> Problem is you end up with a vastly inferior hardware device that costs nearly as much as an iPhone.
The Pinephone is $150/$200.
> Would love to hear if anyone is actually using a Linux phone and enjoying it.
I have one, and I throughly enjoy it! One of the neatest things about it, and I still have to wrap my head around it, is that it can do anything you can do on a desktop. SSH? No problem? Dev environment? "apt install build-essentials". Want to install XFCE? Knock yourself out!
It is still missing MMS, which is why I don't use it daily, but that should be changing much sooner than later.
Exactly! Speaking from the Sailfish OS perspective but thats essentially also a normal Linux distro. It's just so refreshing that studs behaves in logical and introspective manner - have an issue ? Check journal, there will most likely be some hints! Need to transfer data ? Mount the device via sshfs!
In comparison my Galaxy Tab S6 is just so much more black box and some stuff just does not work with no apparent way to debug! Like, I tried to setup a samba or SSH server on it for easy data transfer, with zero success after trying all the related apps in frdoid and elsewhere. It just does not work at all! Most likely some brain dead "security" option one can't override 2without rooting the device that is impossible to track down in the mess that is Android.
Honestly after using Android for so long too, even just AOSP has gotten much more user hostile.
Running root used to be very simple and semi-sanctioned. Now you have to essentially rootkit your phone (Magisk) for it.
Most of the AOSP programs are abandoned (thankfully ROM maintainers update them!), and you have to deal with a lot of things not working with Google Play.
> One of the neatest things about it, and I still have to wrap my head around it, is that it can do anything you can do on a desktop. SSH? No problem? Dev environment? "apt install build-essentials". Want to install XFCE? Knock yourself out!
You can do all these things with a $10 raspberry pi-w. It’s not obvious why it helps with having security and privacy.
Respectfully, I think you missed the point of my reply.
The person asked: "Would love to hear if anyone is actually using a Linux phone and enjoying it."
...so I responded about what I enjoy about using a "Linux Phone". A "$10 raspberry pi-w" is not a Linux Phone.
The question didn't address "security and privacy", so I didn't add it. Though, since you brought it up, I will answer how the Pinephone "helps with having security and privacy".
- I have hardware (cut physical power) switches to kill the Microphone, cameras (independent for front and back), and Wifi/Bluetooth.
- I am running a full GNU/Linux distro that I have a lot more confidence in their want to protect users security/privacy.
- I can run software of my choosing on it (the Pinephone actually defaults to booting on an SD card! so it encourages you to experiement with OSes).
- There is serious effort to run the mainline Linux kernel on it, so it will not be artifically obsolete in 3-5 years (or be sutck on running some ancient swiss cheese kernel in 5 years like my old Pixel/Nexus devices).
- I don't have to install/link to some opaque binaries to even boot the system.
I'm sure I can think of more, but that's all I have for now.
Fair enough - I fully agree it would be enjoyable for a Linux enthusiast. I have had one on my shopping list for some time, but I want to use it as a daily driver and since most people say it isn’t ready for that, slightly lower level projects keep winning out.
What I have encountered is the requirements for it being a daily driver are user specific. I have seen a fair amount of users say "I need $FOO app to work", where $FOO is some an app only developed for Android/iOS (a common one is a banking app, there is almost no way that company will support a Linux phone). So I guess I would ask what your requirements are before I can say if it is daily driver ready or not.
My threshold for it being a "daily driver" is if I can fully replace the "phone" features of my Android phone, which for me, is: Calling, SMS, MMS, Voicemails. MMS is not yet UI functional, but will be sooner than later.
The good news is I am seeing the Linux Phone movement be a positive feedback loop: the more features add, the more users, and the more folks helping to add features.
Sure - for me (and likely >99.9% of people), from what I have read, it is clearly not ready. I’m a heavy phone user in most respects. For me it would have to start as a hobby project.
I have been using a Linux smartphone since 2010 an I certainly do enjoy it - first Nokia N900 & N9 followed by a series of Sailfish OS[0][1] devices, with Xperia 10 II with Sailfish X[2] being the latest one.
This is clearly a good thing to do and supporting those projects is great.
So far though, they do nothing to solve the problems we are talking about. The software is not anywhere near audited, and even if it were, you are still interacting with people and services who are using unaudited software.
Many of the projects leverage a well known OS as their base (e.g. pmOS uses Alpine Linux, Mobian uses Debian), and actively ensure that anything that can be upstreamed is upstreamed. So it's not like you're downloading some random ROM off of XDA.
That doesn’t make the system audited. The obvious reason we don’t hear more about the weaknesses is that no high value targets are using these systems, so it’s not worth exploiting them.
Um, these distros are normally used to run like half the Internet, they are very valuable targets today and I don't think putting them on a phone changes the threat environment so much.
Problem is you end up with a vastly inferior hardware device that costs nearly as much as an iPhone.
I’m still waiting for my Librem 5 preorder.
Would love to hear if anyone is actually using a Linux phone and enjoying it.