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I’d call the based department, but I don’t have a rotary un-smartphone™
That’s cool af
I gotta say that even though it’s not for me, I’m glad this device exists!
I wish Valve would make a Steam Phone. They seem to know how to do Linux devices.
Valve laptop to revive the thinkpad glory days
they don’t know to make a good android app, and you want them to make an entire cellphone💀💀
They made an entire Linux-powered portable game system that’s revolutionizing Linux gaming at the moment…an embedded engineer is not the same skillset as an app developer. Not even close.
They made a device with a proprietary operating system and proprietary software. If you really want that, why not just use Android?
Since when is Arch proprietary?
Steam OS is proprietary.
But Arch contains proprietary firmware, so technically it’s not fully free software either.
SteamOS is open source with some closed sources component. But most important think you seems not being able to understand is that Valve provide high support to Open source community, which means it wouldn’t be surprising if they decided to drop a open source phone.
SteamOS is open source with some closed sources component.
So it is not free software. It’s proprietary, unethical software that takes away your freedom. Just like Windows, Android, etc.
But most important think you seems not being able to understand is that Valve provide high support to Open source community, which means it wouldn’t be surprising if they decided to drop a open source phone.
By doing what? They only want to lock you in their proprietary platform. Most of heir software is proprietary, their games are proprietary and they restrict users with DRM. It’s a terrible company, which abuses their users. If Steam Deck contains proprietary software, why would their phone by anything different?
They can do the hardware and let someone else compile the os
Idk SteamOS seems pretty ok to me
Good point, now I’m wondering why the steam mobile app sucks
they prob put 0 effort into it because they see almost 0 ROI
Well, I don’t want it to be android powered anyways. That’s the entire point.
Hell, I think even Raspberry Pi Foundation getting into the phone market would be a game changer too.
A lot of the libcamera work done on Raspberry Pi boards is going towards improving the camera support on linux phones like the PinePhone, which is great!
Aside from that, sadly a lot of people (including myself) are kind of fed up with Raspberry Pi, after they essentially abandoned their mission during Covid to please corporations, and are preparing to go public despite being a “charity”. Broadcom, their SoC supplier, also has left a sour taste in my mouth after their purchase and mass layoffs at VMWare.
If they created a phone it would likely end up being scalped to death, and maybe pretty pricey compared to a PinePhone
Aside from that, sadly a lot of people (including myself) are kind of fed up with Raspberry Pi, after they essentially abandoned their mission during Covid to please corporations
Just out of curiosity, could you state what you think their mission was?
(I’m just wondering if anybody even remembers their original original mission.)
AFAIK their original mission was along the lines of making computers accessible at a low price point, particularly targeting the education sector in parts of the world where computers weren’t very accessible or affordable. Comparable to the OLPC, but not on an individual basis
I could be wrong though
Remember when they donated one pi for every one sold?
That’s basically it. Here’s the thing: if they followed through on that to the letter, most of the people complaining wouldn’t have ever gotten one.
Don’t forget that Raspberry PI can’t run a mainline Linux kernel. You can’t install an official Debian build on it for example. I don’t get why people are ok with that.
Raspberry PI can’t run a mainline Linux kernel.
If they did that, it would be sold out for years before you or I could get it.
They seem to have resolved their supply chain issues for now. I could buy a Pi 5 and have it dispatched tomorrow, and I did buy a Pi 4b recently, no issues with delays or lead times.
I don’t think you could go fast enough to catch Valve as they ran screaming from that idea.
Maybe it’d be the first “specialty” phone with decent specs. I always get excited for these “specialty” type phones like “Linux on my PHONE? Fuck yea!”
Until I look at the specs and it’s crap every single time and then I’m just disappointed, like the PinePhone Pro has just 4GB LPDDR4 (No not even the good LPDDR4x) lmao like what is this, 2015?? Lolol
Steam OS is proprietary, so what would be the point?
Everything that matters is open source and upstreamed or on the way there. Haven’t kept up with the state of things but as far as I am aware you can already run a mainline kernel on the Deck. Would love to see an open phone you can easily run your own distribution on without jumping through hoops.
But phones are hard. An x86 phone with decent battery life is even harder. But one can dream.
It’s certainly great that you can install any distro with mainline kernel on the deck (even if some things don’t work). But my point was that Valve doesn’t care about user freedom. Their OS and the Steam client are proprietary. If they made a GNU/Linux phone, there is no guarantee that you would be able to install a free distro and it almost certainly would come with non free software by default, which would be bad.
Would love to see an open phone you can easily run your own distribution on without jumping through hoops.
I think PinePhone Pro and Librem 5 can run a mainline kernel. It’s possible that some things won’t work, but a lot of stuff has been upstreamed. I’m curious if you can easily install an ARM build of Debian on them, but couldn’t find any information last time I looked it up.
But phones are hard. An x86 phone with decent battery life is even harder. But one can dream.
Oh yeah, that is the dream. I wonder how are the current mobile Ryzen CPUs. I’m curious if there is any that could work well in a phone.
There is a Debian spin for the Pinephone called Mobian. I ran that for quite a while with Phosh as the front end. It’s probably still installed on the device.
What I hate about ARM is that you basically need a separate image for every device instead of one for everything like with x86.
I use Mobian with Phosh too! What I love about Mobian is that it’s just a small overlay on top of Debian. The project’s goal is literally to upstream everything into Debian and to stop existing. You can see that it doesn’t add a lot of packages: https://packages.mobian.org
Yeah, you are right about ARM. It seems to be true about RISC-V as well. It’s so weird that so many people think those kinds of devices will be good for us. Sometimes I watch reviews of single board computers on YouTube and the reviewers never mention that the device can’t run mainline Linux. They can’t install Debian from debian.org on them. So instead they install some distro provided by the manufacturer and for some reason they are just fine with that. Raspberry PI is the same and almost nobody seems to be talking about this. So that’s why I’m not sure if you can install a normal distro on PinePhone Pro or Librem 5, even though they can run mainline Linux.
Also ARM SoC manufacturers don’t seem to try to have upstream Linux support. So I think that’s why PinePhone uses a 2010 SoC (if I remember correctly) and Pro uses a 2016 SoC. It’s a bad platform.
I appreciate the people who daily drive pinephones. They are paving the way for when they’ll be viable alternatives for the masses. (Or verifying that they won’t be, we’ll see.)
Everyone saying Android is completely missing the point. I mean yeah, it runs the linux kernel, but i feel like most of yall wouldn’t call ChromeOS linux on the other hand.
The obvious connotations are privacy, choice, wayland/x11 support, a useful terminal, a rich foss ecosystem, and arch btw.
ChromeOS is Linux and even starting to become it’s own full blown distro.
ChromeOS even uses Wayland now.
LacrosBut it’s proprietary software, right?
Well yes, in the same way Android is; where it’s based on an open source version of itself. (ChromiumOS)
I’d agree with you in the context of standard (google) android.
One caveat that I’d like to highlight, though, is that for me GrapheneOS and F-Droid handily achieve the privacy and rich FOSS ecosystem parts. Useful terminal depends on your definition :) but for my use case Termux fills the void.
It doesn’t feel like Linux (you can’t even use Wifi and Ethernet at the same time for crying out loud) but for a relatively cheap low-power device, I like the flexibility.
It’s far enough from being a foot gun that I can give a Pixel 5 with GrapheneOS and some F-Droid apps to my grandmother and know she’ll have no problems. Balancing that with having enough extensibility to scratch the itch for 99% of tinkerers is a feat to appreciate in my view.
My point is really just that it is an entirely different software stack than the traditional linux experience. I cant just download the source for a standard linux app and compile it for android, it needs to be ported.
I think pinephone and librem are the closest we have gotten to a proper linux phone. But the specs suck, and the mobile optimized app ecosystem isnt there yet. Thats the point of the op meme.
I can confirm that my PinePhone runs the same software that I run on my desktop. I usually don’t even need to compile anything, since a lot of packages in Debian repo have an ARM version. Not all apps have responsive UIs and some of the old ones lack touch support, though. But that is something that keeps improving over time (GNOME 4 and libhandy for example). You can also use CLI programs if you want.
At least there’s Termux. One of the very few things saving my already limited phone experience.
I would call anything running the Linux kernel “Linux”. Granted my LineageOS phone isn’t very much like my Debian PC, but they’re both Linux.
Daily drivin Manjaro (Plasma mobile) on my Pinephone Pro for over a year now. If you are not into the whole “taking pictures all the time” thing you can easiy use it as a daily driver. (This message was typed on it)
I respond to you just because yours is the last of the “I daily drive a PinePhone” comments, but this is meant for everyone with the same opinion.
Do you, in all honesty, feel comfortable enough with your device that you would confidently run a business solely through it?
I’m not an influencer, so my job isn’t “taking pictures all the time”, but still I wouldn’t rely on a Linux phone to run my business because I cannot risk:- to miss a phone call, a text or an email;
- to run out of battery if I’m outside my office all day long;
- to have a faulty GPS should I use a navigator to meet a client;
- that Bluetooth disconnects mid-call for the 5th time in a day while I’m driving;
- that I have to take a picture to collect information and the latest update borked the camera.
All of these things happen frequently on a Linux phone, and if you have a job where you can live through it good for you, I envy you TBH.
On the other hand, keep in mind that it’s not just the “Instagram people” that need a reliable device.Of course, everyone has different requirements on their phone, so the question if one would be comfortable running their buisness of a pine phone is quite divers.
Phone calls, texts and E-Mails
Text and E-Mails pretty much work as well as on every other phone. Phone calls work too, but the audio quality is below what one could expect from a modern iPhone.
Battery
While the battery runtime of one battery is definitely lower compared to competing devices, it is also replaceable. I usually spend my day in the office were the phone can be charged, so the battery life does not become an issue. When I am traveling I bring some extra batteries. The form factor is commonly available and batteries cost around 10 €, so I got 4 of them, which last me for ~36 hours until I have to charge them. I have so far never spend more time away from an outlet.
GPS
Works nowadays pretty reliable, accuracy of around 20 m is also good enough to find were I need to go
Bluetooth
Definitely not perfect but random disconnects happen rarely. On the other side I have an headphone jack, which always works reliably
Camera
Ok, this point goes to you, the camera is not usable. When taking pictures of documents I usually have to use my tablet.
So now to the overarching question:
Do you, in all honesty, feel comfortable enough with your device that you would confidently run a business solely through it? No, I would not feel comfortable to run a business through a phone, I need a real computer for my work. If I could only use a phone I would choose the pine phone, because at least it can run all software I require for my daily work. Connected to keyboard, mouse and a monitor it could be a slow, but acceptable work machine I can certainly imagine that there are jobs, which rely more heavily on a phone. But in these cases one should have separate work and private phones anyway
So what you’re saying to me is you can daily drive a Linux phone if you also daily drive a power bank, a bluetooth or wired headset and a camera?
I dont need the power bank, since I can simply swap bateries. But in principle yes
How dare they daily drive a beta Linux phone and share their experiences.
I couldn’t run a business on any phone, frankly. That’s what computers are for.
Also the GPS worked fine for me.
Let me guess, Manjaro or another unstable distro is where things broke for you? Mobian did not break things on update, much like Debian on desktop. I know the person you replied to uses Manjaro, but if you want a stable experience you really shouldn’t.
And most people aren’t running a business, so there’s that.
I don’t deny that the user experience isn’t great, it is development/early adopter hardware, but it’s definitely usable as a daily driver.
It depends by what job you have: a plumber, for example, could probably run their business entirely with their phone.
But we’re missing the point, I’m not saying a smartphone can replace a PC, whether it be Linux, iOS or Android. I’m saying that If you need to do all the tasks that are required by a “modern day job” and you need to do them well, then I’m sorry (I really am) but Linux phones aren’t ready yet.And most people aren’t running a business, so there’s that.
Most people don’t have the skill to troubleshoot a Linux phone, why don’t we count them too in the statistics?
Then, I used “running a business” as just an example to indicate the “urgency of a functioning phone” for whatever reason: it might just be that you have a relative you have to take care of, or that you are a doctor/nurse that can be contacted on every moment, or that you’re an a job hunt and cannot miss the call… I can go on for hours on why in A.D. 2024 a person from whichever social context cannot afford to be off the gridMost people don’t have the skill to troubleshoot a Linux phone, why don’t we count them too in the statistics?
This community is called linuxmemes. You are talking to GNU/Linux users here. For everyone else it’s going to be hard, obviously. It takes time to learn to use a completely different operating system.
God damn, the premise of running a business from a smartphone sounds depressing as hell to me. I feel sorry for anyone who tries that.
Missing a phone call or text is unacceptable and id consider that a fail if it came to phones everything else you mentioned wouldnt be a fail just poor quality in my opinion
That’s what separate work phones are for :/
What do you use to browse Lemmy?
The voyager PWA. Works really great and feels pretty much like a native app
So you use Chromium on there? Or how do you use PWAs?
Plasma mobile comes with the anglefish browser as default (a mobile browser based on chromium) that has support for PWAs
Cool! Thats really interesting as not even damn Firefox has that
At least on Android, Firefox (Mobile) does support PWAs. I use it for accessing my Iceshrimp account on fedia.social.
True, forgot about that, of course it does.
Who’s gonna tell him Android is based on Linux ?
Nobody because everybody knows this. Android is still not what people mean when they say linux
Insert “I’d like to interject for a moment” copypasta here
Yessir
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Uhhh it definitely is. I literally have a Linux terminal running on my Android phone.
And yet, android is still not what people mean when they say they’re running Linux.
You’ve missed the point I’m afraid.
While people know that Android is based on Linux, a fact that isn’t in question, when people say a “Linux” phone, they’re not discounting that Android exists or that it runs Linux, they mean to infer that they’re discussing non-Android Linux phones. If they meant Android as a Linux phone, they would have said Android.
While android is in the set of “Linux”, not all things that are in the set of Linux are Android.
Since we have a specific word for GNU/Linux - Android devices, but almost all Linux based alternatives to Android for mobile devices is basically referred to simply as a “Linux phone”, it can be, and should be, assumed that the speaker is referring to Linux phones which are not Android.
It’s a nuance of language and technically not wrong to say that “Android is Linux” but that’s not what most of the readers understood to be the speakers intention.
That was the correction that the previous poster tried to portray.
Simply put, most Linux enthusiasts and community, doesn’t really consider android to be “one of them” since, though it’s Linux at its core/kernel, almost everything built on top of it from there is some bastardized/closed source software, or relies on something closed source. Most of the things people want to run on their phone (browsers, camera software, even the dialer), is almost entirely written, controlled and closed source by Google. While some of the “guts” of the OS might be open source/GNU versions, the interfaces are largely all closed source software that Google has published to run on top of Android specifically. This doesn’t fit with the philosophy of GNU/Linux, and therefore Android is largely not included when speaking about Linux, at least for Linux enthusiasts.
No you’re using Termux with bash. Unless you’re actually interfacing with the kernel directly in which case ignore me and carry on.
Anyways this is a great example of why “Linux” as the name of the OS is stupid. GNU/Linux is better (for GNU-based, obviously, don’t go wheeling out the Alpine copypasta because I’m not talking about that).
Alpine Linux is actually a great example of why you are right. Because when people say Linux to describe the OS, they almost always mean GNU/Linux (Linux Mint, Arch Linux, etc). But then there is Alpine, which also calls itself Linux, but its developers actually mean something very different, because it’s not GNU/Linux. So that only makes things even more confusing. Android doesn’t even use the mainline Linux kernel, so calling it Linux is probably even worse than with Alpine.
If we always used the correct names, there wouldn’t be so much confusion.
Android is Linux, they literally use the Linux kernel. They replace most other stuff, but Linux it is.
They even work towards mainline kernel support, making updates easier for longer times.
Android is a good example, why “Linux” is not a good term for “Desktop Gnu+Linux”.
I think they use some very old and heavily modified version of the Linux kernel, so it’s not the same Linux kernel we use on desktop. Then each phone manufacturer adds custom patches on top to support their hardware. GNU/Linux phones also require a custom kernel, but the community is working on upstreaming those patches, so that they can run mainline kernel some day (PinePhone Pro and Librem 5 probably already can now, but some stuff might not work).
Yeah, using the name Linux for both the kernel and the operating system makes no sense and it’s super confusing. When people say Linux when talking about the operating system, they almost always mean GNU/Linux (like Linux Mint, Arch Linux, etc). But then there is Alpine Linux, which isn’t GNU/Linux and that makes things even more confusing. If I didn’t know what Alpine Linux or Arch Linux was (and had no knowledge of distro names), based on their name I would assume they are some kind of fork of the Linux kernel. Arch Linux should have really been called Arch GNU/Linux and Alpine Linux should have just been called Alpine OS.
They use the current LTS kernel that exists when the phone exists. If your phone has an outdated kernel (mine had one too, and I thought the same) it is simply really outdated.
Yeah the problem lies in the many Distros I think. The BSDs are all different bundles, not like Linux+Gnu+Systemd+pipewire+wayland+glibc and some minor differences. FreeBSD is actually different from OpenBSD for example. Then Android is also a single project, just like this “modern desktop linux bundle”.
Oh, I thought they used a way older one. If it’s current LTS, then it’s not old at all.
“Android is already a Linux phone” They hated Jesus because he told them the truth.
But it isn’t GNU/Linux https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/android-and-users-freedom.html
… or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux
Yes, but it is Linux. OP doesn’t mention GNU.
That’s like saying you run FreeBSD because you have a PlayStation 5 though.
It’s so far removed people associate it as something different entirely.
It uses an ancient Linux kernel with millions of lines of code changed from the original.
Android devices run deprecated Linux kernels that have a bunch of proprietary binary blobs plopped onto them, so technically “Linux”, but not an easily updateable mainline kernel like most people are referring to when talking about “Linux.”
OK then call it what it is. You want a FOSS Linux phone.
Linux is FOSS. Android is based on Linux. Android is not Linux.
Uh you know that Debian isn’t just Linux either right? It’s based on Linux. The same way that Android is.
Debian is GNU/Linux and that’s what almost always people mean when they say Linux. Android is not GNU/Linux and doesn’t even use the mainline Linux kernel - just some old, heavily modified version.
Mobian or Manjaro ARM on the other hand are GNU/Linux distributions. They run the same software that you can run on your desktop distro.
Moving the goalposts. We weren’t talking about GNU. Not all Linux distributions use GNU.
Not all Linux distributions use GNU.
Almost all popular ones do.
Not in the way they’re talking.
Really a shame that Nokia gave up. The N900 was a well working Linux phone. I miss it dearly.
Ms did it to nokia
My favorite phone by far. Absolutely loved combined messenger built into OS and that GUI is still unmatched by any OS as far as I’m concerned.
I have fond memories of using my N900. But I would not have described it as well working :) It worked, sure, but not particularly well.
It definitely worked better than a Pinephone. And even with its puny RAM it was better at multitasking than a modern Android phone.
Android is Linux.
I think when people say “Linux phone” they mean GNU/Linux.
No. Most people mean PostmarketOS, which is Busybox/musl/Linux
No? PMOS isn’t the only thing people refer to by “Linux phone”, often its something like Ubuntu touch, which absolutely is GNU.
Fair but Ubuntu Touch is not mainline Linux. It’s a hack to get a GNU/systemd Userland working with an Android kernel (which arguably is also a huge feat)
A lot of people use Manjaro and Mobian (mobile Debian).
Sure, but PMOS is by far the most complete and “daily-ready” mobile mainline Linux distro out there. In fact I’m pretty sure both Mobian and MoA use the PMOS kernels…
I haven’t used postmarketOS, but I don’t see why it would be any better than Mobian or Manjaro (Manjaro might not be the most stable though). Maybe you are talking about Android phones, in which case you are probably right - other distros might not support those so well. postmarketOS and other distros don’t use mainline Linux, so I don’t know why you would call them that, though. For me this is the biggest flaw of GNU/Linux phones.
I know that postmarketOS developers contribute a lot in different areas, but so do Mobian developers. I think the kernel we use was initially developed by Megi.
Ah, you probably right, I think it’s more common.
I personally run ArchLinux on my PinePhone.
I was downvoted before for suggesting the Pinetab is not a viable Android or iPad replacement. That thing doesn’t even have a working wifi driver yet, you have to plug in a dongle just to connect to wifi. I’d love to have good smart devices running Linux one day, but we’re not there yet.
I think you are talking about the recent Pinetab 2 and it seems that the situation has changed: https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/comments/1akjlwu/tutorial_wifi_and_bluetooth_on_pinetab_2/?rdt=46684
The goal of GNU/Linux has never been convenience, but freedom.
Good to know that there is now a testing branch for a wifi driver. That wasn’t the case when I wrote the original comment I was talking about. Still, this took almost a year of selling a tablet with no working wifi. There is inconvenience and then there is a product just being in an unfinished, effectively unusable state. I don’t really see how having no wifi driver is “freedom”. The freedom to code my own driver? I guess, but that doesn’t make for an actually usable device.
Still many people bought the thing, because they wanted the freedom of GNU/Linux. They were willing to sacrifice something to get it. Sometimes that’s what you have to do. Pine64 makes the hardware and does not contribute to the software development. That sucks, but there is nothing we can do about it, since they don’t have a lot of competition.
Okay look I get what we’re trying to say here but would it be problematic if I pointed out that Android is also running Linux?
It’s a valid point, but unfortunately your non bullshit options are limited to replacing the OS with something like Graphene or Lineage.
The powers that be REALLY want your data.
I thought you could just use the Android open source project? I thought the tracking was mostly baked into Google’s flavor of Android not the open source product
I don’t know if a phone that uses the open source version as base. Usually they build off open source or google and add in all the manufacturer/carrier bloat. For me to get off One Plus’s built in OS I had to go through this whole process on their website to get the code to unlock the boot loader.
I have lineage os as a replacement and it’s really cool. My mobile internet stopped working on it though :( my next phone is gonna roll with Graphene
lineage is significantly more polished than aosp
And lo, the Apocrypha were born, for they spoke the truth that no man dare admitt, lest they be marked an apostate.
i use Arch btw
I use GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux btw
Same, on desktop and mobile. I don’t know if it’s funny or sad that a community called “linuxmemes” can’t tell the difference between Linux, GNU/Linux and Android.
Isn’t that like claiming all Linux, Android and MacOS are just UNIX?
I mean not technically… those products use a separent kernel that has its own development path away from the Linux kernel. Linux is just a compatible Unix kernel but I wouldn’t classify it as a Unix operating system since it diverges into its own thing. Android still uses the Linux kernel not some piece of code that they developed and not some commercial Unix product
Not if they don’t share any heritage with Unix. Osx is the only one that fits the bill there.
It also counts in the other way: Apple licensed the UNIX™ trademark.
GNU is a recursive acronym for “GNU’s Not Unix!”,[6][12] chosen because GNU’s design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and containing no Unix code.[6][13][14] Stallman chose the name by using various plays on words, including the song The Gnu.[4]: 45:30
See, this is why, yet again, Stallman was right: insisting on “GNU/Linux” is necessary in order to disambiguate between the fully-Free Software OS and bastardized half-proprietary stuff like Android.
Exactly. Even in this community and in this post people keep mixing Linux, GNU/Linux and Android. It’s crazy that even people who use this operating system are confused. Almost always when they say Linux they really mean GNU/Linux. Linux Mint or Arch Linux are GNU/Linux. But Android isn’t and it doesn’t even use the mainline Linux kernel.
The issue of freedom is a separate thing, because even most GNU/Linux distros contain proprietary software just like Android.
I guess most ppl who are supporting the gnu/linux phone are the ones who want a similar apple like features like how the prism os had promised to provide.
I have a PinePhone. ama
What do you miss the most?
Getting laid
I’m using Android and am iPhone for business and it’s basically the same. Maybe it’s os independent?
How much did it cost, how long have you had it and what are the most obvious pros and cons?
In the US store it costs 200$ for the original PinePhone and 400$ for the Pro version. The EU store is a little more expensive.
I’m not the person you asked, but I’ve had mine for 2 years.
Pros:
- free software and freedom (and with that increased privacy and security)
- runs the same software that you can run on desktop as long as it has an ARM build (a lot of Debian packages do) or you compile it yourself - this includes not just apps, but also terminal programs and servers
- killswitch to power off the proprietary modem for when you don’t want phone carrier tracking you
- like in other modern phones the modem is isolated (here it’s connected over USB)
- multiple distros to choose from
- multiple desktop environments to choose from
- replacable battery
- headphone jack
- replacement parts available in case you break something
- there are some interesting addons that you can buy (https://pine64.org/devices/pinephone/#accessories)
- microSD card slot
- you can boot from the microSD card, so distro hopping is easy
- can run Android apps through Waydroid
Cons:
- slow - you are running modern software on an old SoC (the Pro version is faster, but still slow compared to modern phones)
- not all GNU/Linux apps have a responsive UI that works well on mobile
- some old apps might not have touch support
- short battery life - the SoC is not very energy efficient. Possible workarounds: get the keyboard addon with builtin battery (but it makes the phone bigger and heavier), carry spare batteries with you, or buy/3D print a bigger case and use a bigger battery
- runs hot
- GPS isn’t super accurate
- audio quality during phone calls isn’t great
- the non-pro version might not be able to run a mainline kernel, so you might not be able to install a desktop distro on it
- the Pro version should be able to run a mainline kernel, but there might be things that don’t work
- experience with GNU/Linux is required
- sometimes workarounds are needed - for me, on Mobian stable sometimes the modem or wifi don’t wake up from suspend and I have to reset it with a script (I added it to the apps menu for quick access, but it’s still annoying)
- [on original PinePhone] bad camera and the default app can only take pictures - there is a script for recording video, but then there is no preview
- I’m not sure if you can use the camera as a webcam in most software
- [might depend on the model] video playback is not GPU accelerated, so it makes the CPU hot and drains battery and you might be limited to 1080p@30fps or 720p
- you can run a stable distro with old software and old bugs (and sometimes things change very fast) or a less stable one with current software, but then things will sometimes break after update and you will have to fix it (probably more than on desktop)
- on Mobian stable (old software) the proximity sensor acts weird during a call and sometimes you can’t see the screen
- no Xbox gamepad support in Mobian stable (but Playstation gamepads work)
- they keyboard addon isn’t perfect and requires some setup
- with the keyboard addon I can’t plug in any USB devices to the phone and I don’t know why - charging works though
- support for emergency broadcast is only just now being introduced in Phosh (https://phosh.mobi/posts/cellbroadcast)
- [original PinePhone] uses micro SIM standard instead of nano SIM
- sometimes there is screen flickering in non-pro version
- killswitches could be a bit easier to flip (they are very small)
- [on original PinePhone] poor 3D performance (even SuperTuxKart doesn’t run smoothly), WebGL doesn’t seem to work (at least for 3D)
- not a lot of RAM, so you can’t run too many apps at once or have too many browser tabs open - you can still run Electron apps, though (just not too many at once)
- no push notifications, so if you want to be notified when you get a message in some app, while the phone is suspended, you would have to setup a script to wake the phone up periodically
Edit: I corrected a mistake with the SIM card. I turns out that PinePhone Pro uses nano SIM and it’s only the original PinePhone that uses micro SIM
Very thorough list, thank you!
Awesome list indeed! In case I buy one I‘ll probably start a lemmy community for it.
There is already one: /c/pinephone@lemmy.ml. But not a lot of activity there.
Youre a treasure trove of information my friend. One of those lemmings that really keeps this place running with content and helpful stuff at that. Thanks mate! :)
How is your battery life?
lol
Five
Phosh, gnome-mobile, plasma, sxmo or “unity”?
Plasma and unity both seem to be the ones I come back to. The other three I would mess with, but something about the other two always brought me back.
The good old Linux diversity. I am simply the opposite.
They are all equally capable in my opinion. I really think it’s down to personal preference. I’m not sure if it’s still a thing, but the multiboot SD card images wereVERYhelpful for me.
Phosh is pretty good. I don’t think Gnome Mobile is finished yet.
what carrier are you using it on? sim or e-sim? Do you use it daily?
I used mine on T-Mobile almost daily. It worked okay. Think of early Android days where everyone had their own custom rom and none of them were as smooth as you felt they should be.
Do I need a sim? I’m on Google Fi [T-mo] but we’re all e-sim. I have a data-only sim.
I am just assuming, but I believe a data only sim would work.
There is no e-SIM functionality I am aware of.
Yeah it just means if someone rang the phone would still be routed to my e-sim. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I am waiting for the right combination of time and energy to add all my chats into matrix bridges on my server. Not having a direct phone to call would almost be ideal… 🤔
all my chats
Across what services?
How’s the Android apps bridge? Do you even use it?
I haven’t used it on the PinePhone or PinePhone Pro in a while, but Waydroid is solid on my OnePlus 6T with postmarketOS. Android apps that only need an Internet connection work fine. I installed microG and have push notifications working for Discord and Teams. However, notifications don’t get passed through to the Linux side so they only show if you open the Android UI. Screen rotation doesn’t work on Waydroid which can be very annoying. Apps that use other hardware features such as location, Bluetooth, vibration, access to calls/texts won’t work properly.
I’m quite optimistic about a usable Linux phone in the near future, maybe 5 years from now or so. When smartphones were a new thing, it was really hard for open source projects without a major company backing them to keep up with all the new developments. Hence all the projects that died out. But innovation on smartphones has basically come to a halt these days. Sure, your phone can get a little bit faster and have round displays now, but nobody cares anymore. Nothing of all that is essential. So, give it some time, we’ll get there.
I’m optimistic about the apps and desktop environments. We have made huge progress. But the problem is the hardware support. It seems that there are very few ARM SoCs, which work well with the mainline Linux kernel. So PinePhone uses a 2010 SoC and PinePhone Pro a 2016 SoC. And after all that time and despite community’s efforts to upstream everything, the mainline support is still not complete and we still use custom kernels.
https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2023/09/30/paperweight-dilemma/
Yes, but that’s exactly my point. The need for hardware support shrinks if the hardware doesn’t change every few months. A chip from a few years ago is still very fine. That was not the case in 2009.
Ah, good point.
If your needs are very simple, and you’re willing to go without a lot of luxuries, then yeah, it could work for you.
I don’t know, but I was thinking PinePhone would be more useful when your needs rather aren’t simple.
Yeah, I guess specific would be a better word. Like if having a good terminal emulator and SSH client is more important to you than having access to Android apps.
Thats pretty much my use case. I run a legacy iphone (i know) and terminal apps arent great so far. I often need to work on the go and carrying a laptop everywhere is tedious. Having a phone with a „simple“ linux OS and terminal emulator would be awesome.
You can run any GNU/Linux program on it as long as it has an ARM build (a lot of them do) or you compile it for ARM. There is also the keyboard addon (https://pine64.org/documentation/Phone_Accessories/Keyboard/), but it makes the phone bigger.
Thats very cool. I‘m still wondering it the pinephone would work for me. I use like 5 apps regularly (obviously would find others I dont recognize as using):
- Homeassistant (could use web interface)
- Easypark (probably the most problematic to find)
- Sonos (might be able to use an open source version such as on debian)
- Fluffychat
- Voyager for Lemmy
The rest is mostly functions I „need“ but dont need specific apps for.
- Pictures (taking and viewing, maybe nextcloud upload but that could be done by a script as well)
- Web browser
- Music
- Calls
I think thats about it… Do you think that could work?
Edit: I have a stupid idea! I fondly remember my blackberry from back in the day. Obviously its not for the mainstream but pinephone isnt either. Wouldnt a step back to a blackberry design be pretty awesome for us nerds? :)
It’s hard to say if it will work for you. For some people it does and for others it doesn’t. It’s just something you would have to see for yourself and it might require some time to set everything up the way you want it. It’s a device that requires tinkering. Voyager seems to have a web version and so does FluffyChat. I use Nheko Matrix client (available in Mobian/Debian repo) - it’s a native app that works pretty well. I don’t know about the other apps, but in general you can run Android apps through Waydroid. Maybe those would work too.
There are no push notifications, so if you want the phone to suspend and still receive Matrix notifications, you would have to setup a script that will wake the phone up periodically.
Pictures (taking and viewing, maybe nextcloud upload but that could be done by a script as well)
This works on the original PinePhone, but the camera itself is pretty bad. PinePhone Pro has a decent one, but I’m not sure what the current state of that is. My understanding is that it works, but the pictures might not look that great. I think it’s only one guy working on the camera app and he is currently working on a new version: https://blog.brixit.nl/fixing-the-megapixels-sensor-linearization/. For syncing files with a desktop I use SyncThing, but Nextcloud should probably work too. For sending just a few specific files from time to time you could use KDE Connect or even just SSH.
Web browser
That works. I use Firefox. PinePhone doesn’t have a lot of RAM, though, so you won’t be able to have a lot of tabs open at once.
Music
Definitely works. I use Lollypop app (available in Mobian/Debian), which works well on a mobile screen. The phone has a headphone jack if you need it. The speaker isn’t very good.
Calls
This works, but audio quality during phone calls isn’t always good. There also seem to be some modem issues on PinePhone Pro: https://zerwuerfnis.org/daily-driving-the-pinephone-pro. I think it’s currently recommended to install the free modem firmware and I’m not sure if the author was using that (the phone doesn’t come with it installed).
I’m not sure if MMS works (SMS does), since I don’t use that. Support for emergency broadcasts is now being added to Phosh: https://phosh.mobi/posts/cellbroadcast/
You should also know that the battery life isn’t very good. So if you use the phone a lot, you might need either an extended battery case or spare batteries (the battery is replaceable) or the keyboard addon.
Edit: I have a stupid idea! I fondly remember my blackberry from back in the day. Obviously its not for the mainstream but pinephone isnt either. Wouldnt a step back to a blackberry design be pretty awesome for us nerds? :)
I don’t know which one you mean, but I would love to have a slider keyboard! Technically you could make one and I’ve been wondering how hard that would be. PinePhone has some pins on the back that you could use - one of them is i2c. The keyboard addon from Pine64 uses them (they have other addons too). It’s probably a lot of work to make something like that, though.
This is a lot more than I could have hoped for! Thank you so much! :) I‘m somewhat convinced that I need to try this now. :)
I’ve been daily driving Ubuntu Touch on the Fairphone 4 for over a year. I love it, even if some features are lacking. Calling and text is stable, but unfortunately Volte support is still missing. Waydroid is also working great.
I’m not sure if Ubuntu Touch is GNU/Linux, since it uses the android kernel I think. But it’s not android either.
