Re: [gentoo-user] any one using ubuntu phones?

[Frank Steinmetzger]

On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 09:42:58PM +0100, john wrote:

> behrouz khosravi <bz.khosravi@×××××.com> wrote:
>
> > > If you build/install Android on a device, then it only contains what
> > > you put there, and you can just as easily remove it.  If you let
> > > somebody else build/install android on a device and not give you
> > > root access, then it is painful.
> > > […]
> > > Your problem isn't with Android the OS.  Your problem is with the
> > > experience your phone vendor is giving you.  All that lockdown stuff
> > > that you seem to hate is 100% supported by the Linux kernel - you're
> > > just not turning it on with a typical distro install.
> > > […]
> > > For a mobile OS your life is made even more difficult by Android,
> > > since many who would tend to write a competing OS probably consider
> > > it good enough.
> > >
> > > I'm really not interested in yet another android so much as more
> > > open hardware to run android on.  Vendors are getting better about
> > > allowing unlocking, but driver support/etc is still a mess.
> > >
> > > Oh, and I don't like the general move of APIs into Google Play
> > > Services.  That really needs to be split into two applications.
> > > […]
> >
> > I know what you mean. This is all more or less true, but what can we do
> > in this situation? I will try to move toward whatever promotes openness,
> > and please do not tell me that ubuntu is not more open that android. In
> > android I cant even have pure native apps! some parts of an application
> > should always be in java.
>
> Jolla do a phone which is Linux based. No idea if this would suit your
> needs but may be worth a look. It's GUI is good and it uses Wayland.
> Not sure how open it is!

I second Jolla.
FWIW, I consider buying one myself if and when my current Android¹ finally
kicks the bucket. As far as I already know about its Sailfish OS: you can
install native (processor native, not bytecode native, i.e. C) programs via
RPM package management and it runs pulse audio underneath, as one example of
standard linux software.
It does not have high-power hardware like high-end androids, but similar to
Crapple devices – thanks to the OS *and* userspace running natively – its
medium-range hardware is more than andequate to run everything smoothly.

And if you *do* need Android software (like I would with Osmand), you can
actually run it on Jolla, too, including stores like F-Droid.

What still holds me off a little is that – in my view – 4½″ is already too
big for a really mobile device. I’d consider around 4″ to be the maximum to
comfortably fit in any pocket. But in the end, I see hardly any alternative
(for me of course). Plus my money stays on the continent. ;-Þ


¹ A cheap Huawei from early 2013, 3.5″, running CyanogenMod with Android
4.2. It has a puny single-core and is specced at the low end, but it still
runs and suits my needs.

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