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Comment by fractallyte | Hacker News Reader

By far the best mobile OS, way better than iOS or Android (simpler and more consistent).

The biggest obstacle to greater adoption is the lack of availability outside of the EU; of course, this is easy to work around...

It has a 'killer feature': Android App Support (https://jolla.com/appsupport), which enables a SFOS device to run Android apps in a sandbox.

I would also love to see a carefully engineered photo app...

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Na thanks no closed source "near scam" OS/Company for me.

Well, I think you ought to write more than that... Enlighten us!

I think he's talking about how they(?) market it as open alternative to Android but most of the UI and apps were proprietary.

Some people also don't like it that they had some deal with the Russian Government.

If BSDobelix had done some basic research, this would have turned up:

"In 2024, to escape Russia's investors due to the Ukrainian war, the Jolla initial company filed for bankruptcy, continuing its activity under the JollyBoys name." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolla)

Quite a gutsy move, in my opinion, and as far away from "near scam" as can be.

I have nothing written about Russia nor Ukraine, but closed source software and the promised "pre-order" jolla tablet.

However it's interesting that a Finnish company files bankruptcy and had that much investors from Russia, so thanks for a additional point....and that name JollyBoy...

See https://jolla.com/content/uploads/2023/11/Former_leadership_...

AFAIK russian military uses the devices during the war and moreover, they are designed and approved by the russian government. I saw a few devices from https://auroraos.ru/ . https://www.tadviser.ru/index.php/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D... - here is more history

Seems like it was just renamed https://tietopalvelu.ytj.fi/?companyName=Jollyboys&isCompany...

OK, I misunderstood - apologies! You're right about the tablet; I'd forgotten about that...

Kinda of a slow move. The war's second phase started in 2022.

I am skeptical too, but the company is Finnish. Anybody know more about them?

Edit: looks like a non-free OS indeed. The developer tools just seem to include an SDK. It's a pass for me.

fwiw I was working at Nokia R&D when Elop trojan horsed us, Jolla (and sailfishOS) was the result of people making MeeGO jumping ship.

I don’t know if it’s the same now, because 12 years or more of fighting the duopoly with no cash to speak of in comparison must have meant selling your soul somewhat, but I doubt it’s the intent to do anything shady.

Android (in popular use) tends to have a lot of closed source bits, though I agree that it should be entirely open source. I would guess that not having it straight FOSS is more a function of financials and headcount to be good stewards than it is of ill-intent.

For those curious, it's a continuation from where Nokia left with their Linux efforts, that's the roots in a nutshell. They did ship a smartphone with their own hardware in 2013. I still have it in my drawer.

Definitely ambitious, and an achievement, for a small company tackle OS, hardware, dev experience, everything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolla_%28smartphone%29

I had a Nokia N9, their second attempt at Meego/Maemo, to this date it's the weirdest consumer device I've ever owned. The device shipped with a front camera but it was not accessible through any default app. The closest I got to it working was a mirror app someone made in a Hackathon.

Issues aside it was a beautifully designed device, you could see real innovation. Unfortunately Nokia killed it before it even shipped.

I had N9 too. Probably my favourite phone of all times, I even published an app for it despite knowing it's a dead end platform.

I think I was expecting Jolla to be a close N9 successor, but I couldn't get over their UI/UX style and switched to Android soon after.

I had a Blackberry Z10 after the N9. Even though they were very different in their goals, it felt very much like a spiritual successor. BB OS10 dying as soon as it did really hits me to this date.

What's the significance of the company being Finnish?

* From the home of the prior market leaders in mobile phones;

* Presumably contains many former engineers from that company;

* From a free democratic EU state, not somewhere untraceable and not governed by Western laws;

* As a European product enjoys more legal privacy protection and security than either American or many Asian vendors.

Those are the ones that spring to mind.

* Not a yolo VC-backed project from Silicon Valley that becomes abandonware two years later.

:-) That too!

Is there any reason it would not work in the USA, assuming an unlocked compatible phone?

Assuming a compatible phone and a compatible carrier (AFAIK AT&T and Verizon both still operate white lists), no there's nothing stopping you. There are/were US users who bought Sailfish over VPN. But for official hardware at least, "compatible phone" is the sticking point. The last phone with a North American variant was the Sony XA2 from early 2018. Today it's a brick because Jolla never gave it VoLTE support.

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