Ask HN: Why are there not a lot of hobby/professional Linux phones? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why are there not a lot of hobby/professional Linux phones?

8 pointsp2hari10 comments

I have no much knowledge about hardware and hence this question.

Even after so many iterations of Raspberry Pi and other SBCs, why is it hard to have a hobby/proffesional linux phone.

There is so much innovation on Mechanical Keyboards with 3d printing and stuff and I know there are not same, but why cannot we just add one interactive screen, power supply and bluetooth module and make some phones. What are the limitations here? Why cannot companies build something interesting when we are sure there is market and interest?

Does software also play a role? But Linux eco-system is much larger and there are so many supporting software.

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In sane world (ie outside of USA) it is just "apt install ofono - Mobile telephony stack".

Never tried, but I assume if your Laptop has a SIM-slot it just works.

What does the USA have to do with anything? My bargain bin LTE modules from China work fine on both Tmo and Att.

Ofono is a zombie that only recently saw life breathed back into it. By and large it doesn't work for modern phone purposes beyond data and simple SMS.

MMS and VoLTE are both extraordinarily painful with ofono.

Money. Linux allows the user to control their device - not great for companies that make megabucks selling telemetry.

Carriers have a lot of say over what they let attach to their network. I head that Windows Phone was discontinued because US carriers said No to it.

ok, never thought from this angle. But from a hobby perspective also I don't see much efforts from opensource community or youtube diy videos.

Fair point.

Perhaps an answer (not saying it is the answer) is for more effort on Linux PDAs?

I used Psion PDAs extensively in the 1980s & 1990s. I had an Organizer IILZ, a Series 3, Series 3A, 5, 5MX... then I switched to smartphones.

Look 'em up. Radically different machines. All state of the art in their time. Nothing really like them exists today.

(Yes, I do know about the DevTerm. It's a bit toylike for me. Skimps on necessary features, like a full-size keyboard; but adds bloat, like a hires colour screen and pointing device and X.11.)

Organizer series: SH3 CPU, alphabetic (not QWERTY) keyboard, integral case, very tough.

S3: the successful offshoot of the flopped MC laptops. Pocketable clamshells, 8086 CPU, multitasking GUI OS, typable QWERTY keyboard, ran for months on 2xAAs. Expandable proprietary storage.

S5: laptop-grade keyboard, touchscreen, ARM based with multitasking GUI OS (later became Symbian, now FOSS.) Still ran for months on 2xAAs. CF cards for storage.

Also in the same general category: Cambridge Computers Z88, Amstrad NC100/150/200.

A4, no hinge, letterbox mono screen. Ran for days on 4 batteries. Silent typing. Full-sized keyboard, portable, silent and 100% solid-state when laptops were huge, expensive, slow and fragile.

Multitasking OSes and many megs of RAM, on a Z80 CPU. 8-bit, but with a very basic GUI, end-user programmable in BBC BASIC. Expandable storage.

These things should be possible today for say 25% of the cost of the cheapest possible Chromebook. Text-only GUI, no need for X.11 or Wayland or a pointing device. Underclock the CPU of a RasPi Zero or something for maximal battery life. Perhaps a good use for RISC-V.

Maybe use an e-ink display. Make them very robust, with no moving parts, silent keyboards, maybe even waterproof. Ideal educational tools for kids.

If phone network connectivity is a problem, don't do it. Make something cheaper and simpler than a tablet, with a hardware keyboard, that can be used away from mains power or the Internet for days not hours, and that runs a FOSS OS. Maybe make it powerful enough to run DOS apps under emulation: there are hundreds of legal freeware DOS apps out there for every function.

People are enjoying running CP/M again on things like the NC200: https://www.z80cpu.eu/mirrors/www.dcast.vbox.co.uk/zcn.html

And on VGA32 devices: https://www.instructables.com/Retro-CPM-Stand-Alone-Emulator... https://lehwalder.wordpress.com/2021/04/28/getting-runcpm-v5...

But CP/M is very limited and it's not technically fully FOSS. https://github.com/davidgiven/cpmish

DOS is. https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dis...

There are loads of rich, powerful apps. https://clasqm.github.io/freedos-repo/Productivity.html

why? can’t you just get a modem and buy a sim card and connect? why can they control what OS you run or what hardware your phone uses?

You can.

Carriers killed windows phones not by blocking them, but simply by not selling them. At the time, you bought your phone branded from the carrier by default, with only the adventurous buying 3rd party devices.

Pretty much any LTE module with the supported bands will get you on network.

Nokia tried with Maemo but the product kind of sucked.

because people want apps and app stores

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