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Comment by kilroy123 | Hacker News Reader

We desperately need a true linux phone. No, not the damn pinephone which is not ready to be your moms daily driver phone.

I'm talking one that actually works and is on par with linux desktops.

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What we desperately need is for the tech giants and their mono/duopolies to be broken up, or for regulators to force them to make changes to their business in ways that allow for actual competition.

When that happens, the world might have more choices than just Google and Apple for smartphones, or Microsoft and Apple for desktop/laptops.

Let's face it, that is not going to happen. I can barely get bluetooth audio to work on my desktop, a truly functional purely linux ecosystem for phones that my mom can use is at least a decade away (if possible at all).

It's clear that the more traditional "Linux" operating systems on the PinePhone/Librem are just not mature, but what about a PinePhone/Librem loaded with stock AOSP and F-Droid, no GApps.

Lots of stuff just won't be available but that's going to be true no matter what non-Apple/Google platform you went to. Outside of that though, it should generally provide a fairly user-friendly experience.

If the state of Linux on desktops is anything to go by, Linux on smartphones will never be a success story either. I frequently regret buying a ThinkPad with AMD CPU/GPU after listening to the propaganda about open source GPU drivers. My laptop was basically a paperweight for a month until I downgraded linux-firmware package. No one wants to deal with this shit.

> No one wants to deal with this shit.

YMMV but I do. That kind of hassle is the tax that I’m perfectly willing to pay for having FOSS stuff.

Let’s celebrate that we have options.

Curious, which ThinkPad was this? I got a T14s with AMD last year and it is one of best laptops I've used till date, and works with Linux out of the box, incl graphics, networking, USB-C docks etc.

The ThinkPad model doesn't really matter because all of them would use the same AMDGPU driver and firmware assuming it has AMD hardware.

If you're interested, here's a thread about the issue me and several other people have been facing.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=266358

The issue has been "fixed" for now by downgrading to the March 2021 release of Linux Firmware for most people. Of course, this isn't really a fix.

I still remember rooting for the Ubuntu Edge phone and watching it fail and get cancelled.

The issue here is that "we" are not many people.

https://techmonitor.ai/techonology/software/why-did-the-ubun...

Linux desktops got to where they are by people using and contributing to “damn window managers that your mom can’t daily drive.”

After decades Linux still hasn't penetrated the PC desktop. Not holding my breath for a viable mobile ecosystem.

I’d prefer a libre phone that barely works than any of the other bullets.

I'm assuming that's what you use then? What kind of phone is it?

Waiting for my Librem 5, ordered a few weeks ago. If all goes well, I’ll have it next spring.

Interesting. I didn't know much about it other than having heard the name until I just looked it up. The idea of physical kill switches is pretty cool. My only question is, given that the OS isn't based on Android, does it basically not have any apps? The website mentions that it sort of turns HTML 5 apps in to some sort of native-like app by downloading it and sandboxing it. Is that the only sort of apps that are available for it? Or do you install full Linux applications on it? The website doesn't make it super clear.

My (limited) understanding is: the Librem phone has a very limited number of apps. The vendor tackles existing GTK (?) apps and tries to make them work with touch. But it seems to do so on a best-effort basis so nothing is guaranteed.

I acknowledge that Purism is a small company and that it can only do so much. In case it fails, my gamble is that enough people are going to contribute and keep the most important apps working.

I’ve found a list of apps here: https://linmobapps.frama.io/

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