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Comment by gcb0 | Hacker News Reader

wake me up when there is a phone that runs proper linux. with decent drivers.

if anyone told you that you would be using your own computer in "kiosk" mode with a root password you don't have, you would be laughing your ass off. but here we are, all using the 90s equivalent of a library computer.

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Thanks for being the only person in this thread that understands the real root problem. Proprietary drivers are the only reason phones don't get software updates forever from the open-source community the way the P4 you've forgotten in a closet someplace does.

Cautiously optimistic about this dual boot Android/Linux device:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-linux-...

Ubuntu tried that, and it was a complete flop

No, Ubuntu's phone efforts refused to take a stance of promising open-source drivers (because they didn't care about solving this problem for their users, they just wanted to be a phone OEM). Whether the kernel has the Android patches or not isn't the important factor; it's whether the device drivers (kernel and userspace) can be maintained by the community.

I would hazard to say Ubuntu didn't try it, they just looked like they were going to try it, but never did. Releasing only a handful of phones, not making a fully functional 1.0 release isn't trying, it's just testing the waters.

I bought an Ubunutu phone. It had potential but it was too late to the game. It didn't get any developer momentum behind it, so it was lacking in apps, while Android got way better in the year and a half that I owned one.

I kind of agree. The Ubuntu phone was the first phone I've had that I didn't hate. That being said, it wasn't ever stable enough to get developers behind it, so it didn't have very many apps.

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