RE: https://mastodon.social/@janvlug/116504044251287290

To sum it up: If you want a freedom phone you‘ll either get a kind-of degoogled Android phone or low-end years old hardware for Linux mainline or Ubuntu Touch or Sailfish OS (or Postmarket OS) phones that are based on Android tech and drivers as well.
So: If you want current hardware use Android (and be caught by Google in September) or use a feature phone.

#linux #mobile #linMob

Best compromise seems to be the Volla and Morena approach: Distribute Android tech and try to ungoogle it in a way you‘ll have a working mobile in the end. There‘s a really good and huge FOSS app community shipping via @fdroidorg, but seems their life will get hard starting with September.
#foss #linMob

@lazarus

My personal preference is hardware from a company that is committed to #FreeSoftware, and that invests in both hardware and software.

Also, keep in mind that the hardware might be older, but the Linux operating system for phones is often way longer supported than the short term support of Android.

If you use de-googled stuff, you keep kind of dependent on Google and Android hardware. Therefore I have a strong preference for #MobileLinux.

@fdroidorg

@janvlug @fdroidorg Yes, but let‘s be serious: There is no Linux mobile hardware. Librem 5 and Pinephone both are years old and distributions are missing serious applications. I absolutely support their ambitions ans development, but I don‘t see a working state anywhere close. Maybe state of hardware is even worse than software..

@lazarus @janvlug @fdroidorg People keep repeating that, and yet I'm using one and it feels perfectly fine now in 2026 and all the apps I need work on it. I understand that some people may have needs that aren't answered by these, but I think it may be tad exaggerated in all these discussions.

@dos @janvlug Thank you for your work and your reply. You're absolutely right, I'd be able to use one (as long as phone calls work), I am even able to work using an iBook from 2004 or even pen and paper and so on. My point is: It won't work for enough people that currently are used to get cheap hardware for everyday tasks at any corner around the street.

@dos @janvlug Or from the developer's perspective: Why develop for a platform that has got no possibilities for developing and selling devices in terms of reasonable numbers and prices. Economically this is a high bet on a situation that is unlikely to work out. Volla and Murena are the companies closest to getting a reasonable supply, and still there problems enough to solve.

@lazarus @janvlug And yet people do develop, just like they did decades ago when GNU/Linux had much lower usage on PCs than it does today. Settling on what Volla or Murena do is like deciding that there's no need to bother switching from Windows cause having WSL around is enough. Yes, it can be useful when you need it, but there are many challenges we're facing as a society that this does not answer at all.

@dos @janvlug I totally agree with you. But to me this only can be improved by hardware manufacturers that dare to ship effordable mainline devices.
I‘m talking about a project like Mirari for MorphOS or MNT Reform for Linux.
If noone besides Pine64 does I‘m developing for a ghost platform (and I‘m a very idealistic guy, you know).

@lazarus @janvlug I don't get what you're trying to say at all. MNT Reform is about as affordable as Librem 5 is (and that's perfectly fine, hardware can't be copied out of thin air; economics of scale only help you *after* you gain that scale).

@dos @janvlug I mean there‘s real and current community hardware development (besides that big mass market). Librem 5 is 7 years old now. All current „Linux“ phones are Android based ones. That‘s good actually, because they are affordable that way. But that‘s the way it is.

@lazarus @janvlug That's some arbitrary measure skewed by people used to phones that are only supported for some laughably short times. Librem 5 is a still supported and available device from 2020. It's slowly starting to show its age so I'm looking forward for a viable successor eventually appearing, but it's not like there's a desperate need to have one there yesterday already.

@dos @janvlug Thank you for your replies. See, I just think there is. Within that time we would have needed a new, working, affordable device to put trust into developing for that platform. That‘s it.

@lazarus @janvlug Maybe it's just that I see a bigger picture. I've been using GNU/Linux phones as my main devices for nearly two decades now, it sometimes took a while but a successor always eventually came and significantly improved on what was there before.

Sure, having more available options would be good, but if we all just wait until they're plentiful it's just never going to happen.

@dos @janvlug Hm. It's not about waiting for others for me. I'm more concerned about general investment: If I start developing anything useful now, will my family or my employer be able to use it on a daily basis within 5 years? Looking at the last 5 years, I'd say probably not. That makes it hard for me to start anything by now.

@lazarus @janvlug Well, that's where we differ in our judgement. Your stance may have made sense 20 years ago, but now the answer is "very likely, yes", especially that these days there's no real separation between desktop and mobile platform anymore.

@dos @janvlug Yes, of course they do. But you'll need to accept that my stance makes sense for me. First, there'd need to be a different device. Second I'm using Desktop Linux for my professional life on a daily basis. F.e. I'm using Evolution (or Thunderbird) on a daily basis, but those GNOME apps supporting mobile layouts can't compete. Ok, maybe they could within 5 years. But it still is a lot of work, I don't expect it to happen. And: Who's going to build that device that's there in 5 years?