Google: “Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified. We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren’t tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer. It will also include clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved, but ultimately, it puts the choice in their hands.”
Thank god. I would’ve ditched Android for good if this went through, and while it sounds like it would be annoying for casual users to enable unverified apps, at least we can still install them.
Good, but I still don’t trust Google and I really want Linux (you know what I mean) on my next phone.
I’ve been eyeing Volla for a phone with Ubuntu:
https://volla.online/en/devices/
Unfortunately, not so cheap that I could just go for it for fun, so it’ll have to wait until I actually need a new phone …
Agreed, this was a warning shot, we know what to do now.
Yes, Open Google free Android or a Linux without Google.
Isn’t the first just AOSP? GrapheneOS ships Google free.
AOSP has been neutered as much as Google has been able to. This was the reasonable next step.
True, but what I’m saying is there is an open model. If another community of devs wan’t a “Linux-based mobile OS”, they can fork AOSP like Graphene did. IE complain about Google, not Android.
Graphene works. No tracking, tons of FOSS and commercial apps, it just lacks some banking apps. One gap, vs all that exist between now and another Linux phone.
LineageOS is another option for other phones, also far ahead of other Linux ideas.
Yes, but you can expect almost no useful updates from AOSP anymore, which means it’s up to groups like those who develop GrapheneOS to keep up with what people expect while Android ostensibly keeps advancing, and they only support one hardware line.
That’d be nice, but Linux on phones is still a pipe dream.
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.
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.
https://nlnet.nl/project/Whisperfish/
I meant have you tried it? Do you know if it’s any good?
I mean, you can run a Linux phone now:
!linuxphones@lemmy.ca
Downside is that aren’t going to have a large software library optimized for touchscreen use. The hardware options are pretty disappointing compared to Android. Not all hardware functionality may be supported, if it’s on a repurposed Android phone. Android or iOS software is mostly designed to expect that it’s on a fast/WiFi connection some of the time and on a slow/limited mobile data link some of the time and be able to act accordingly; most GNU/Linux software is not. Battery life is often not fantastic.
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 the locked-down direction.
My current approach is to carry around a Linux laptop and try to shift my usage more towards using the Android phone as a tethering device for the laptop, to get Internet access everywhere. That’s not always reasonable — you need to sit down to use the laptop — but the only thing that the phone really has to be used for is dealing with text messages and calls. If you really wanted to do so, as long as the laptop was on, you could run SIP to get VoIP service off the Internet from a provider of that from the laptop over the phone’s data service, not even rely on the phone’s calling functionality. The laptop isn’t really set up to be able to idle at very low power the way a phone is, be able to wake up when a call comes in, though, so it’s not really appropriate for incoming calls.
If I need to access something one-handed without sitting down, I can fall back to using the phone.
And it does have some nice benefits, like having a real keyboard, a considerably more-powerful system, a much larger library of software, a better screen and speakers, a 3.5mm headphones jack (all those phone space constraints go away on a laptop!) and so forth. You can move the phone to somewhere where its radio has good reception and just have it relay to the laptop, which isn’t an option if you’re using the phone itself as the computing device.
You can, though I don’t, even run Android software on the laptop via Waydroid.
I don’t presently use it in this role, but there’s a software package, KDE Connect, that lets one interface a phone and a Linux desktop (well, laptop in this case), and do things like happily type away in text message conversations on the laptop, if one has the laptop up and running.
I’m thinking that that approach also makes it easier to shift my use to a GNU/Linux phone down the line, since mostly, all I absolutely need from a GNU/Linux phone then is to act as a tethering device, handle phone calls and texts. It’s sorta the baby-steps way to move off Android, get my dependence down to the point where moving is no big deal.
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.
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.
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.
Battery fuel guage is almost ready for FP4 at least:
https://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.
Ooh, cool! Might be my new phone when the current one cacks or Android becomes completely unusable.
Isn’t oneplus 6 a phone from
2018???
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
it is, but SD845 is still pretty fast
Nothing wrong with it, if you just use it for music listening/youtube/light browsing/satnav/messaging, snapdragon845 is more than enough. Consumables like batteries and back glass can be bought new from AliExpress for like $10. The screen is OLED and so prone to burn-in, but will probably last at least a few more years before cacking it completely.
Probably not too good for modern gaming and stuff, but probably passable for most tasks.
Look at furios’s phones. They seem yo work.
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.
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, but that took a year or more), 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, basic apps are decently represented but 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 one tab while trying to navigate in another…
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). Fairphone is much more usuable, still not without it’s glitches but much better than the pinephones.
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).
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.
I can absolutely make phone calls with both my One Plus 6T and my PinePhone.
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.
Linux on phones or desktops suffer from one major problem as I see it, too 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.
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.
Why would multiple distros be a factor? A Linux phone would be its own unique distro.
The issue is device firmware. The OS has to fit the phone, not vice versa.
In itself true, but if you have several competing distros then you run into the problem of attracting developers to the platform if none have a solid market share. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing, if a platform doesn’t have a sizable user base it’s hard to attract developers and it’s hard to get a user base without readily available apps.
You don’t have that many competing distros in mobile linux.
You don’t have any because it’s not a thing yet.
I think you’ve misread, I typed “many”, not “any”.