I have been looking at Fairphone and Volla, and it feels like the Smartphone scene for Linux is going very strong right now.
Think of it like this: We got 3-4 end-user ready Ubports smartphones, made by IN Europe(Volla/Gigaset is), with recent hardware, swappable battery, very good service and repairability in various formats. You can even purchase Gigaset phones (commercial equivalents of Volla) in stores/Amazon for a very good price.
The immediate orbiters of Linux smartphones like Fxtec, Planet Computers and Jolla are also based here.
I think we reached the year of the Linux phones. Atleast it is not the niche it was in 2020. I wonder how usable ubports is. If you got any experience with these phpnes on ubports, feel free to share.
Are these true Linux phones? Or are we talking Android loader/drivers then launching a Linux session? So far the only two devices i know to be true Linux phones are the Pinephone and the Librem.
Jolla is the successor to Nokia’s Maemo/Meego OS which was proper Linux. Jolla does have seamless Android emulation. They don’t do their own phones anymore, though.
This, if there’s a successor (an actual working one), it’s probably SailfishOS. Runs pretty well on my Xperia 10 III and the UI is super nice :)
Volla has two official images, one is ubuntu mobile
Yeah but is it a low level android or is it a full Linux boot? As mentioned, the only two phones I know of that boot full Linux from scratch with Linux drivers are the Pinephone (and the Pinephone Pro) and the Librem 5. Both with their own set of issues.
It is 100% Linux with 0% Android. I had a Volla Phone X for a few weeks.
Edit: It uses vendor blobs to communicate with the hardware. Besides that, it used some lineageOS code in Halium, which is a layer between ubuntu touch and the vendor blobs.
I would love to move to a Linux based phone, my old N900 was fantastic. However, I struggle to see how this is possible, for me at least, due to application developers giving no thought to them.
My banking apps and WhatsApp are the only ones I can’t live without. With the banking app specifically and the security around them it’s not possible to run them on a modified non-standard device so short of carrying a separate device it looks like I’m locked into stock Android.
WhatsApp
Though I’d rather recommend you just get out of WhatsApp entirely (it’s still owned by Meta after all), one way to go would be by using a matrix client (like element) with the WhatsApp bridge.
I wish I could. I use Signal where possible but most of my contacts don’t care and use WhatsApp. How would the bridge help in terms of privacy as the messages still need to pass through WhatsApp right?
The messages would still go through WhatsApp, but they are e2ee anyway. The part where it would protect you is that you wouldn’t have the app installed on your device, so Facebook won’t be able to get your location, access your contact list, etc.
I use the Murena /e/ OS (developed in France). It’s android-based, but totally degoogled (more so than LineageOS). Happy with it so far. I also installed Ubuntu Touch in an older phone, but it’s definitely not ready.
Me too! /e/OS rock stable, even on my second-hand Samsung A5 (2017).
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How much? Thinking of switching to a Linux phone
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There are multiple pine phones out there I have no idea which you’re selling
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Whats your price?
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made by IN Europe
Huh? That’d be news to me.
Newer Gigaset phones are made in Germany. Volla phones are rebranded Gigaset devices.
I messed up in case of Fairphones, I will fix that. Although that phone is about fair worker conditions to begin with.
I don’t think Fairphone uses Linux. Pretty sure it uses Android.
By default, Fairphone uses Android yeah. But Ubports has support for some of their models.
