A notable mention is https://ubports.com/en/ which is different from postmarketos in a sense that ubports uses old kernels with heavy patches. That means: good support for things, but difficult future.
PostmarketOS uses the newest kernels and tries to integrate their patches into mainline kernel, so that the reliability is maintained with all kernel developers.
I can’t wait for Linux phones to be stable enough for a daily driver.
2026 will be the year of the linux phone
Please stop. I can’t get my dick back into my trousers.
that has been said since before the nokia n600. lol
And we’ll keep saying it until we get there.
Likewise, brother. But at the current rate, we are still a few years away. :-(
They are already. My Redmi Note 7 runs Droidian perfectly.
Can Linux mobile OSs install apk apps?
Yeah
The FuriPhone, which runs the FuriOS Linux distribution (based on Debian), has a polished enough user experience that it can be used as a daily driver by many people.
give me ANYTHING that’s open-source and not tied to google or apple. i don’t care if it’s shit. i’m old. i just need a phone and maybe some pics and browsing.
GrapheneOS is an open-source Android fork lots of people like, it’s what I’m planning on using once I get a new phone
While I’m a fan of GrapheneOS, I think it could still be considered “tied to Google” both due to it being based on Android, and also because it only runs on Google Pixel phones. Graphene focuses more on security, then on privacy, but not so much on reducing our dependency on Google’s software and/or hardware.
Yeah those are things on my mind too, especially since Google moved Android behind closed doors.
My understanding is that AOSP is still and will continue to be a thing. That’s Android. What Google has done though is put more and more new capabilities into Play Services, which are not open, rather than AOSP.
I hope someone will correct me or add better nuance though.
No. The latest changes by Google means all incremental work is now no longer visible to the public until a release is done. For most people and developers this shouldn’t make a difference.
As an example lets say I implemented features A, B and C and then did a release to v2. Before the changes you would see A get added, then B then C and then the release. With Google’s changes you will see nothing for a while and then all of a sudden see A, B, C and the v2 release all at once.
What reason, they are doing this?
In the current world when they are done with a release they have to reconcile their internal trunk (main branch) to the external trunk which is the one that everyone can see. This is because currently google do some development internally while other development is done on the public trunk. This reconciliation process can be annoying due to things like “merge conflicts” (ie. A disagreement between two versions of changes about what the final change should be). By doing all work on the internal trunk it should make this reconciliation process much simpler.
Phone functionality is the least of my problems, I need an open source replacement for Android Auto / Apple CarPlay.
Not sure how that would work, you’d either have to emulate it to talk to the infotainment system, or get all the infotainment producers to add an open source layer… Sounds like a nightmare either way.
We had the AUX jack but they axed it to sell earbuds.
I have heard that Apple removed the headphone jack to kill compatibility with those Square credit card readers.
just give us a headphone jack and removable storage and you’ll have a customer for life.
Can i play minecraft on it though? Ive got a horse ranch that I’d really like to continue
How do you tame a horse in Minecraft?
I need to know for… Reasons.
Just try mounting it, if you get bucked, try again.
Finally, my TV is unlocked!
Java is inherently cross platform, and works well on linux. So assuming the phone is powerful enough, you should be good to go even if it’s linux.
Definitely worth checking out Minetest/Luanti though, it has promise.
Government should make standards for banks to support different operating systems. Not particularly well known OS.
I am sorely tempted, but its unlikely my banking apps and very specific work 2fa app is anything but Apple and Android compatible. I am almost at the stage of getting a second phone for day to day, and keeping my old for specific apps
You should consider changing bank if they don’t provide a regular website with at least the same functions as their app.
Ah yes, so easy. Just change banks bro.
Sometimes I wonder if there are any acual adults using Linux. Lol
Actually, what is hard about changing banks? I give my bank info to as few entities as possible. And almost all of them would take a few clicks and possibly a few days to verify some tiny transaction and I would be done. Changing credit cards is far harder. But also. Why are you using the banks app on your phone. That phone is probably the least secure electronic you own. The attack surface on that thing is absolutely huge.
Have you considered that maybe not everyone is like you?
We are all unique, just like everyone else.
But it was a serious question actually. Probably doesn’t read that way though. I’m on the older side, so I might not know about what the kids are doing with thier bank accounts these days.
Be nice if Linux phones could be like how Samsung phones used to be before they started removing features to directly compete with Apple smartwatch markets. I don’t understand how competition=downgrades because they wanna stretch features out to sell more products than how it used to be when both companies were all about being the One Phone That Does it All. I can afford the one gadget, always have and always will, but especially now when everything is so expensive I can only ever afford the Samsung A-Series not their main marketed S line.
But, do you ever need anything more than a A series phone? Or just want?
Only way I’ll want a different phone brand is if it comes with ZERO bloatware and has an excellent internal memory/storage cleanse that has nothing to do with Google’s Files or a random app I’m not sure I can trust without paying or rooting. So far my A series phones do what I need mostly and in my opinion is superior to the Motorola’s my fiancé prefers minus the phone-phone charge ability his has, everything else I’m just glad I have enough control to tweak things to my liking, however these days Samsungs seem to be infested with Google bloatware and apps that insist on opening themselves back up regardless of the widespread battery restrictions I’ve assigned (even was sent a “Stop Closing my Apps” notif that sent me to an article 😂) short of Disabling many unnecessary apps bc fully rooting my devices is something I rarely do anymore. I have a random Chinese brand tablet where I actually have more control over the apps than either of my A series phones whee Force Stopping STAYS that way when I tell them to! I hate being listened to for ads and the unwanted draining my battery life and data (I live off-grid and pay data rates because “Unlimited” is some throttled BS) so my ability to control what’s going on in the background matters a lot to me, enough that I’m anti Meta-apps and avoid all non-essential Google apps. I can’t afford topline phones and the largest data plan, so I work with what I can afford and I’m sad refurbished A lines seem to be getting more expensive while giving away my control to companies. Last A line I bought that was supposed to be my first 5G phone was network locked, so I got ripped off, but it still serves me well in off-grid life.
Only app that actually regularly malfunctions when I Force Stop it’s background presence is Roku, which I find to have very an almost insidious presence in our lives. Google Play, Chrome, and Spotify never acts incompetent in any way no matter how I have to open the setting every single time I turn Airplane Mode off. Don’t need Gmail with Chrome and DuckDuckGo has been awesome at intercepting self-loading ads. I hope one day DDG gets better bc Google seems to be terrible lately and I even caught their AI contradicting itself when asking about if Homo Florensis is considered Human (yes) and then asked the oldest age of human remains, and was fed the outdated narrative of 300,000 years versus 700,000+ years bipedal pre-humans have been carbon dated outside of the Cradle of Humanity in South Africa. SO sorry to go off-topic, but I’ve got a big gripe with Samsung’s partnership with Google, especially considering the launch of Quantum Computed AI that is still being fine-tuned with company-approved censorships.
