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.

  • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world
    33·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml
      81·
      2 years ago

      Agreed, halium and Ubuntu Touch aren’t true Linux phones in my book. To be a true Linux phone you need to run mainline, or at least very close to it (pmOS forks, Megi kernel, etc) and do things the Linux way not the Android way (KMS/DRM/Mesa stack, ALSA/Pulse/Pipewire stack). There are some phones that are getting there thanks to postmarketOS like the OnePlus 6/6T but the ones you listed are the main true Linux phones.

      Typing this from my PinePhone Pro running postmarketOS.

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 years ago

        How’s that working these days? From time to time I dust off mine, try it a bit, and see that while there’s progress, it’s way too unstable for a daily driver. PPP even more so than old PP. I’m using a Pixel 7 running Graphene these days…

    • HarriPotero@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 years ago

      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.

      • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 years ago

        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.

        • CAPSLOCKFTW@lemmy.ml
          3·
          2 years ago

          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.

    • Bondrewd@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      2 years ago

      Indeed they need Halium for it. On the other hand compare them to the nexuses and oneplus ones you had to put up with a few years ago.

  • spiritedaway@lemmy.ml
    5·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • XTornado@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 years ago

      Yeah…if more apps were web based or have web counter parts for mobile it would help.

      In my case my main bank works exactly the same through the app than the browser mobile version, all can be done from either. That said I do not expect to be the same for all banks.

      But yeah I would still have the issue with WhatsApp, if they had a web client like the telegram one it could work aswell. Although as other pointed out you might get away with some kind of bridge.

  • kilgore@feddit.de
    4·
    2 years ago

    I’ve had a Fairphone for a couple years now, didn’t realize its Ubuntu ready? How if the Ubuntu smartphone OS?

  • surlybaer@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 years ago

    Does anyone know if Volla works with North American carriers? I’m already running graphene on a pixel, but ditching google completely would be great.

  • Eugenia@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • Bondrewd@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      2 years ago

      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.

  • MaDeX@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 years ago

    I’m selling my pine phone if anyone wants it in UK

    Edit - I’ll throw in a couple sd cards it has screen protector and is like new