

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    • cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Battery fuel guage is almost ready for FP4 at least:

      fosstodon.org/@z3ntu/115435804332775702

      And there has been recent successes by the same guy (employed at Fairphone) on getting cameras working (main post of the thread linked above).

      These are recent improvements, and I really hope they can solve the audio stability and GPS stuff so I can move. Thinking of trying out Ubuntu Touch before a mainline distro is ready.

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      • balsoft@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Ooh, cool! Might be my new phone when the current one cacks or Android becomes completely unusable.

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  • jnod4@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Isn’t oneplus 6 a phone from

    2018???

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    • cecilkorik@piefed.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It's almost like technology doesn't actually need to be a conveyor belt of spending thousands of dollars on new products that turn into literal e-waste after a year or two. The money-printing treadmill for these trillion dollar corporations would be in immediate jeopardy!

      Imagine! Using an old device that still works and performs all its functions perfectly! You'd have to be completely nuts!

      /s

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    • balsoft@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Nothing wrong with it, if you just use it for music listening/youtube/light browsing/satnav/messaging, snapdragon845 is more than enough. Probably not too good for gaming and stuff.

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    • hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      it is, but SD845 is still pretty fast

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  • leftascenter@tarte.nuage-libre.fr ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Look at furios’s phones. They seem yo work.

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• Emi@ani.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I saw there is pine phone that is supposed to have Linux or it doesn’t? Didn’t look much into it but was thinking about trying it out.

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  • Warl0k3@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I have a pine phone - they’re super neat because linux on a phone! but… not really usable yet. Not getting texts, random bugs (they fixed the one where you could only receive calls, not make them), incredibly laggy UI even just trying to navigate,the battery life is abysmal, the battery management hardware is lacking and the software is even worse, the UIs that exist are poorly supported, while basic apps are decently represented anything not built for mobile is going to be godawful to get working (esp. through something like waydroid), the UI stabbed my puppy, the devices are so underpowered you’re gonna be unable to do things like have two apps open at once or have a video playing in a tab while trying to navigate in another one…

    The pro phone has supposedly improved the hardware issues, but it’s new and niche enough that I haven’t seen much of a consens emerge (or hardly any in depth testing at all, really).

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    • mirshafie@europe.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s great that smart people are working on this, but I don’t think we can expect hobbyists to make a useful OSS implementation of smartphones. Especially since there is so much dependence on the hardware. We either need a company that can throw some weight behind it, or just straight up governments that value it (e.g. from a sovereignty point of view).

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  • popcar2@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The Linux phones that exist today (including Pine Phone) are more like early dev kits. They have really weak specs, are incredibly buggy, lack all sorts of features you’d expect, and I’m not totally sure if you can even make calls through them because phone carriers require a verified device and proprietary tech to work.

    There are efforts to get things in order but these will take maybe 10 years at this rate.

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    • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I can absolutely make phone calls with both my One Plus 6T and my PinePhone.

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      • Warl0k3@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s not that straightforward - pinephones have varying results depening on carriers, Verizon is notorious for blacklisting them while most of the other major carriers are hit or miss on if you’ll get penalized.

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