This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
it could be almost managable to use.
That was my take away last time I tried Sailfish OS. It mostly worked but there were some issues that were just too hard to ignore. For me the problem with a phone is that it's for short but very frequent interactions. When there's friction it becomes very annoying very fast. I don't want it to almost do everything, I need to do very specific things well.
I haven't tried any of them but from what reviews I've seen, both Sailfish OS and postmarketOS are alllmost there but not quite, and Ubuntu Touch is still primarily for tinkerers and isn't ready for prime time. Part of me wants to say "jfc it's been in development since Unity was The New Thing" but then again, who's even working on it? I really want any one of these to be finished and to succeed, but I think more and more that I'm just going to go back to using a dumbphone for the first time in more than 15 years, even as I post this on GrapheneOS.
No idea who this guy is, but that was a hilarious video. Heaps of little jabs to highlight some of the very real weirdness of it all, but a decent enough demo to show that it all does intact work.
I'm not subscribed but I do watch his videos whenever I stumble on them and they're pretty good. He takes the piss out of Apple and Microsoft equally and regularly dunks on Google as well. I don't think he really centers on Linux very often, if at all, but whatev. Good watch, I recommend [not that my opinion is worth anything]
All of his videos are like that.
The one that sticks with me is Apple Glarse, his renaming of their Glass UI design.
A shame Fairphone doesn't have a headphone jack. IMO that contradicts the sustainability aspect of the phone
Headphone jack is ewaste at this point. I know all the people here still cling to them because they brought a pair of $50 earphones 15 years ago. But all wired earphones have been usbc for over a decade and most people have wireless ones.
Headphone jack crew, unite!
How is that?
Think Bluetooth earphone battery waste
Ah I see. Idk for me it was kinda opposite. My headphones wires got fucked up every three years or so. I still haven’t replaced my earbuds. Or do you mean how batteri waste is worse for the environment?
Also your earphones cable doesn't run out of juice.
I think they mean lithium ion batteries are far worse for the environment compared to a headphone cable you could easily replace
Ah I see, good point
They need funding. Some people, countries and unions have an increased interest in tech independence.
For anyone reading this, please consider donating to PostmarketOS or Mobian if you have the means, as it will help us escape the Android ecosystem which is getting more and more anti-user due to google controlling it.
I would pay for a company to come out with one of these pre-loaded onto a Fairphone. Seriously.
The problem with PostmarketOS is that it only is stable on extremely old phones that sometimes aren't even midrange.
It is certainly not usable for the average person in it's current state, hence why I suggest donating to it to help with developing it.
With proper funding and full-time devs, it would be able to focus on adding proper support to more phones, or potentially partner with a manufacturer like GrapheneOS just did with Motorola to get first-class support on a smaller handful of devices.
Postmarket is our only long-term mobile option that will remain FLOSS and in the users best interest, we just have to support it and help build it up into something we can all use :)
I have donated and even used it. On said old phones, it works decently well.
The issue is the hardware support, since most people won't want a near decade old phone who's battery you probably need to replace but can't do so easily.
Feels like they need to rally behind a more modern phone and polish that to get people to actually try it rather than fractured development. The Fairphone 4, which they already have a stable release on, would be a good candidate.
Ah well, I'll still keep up my donations anyway. Just feels like they could have more focused leadership, similar to the Linux Kernel.
I also recommend (if you're in Europe) petitioning government bodies to help fund them as well.
What’s the pitch here? Initial impression is that it makes the ecosystem fragmented, as now (along with Ubuntu Touch), people have at least 3 different projects to fund. There needs to be a core standard that unifies the efforts and funding.
The issue with Ubuntu Touch is that unfortunately it's not a genuine alternative to Android, as it actually relies on Android quite a lot to function as well as it does.
It generally uses an outdated Android kernel (which is also usually not receiving security updates) and a Halium abstraction layer to access the closed source binary blob Android drivers for the phone's hardware. It also requires that it be installed on top of an existing Android install, so in all it's more of Linuxified layer on top of Android, which means it's not truly escaping the control of the Android/Google ecosystem.
PostmarketOS and Mobian are genuinely Mobile focused Linux distros that run the mainline up-to-date Linux kernel, right on the bare metal, meaning they are not subject to any influence from Google.
Both projects often collaborate and benefit from each other, they just use a different base distro (Alpine for PostmarketOS, Debian for Mobian), but that doesn't result in any wasted effort, as ultimately any new developments, drivers, or new phone support are mainlined into the kernel itself, so both projects benefit.
They're not as usable as Ubuntu Touch is right now, but they are ultimately the better solutions long-term to ensure that all the code is under community control so we aren't reliant on outdated unsecure Android components.
Very interesting and informative, thanks for explaining. My understanding was that UT just conveniently copied/reused some hardware interfacing components from Android, since Android uses a Linux kernel too and why reinvent the wheel, especially with the plethora of phone manufacturers available, which you really don’t want to do again. But I didn’t know about it using Android kernel, or needing an existing Android install, which sound indeed problematic.
I still think that it is important to standarize a canonical Linux core, or something like that, that can unify more development efforts, or if not needed, at least a marketing presence to raise funds. E.g politicians usually don’t understand a word of tech, and you’d need something like “The open source interoperable alternative to Android and iOS” to be appealing instead of coming with Alpine, Debian, etc. which will sound just geeky and fringe and it will be confusing which to fund and why, and subsequently none will get any substantial funding.
I still think that it is important to standarize a canonical Linux core
If you're not aware, Ubuntu Touch is no longer operated or developed by Canonical, they abandoned the project in 2017. UT was then picked up by UBPorts, a community effort to keep alive what Canonical left behind.
Personally, I don't have a very high opinion of Canonical due to their use of CLAs, which also appear to be present in some fashion with UT and UBPorts as well:
I agree that some standardization would likely be beneficial in some areas (such as focusing on a single Phone UI and polishing it up). PostmarketOS is making the most progress on getting real Linux on mobile, so if I had to pick one project to support monetarily, and one that could become mainstream, or partner with a manufacturer like GrapheneOS did with Motorola, I think that would be the project to back, IMHO.
I mean canonical the word, not company? name.
And ok, interesting to know that PostmarketOS might be what’s closest to that.
Oh, right. Sorry, easy to confuse the meaning in this particular case 😅
No problem 😊 thanks again for explaining.
It's not just a tech issue. Funding tech dev is great, but there is a political problem.
We need to vote for politicians who get the need for competition and will fight vendor lockin. Who will ensure things that are needed to do stuff isn't done only for the duopoly.
We need to support groups fighting bad politicians and getting into media to inform normal people. Who make legal fights. EFF, OpenRghtGroup, etc.
Kinda unrelated but I do have a PinePhone a mate gave me a while back; no matter what OS you use on it it's sooo slow. Weirdly, the Android port actually seemed the most usable...
Now, I realise that the PinePhone isn't exactly a phone you're meant to daily drive, but even then the performance is terrrible.
I am seriously considering going to a Linux phone at some point in the future because what's to stop Google from deciding that we can't install apps even on AOSP? Like sure, for now it's only going to be devices with Google Play services that won't allow you to install your own apps, but who's to say Android 19 won't be released and completely kill the ability to install apps outside of the Play Store?
I have a OnePlus Nord N10 5G I picked up to play with Ubuntu Touch.
Now that VoLTE works I can actually make and receive calls which makes it nearly usable.
I wish RCS could work but that may be out of their hands. Group texts (MMS) don't work either unfortunately.
It's close to usable but still not ready for me personally.
I did contribute to Ubuntu Touch though by adding Colemak keyboard layout support and they accepted my pull request :D
RCS has no documentation on how to be implemented... Thank you for the contribution btw
Cool! I've got the N100, and experience is similar. I'm trying to build up some motivation to use it daily for a while.
Good on you for the development work, and congrats on you accepted pull!
Nice. Similar, I got the N100 off the bay to give a try. VoLTE now works good in USA with Tello /Tmobile, at least in my area, that was certainly a show stopper for some time, huge win!
Got OpenVPN working, uWolf runnng my NextDNS so can filter/watch the logs, MMS has some issues (only works with wifi disabled, but I think they have a fix coming), no RCS as you mention.
As you say, not quite there, but good progress overall. Hope for continued progress, and love to see the many more posts on it than ever before!
Using a privacy focused Android phone project for now, but long term the real answer is Linux or some other new project to tear away completely from Bigtechs dependency & stranglehold. Thanks for your adding development to the cause!
Promising
He says it’s Fairphone 4 on the video.
Yeah, my brain dumb. Edited the original post to say 4.
As soon as my phone dies, i will jump into a linux phone
It's time, y'all!
