I want to switch from android phone to linux and i want to know which phone is closest to daily driver. I only need call sms and bluetooth to work and battery should last 1 day. also working map camera and web browser app would be great. for os i have thinked to use ubuntu touch or postmarket os. Phones what i have most interested Volla phone Pixel 3a Fairphone 4 Pinephone or pinephone pro Any thoughts or ideas
I can’t give you any useful advice on the phone/os, but I really think you should keep an old or cheap android phone as a backup. You never know when you are going to absolutely need some app, that is unfortunately only available on mainstream phones (android or iOS).
Maybe you can answer one for me, too. I’m not a coder or really great with computers. I use Linux because of the philosophy behind it/political reasons, and because I really love the look and feel of Gnome, and it has just about everything I need. I dual boot Windows in case my college has some program I absolutely have to have, and I’m too dumb to figure out virtual machines and wine.
Do you think Linux phones are ever going to be a viable option for someone like me? I use my phone for browsing Lemmy, gps, streaming/YouTube, audiobooks, et cetera. I don’t have a lot of niche use cases, but I also don’t have a lot of understanding on how to do certain things myself. I can use a terminal if I can copy/paste or have a guide.
A postmarketOS ready phone should do it. On your Linux PC you install pmbootstrap and follow the guides. Its easier than flashing android ROMs. A combination of phosh, fde and f2fs gave a secure and rock solid linux phone with the experience of near all apps known from gnome desktop.
I would advice op the same btw. but I don’t know how good every phone is supported. I use a pinephone.
Currently those phones are meant for advanced GNU/Linux users and tinkerers. So you will have to learn some things or maybe ask other people for help from time to time. It might be hard and there is no guarantee that it will work for you. But if you have the patience, you could give it a try. Check out my short PinePhone review and this thread.
https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices
I think OnePlus 6/6T and Pocophone F1 are currently the best supported Android devices, for both Mobian and PostmarketOS.
PinePhone, PinePhone Pro and Librem 5 should have the best GNU/Linux or postmarketOS support, but their SoCs are not be as fast and energy efficient as other modern phones. You can check my short PinePhone review and there is also some information in this thread. PinePhone’s battery will last a day only if you don’t use the phone much.
for os i have thinked to use ubuntu touch or postmarket os
Note that postmarketOS is not GNU/Linux, since it’s based on Alpine and Ubuntu Touch is GNU/Android or something like that, since it uses the Android kernel. The most popular GNU/Linux distros are Mobian and Manjaro.
Librem 5
URGENT WARNING: Purism, the company manufacturing Librem 5, is a company you should avoid. There is a non-zero chance you will give your money away, and receive nothing. https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=-IjUryQOlgk
Carry on.
To be fair those were preorders and I’m pretty sure everyone did get their phone eventually. It just took a really long time. At least they don’t make proprietary software like Louis Rossmann and unlike Pine64, they contribute a lot to the software development. They’ve created Phosh and still develop it, so it would be a shame if this company didn’t exist.
I’m pretty sure everyone did get their phone eventually.
Please update to say, they will get their phone. Eventually.
This FAQ was posted August 29th of 2023: https://puri.sm/faq/can-i-get-a-refund-on-my-librem-5-order/ There is no yes or no. Why? Because their answer is a roundabout, “Why we won’t refund your money.”
To be clear. Purism took people’s money starting in 2017, failed to deliver 2 years later, and is currently stringing people along. This has been going on for 5 YEARS. Do yourself a kindness and avoid this company like you would thieves, as there are still many cases of people spending $2.5k on a laptop, and not getting a refund as recent as 30 days ago.
I daily drive PinePhone Pro with the Pine keyboard to extend battery life. The experience is far from Android, but it’s usable.
What distro do you use? Is there anything that doesn’t work/works awfully? I understand the camera used to be a problem but dunno if that’s still the case
I use Arch Linux ARM (with Danct repos).
Camera works and sometimes broken after suspend, but I don’t use it. Audio on calls sometimes buggy. But megi resolved call issues, I updated today. Battery life is poor unless you use a keyboard. Battery indicator displays combined percentage which isn’t ideal.
Sounds good. I use my phone camera a lot so that’s a slight dealbreaker for me but could probably live with the rest. Super interesting to see how it’s improving all the time!
Xperia 10 III with Sailfish OS.