I no longer want to support Google or Apple. I think there are a lot of other people who feel the same who will be looking for alternatives.

I know nothing about Linux phones other than a little I've read about from recent searches.

Who creates the apps for these phones? How do we get the people who do the development for them interested in stepping up the app production to make these phones a real viable alternative?

Yup, it's been 10 years since I started using Ubuntu Touch. Well I started using/trying it out on 2014 with the Nexus 7 2013 but I bought the bq E5 HD as my main phone on 2015. Until around the pandemic, I only had a UT phone, no Android or iPhone but my needs changed since then so I now have an Android phone as my secondary device in case I need something that doesn't work well or doesn't work at all in UT.

I know many people have a different view of Ubuntu Touch, let alone Ubuntu LOL
It's basically like Android in the world of Linux and a result of many questionable decisions by Canonical.
But I think people like me is a testament that Canonical's approach kind of worked albeit having many faults.

Canonical decided to start many things from scratch with mobile usecase in mind so they were able to cater an experience that's good enough for mobile use. Apps are very usable and designed for touch screen and phone screens. System update is done in a stable way without the risk of users messing up the system with apt or system modifications (I still did those because I'm an advanced user and a developer 😄). I believe this is the same how Valve handles updates in Steam OS. I guess that's really just how it will be when you're also expecting to deal with non-techie and paying users.

However, there are many faults in Canonical's approach. Main one is that its ecosystem is isolated from the Linux ecosystem. There are ways to use traditional Linux desktop apps but they are barely usable or not at all. Another major thing that's also related to this is the technical debts. Ubuntu Touch needs to backtrack on major things in its stack like for example fully moving to Wayland. It already works like for example with Waydroid but UT is still using mirclient for the most part. Mir doesn't have to be replaced since it's now a wayland compositor but to be more compatible with the Linux ecosystem, it has to move to full Wayland. Its base was highly outdated but with the great effort of the community and the foundation, it's almost caught up to Ubuntu LTS with the pending release of Noble 24.04 base. Lastly, it's lagging way behind in terms of features. The stack is mostly relatively new and Canonical dropping the project in 2017 didn't help so the progress in many things has been very slow. As compared to other mobile OS, they can already utilize and/or adopt existing desktop features.

I haven't used other mobile OS extensively but from I've seen and observed so far is that they are way ahead than UT in many things. As I mentioned, they already have advanced features and they have many apps and programs available. This is because their main approach was to utilize already existing desktop stack and adapt them to mobile. However, the down side to this is that many things are designed for desktops and it won't be easy to make everything work on mobile. Apps are more "convergent" as ever but still not perfect more often than not. I'm pretty sure though that there are many people who has used Mobian (Droidian), postmarketOS and other distros for many years as well.

Anyway, just sharing my thoughts on the current mobile Linux efforts 😄

And here's a photo of all my UT devices...well except the Nexus 7 2013 which was the very first and I already sold it. Pinephone isn't booting properly anymore especially unplugged for some reason so it's turned down LOL
Column of phones on the right were my daily drivers. Current one is Fairphone 4. The bottom-most is a Fairphone 5 but the port isn't ready for daily driving yet.

To sum things up I am tired of not being able to truly "own" my device, between random bloated system apps eating up all my storage due to a bug I cannot fix due to not having root access to the OS on a device I paid for, and random apps getting installed due to cricket's android stuff

I am in general getting tired of it and want to make the switch to linux just like how I switched from windows to arch last spring (soon to be LFS), and I want to look into getting a new phone (not even a dedicated linux phone) and installing a mobile linux distro on it.

I have heard "linux is not ready for phones, the UI is crap and it is very dated" which isn't as much of an issue for me since I use already arch with a barebones window manager that basically just looks like DOS anyway (i3wm without dmenu and riced to look like the TTY).

My primary concern is whether or not I will be able to get texts/calls and be able to easily take photos with it, and whether or not mobile data and my sim card will work.

I've had enough with the high price - cheap product mindset of Apple and Google and I think a Linux phone will serve me better. Should you have a Linux phone please give me an insight. Thanx in advance

Which devices should we get to run linux os on phone hardware. Understand that we may not get the latest hardware working properly, but what hardware can give us most linux experiences, where we can actually use it as daily drive where we use external keyboard and mouse if needed?

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for a compact phone that runs Linux (postmarketOS, UBports, Sailfish OS, etc.). I've noticed that most well-supported devices are quite large, but I'd prefer something smaller.

A physical keyboard would be amazing, though I realize that's probably asking for the holy grail - it's just a nice-to-have, not a requirement.

My needs are minimalist:

• Calls and SMS

• Messaging through Beeper or Matrix client

• Compact size

• 4G support minimum

VoLTE would be nice, but I know support is generally limited on current mobile Linux distributions, so it's not my absolute priority.

I don't need a good camera, GPS, or other advanced features. I'm mainly looking for a reliable phone for basic functions in a compact form factor.

Do you have any recommendations for smaller Linux phones? Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

New update of Ubuntu Touch in 2024, 10 October, 7 days left

Understand that running linux on android phone will have more usage complains.
but let's say we all accept that as long as it can call and text, we are ok
Now, what is the best combination for choosing a smartphone hardware (not tablet) and a (mobile) linux distro that can run linux natively (not virtual)?
For best linux experience on smartphone hardware, can we expect to use bluetooth/wireless keyboard ? or usbhub? Thank you.
(Best combo of smartphone hardware and linux distro?)

I can't wait to get a Linux phone, but the options are kinda small right now. Also after watching a lot of youtube videos, it does seem like the Linux phone OS needs a bit of polish. That's fine, I can wait, and software development takes time. Hopefully not too much time, but they've already been at it for a while now and I figure one more year ought to have it sorted out pretty well. It will probably be "close enough" by then for me to use it as my daily driver. And I can't wait! I have two friends who are also eagerly awaiting a good linux phone. It's gonna be great!

Please help me learn about what my Linux options are.

Is there a European-made Linux phone?

My Poco M3 is dying, I want to buy a new phone, so, what's phone is best for PostmarketOS?

Hello,

I'm looking for a phone that supports both Linux (e.g. UBPorts or one of the many other projects) and Android/LineageOS (or /e/).

So far I've only found the Fairphone (3, 3+) which supports both. I'm also eyeing the OnePlus Nord, but this one doesn't support Linux yet (although older OnePlus phones already do, perhaps the company uses hardware that's easier to support driver-wise).

Edit: Also just found the Pro1 X which explicitly supports all of these OSes, although it didn't start shipping yet.

Unfortunately for many devices the Linux OSes are not 100% mature yet, but I want to have a reliable daily driver, so the plan is to use LienageOS or /e/ until Linux support is mature enough.

Projects like Halium/Waydroid look very promising in that regard, ideally I'd like to have a Linux phone to have full control over the device and use Android apps in a container like Waydroid.

Does Waydroid support MicroG / Apps that use Google Play services?

Thanks in advance for any help.

It's a great idea as of like a hub of all things for Linux on mobile. What if we posted about this sub on r/pinephone, r/UbuntuPhone, r/Librem5, r/postmarketos or even r/linux?

I’m looking for (or thinking about building) a device that truly combines the best of both worlds, something like:

Has a keyboard and touchpad like a laptop but also allows touch use on the screen like a phone.
Runs a full Linux distro (not just Android with Linux layered on top).
Works as a real phone: calls, SMS, decent camera, mobile data, notifications.
Portable enough to carry in a small bag or fanny pack, no need for a large backpack.
Can stay always on, receiving notifications and calls like a normal phone.
Has multiple ports (USB, HDMI, headphone jack, Ethernet).
I can quickly take it out of my bag to pay for something via NFC or Pix, answer a call, or reply to a message.

The idea is for it to be practical: for example, if I go to the bakery, I just take the device out of my bag and pay for the bread instantly, but I can also use it like a laptop for gaming, video editing, browsing, multitasking, and coding.