this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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How many of you run a Linux phone (Pine64, Librem etc) as your daily driver? (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I was going through Pine64's page again after I found the latest KDE announcement. With that said, I seem to see a lot of issues with firmware on the Pine, whilst the Librem is just plain out of budget for me. Was interested in how many people here run a Linux mobile as a daily driver, and how has your experience been?

I'm considering purchasing the Pine but I'd like a better screen, more RAM and a better CPU. Don't know if I should wait for a new model to be released (are they even planning to do that? Is the company active?). I will only really use it to browse the Web, and might even look to desolder a couple of parts that I know I won't use.

Thanks.

Edit: I am willing to watch content and use banking apps from the browser. Do you think it'll be fit for me?

Edit 2: overall, I am much saddened about the state of affairs regarding private computing on the go. I desperately hope that Linux on mobile takes off, even though its incubation looks disheartening at the moment. Thank you everyone for your comments.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I think so, too. It doesn't have to be this way. I mean this is mainly due to the way ARM hardware works, lack of good drivers, maintenance and dedication by the manufacturers of that hardware. And everything is quite fragmented. In theory we could have a hardware platform that has good open-source drivers and is well-supported. The Pinephone was an attempt to establish one platform that people could focus on. But it has quite some limitations and also hardware/design issues.

And Linux isn't quite there yet. I mean I love Linux and it can run on embedded devices very well. But things like connected standby (for example receiving chat messages while the hardware sleeps and saves power) just isn't implemented in a desktop environment that was made for computers. And also not in a chat application that was made for computers. So, set aside the hardware and driver issues, we have another issue with Linux software that wasn't made to run on smartphones.

There is a way around that and that is to add those capabilities to the Linux kernel. And also give applications means to stay connected in the background, adapt to different screen sizes, rotate the screen and evict themselves from RAM. It's kind of what Android is. It builds upon the Linux kernel and adds lots of stuff that is specifically useful on smartphones.

I hope someday some of those techniques get adopted into the mainline Linux kernel and also the frameworks the desktop software uses.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I hope so too. I wouldn't be as mad if Android was open and we could put it on different devices, but we can't. Manufacturers lock their devices in so many ways.

Thanks for your great reply

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Thank you. I completely agree. We can't do stuff ourselves, my Pixel 4a is End of Life now and all the proprietary parts of the system won't be updated anymore, which is a shame because the hardware is still perfectly fine.

And I hate the business decisions Google makes. Android is built upon Linux and the core is supposed to be free software. But then they move more and more stuff into their proprietary Google services packages. Like the proper keyboard with swipe typing, the better calendar app, text to speech, push notifications and all of the payment stuff. I personally replaced everything on the phone with a custom ROM, and did not install the google services. But I had to find alternatives to all of that and some things really don't work as well. It's a hassle and some things just don't work at all. Like some stuff that requires in-app payment. I don't care too much, because I get most of my Apps from F-Droid anyways and they're open-source. But I can't pay with my phone in the supermarket, can't rent those silly electric scooters and a few other things.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I tend to use my credit card for most of my purchases, online or in-person. In doing so, I haven't come across the problem of payments you describe, although I'm unaware if the apps I use utilise Google's API in the back-end to do this (for example, does the Amazon app use some Android API to process my payment using a credit card?).

I think I'd be fine without most Google apps except for Maps, where OpenStreetMap has not served me well so fat (unfortunate, since I would like to use it but it is not as reliable in my experience). I can do my banking in the browser, and consume my video content (YouTube/Peertube/LBRY) in the browser anyway.

I'm going to revisit the Murena mobiles again, and I'll reiterate how disappointed I am that the FP5 is not available in the US. At this point, I'll pin my hopes on KernelSU for the next few years (hoping I don't have to compile my own kernel, I'd like to get a cheap device running the 5.10 kernel or those after it), but consumer devices don't have hardware killswitches or privacy features or replaceable parts either (and iFixit doesn't cover every device).

This was a long comment, and I appreciate this discourse with you. Thanks again.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I'm always happy to talk to people ;-)

Yeah, paying with credit card also works for me. And I use the browser a lot for stuff like that. Just the added layers in the apps sometimes don't work. Like when I tried riding one of those electric scooters. I was able to put in my credit card details and they got accepted, and I know my phone is capable of doing NFC, but somehow there is something else in that app that prevents me from doing the actual transaction and rent the scooter. Online-shopping and things like that work fine. I don't need an App to use Amazon or PayPal... So I wouldn't know either.

Thx. I'm going to look up the de-googled phones you mentioned. I think I will try to use my Pixel as long as it works, but in theory it isn't supported anymore and I'm supposed to buy a new one now. At least that's what Google and GrapheneOS tell me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I'm holding out hope for KernelSU, in which case I won't need to care about custom ROMs and things like safetyNET either. A root from kernel-space + a custom launcher and I won't miss OEM android at all. The only thing I haven't figured out is patch management, but I'll leave that to people more intelligent than me

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The problem is not Android. It is as open as any other Linux distribution. The problem is that manufacturers make the drivers for their hardware proprietary.