The limitation of linux phones is hardware. I have been watching the progress of postmarketOS on the fairphone 4, and looks promising.
Besides having terrible battery life and security, it's just a hobby thing. Android has had millions of dev hours poured into it to be what it is.
Free software ultimately has time on its side. As long as a project has enough mindshare to keep its momentum, it really is unstoppable in the long run.
Where Linux shines is the absolute for-profit cloud/server world.
Open source has places where it works really nice, bazaar is better at "wider" stuff (having an active community, etc), while cathedral is more deeper/better at vertical integration, etc.
Sent from my Librem 5.
So practically I cannot use it as a daily driver.
Librem 5 does have enough GPU horsepower, a functioning camera, and good pmOS support. But $800 is a lot to ask to test out switching to linux with no guarantee that my workflow will work or I will have enough battery life. It looks like the librem 5 can't record videos or do GPS navigation yet.
I am looking at the librem 5 specs again. The EG25-G is probably a better starting point for the modem now that it has been better documented and reverse engineered as a result of the pinephone project. It is interesting that the L5 has a generic smartcard reader though.
Commercial phones' costs also include the data value they continuously steal.
> It looks like the librem 5 can't record videos
It can: https://social.librem.one/@dos/115893142828953827
> or do GPS navigation yet
Yes, it can: https://forums.puri.sm/t/is-gps-supposed-to-work/21147/76
> or I will have enough battery life
Fortunately, you can replace the battery on the go. But yes, if you make no compromises, you will never win a tiny bit of freedom.