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I like this announcement and still root for any alternative phone platform. The thing is - which device would I buy? Plasma Mobile supports the Nexus 5 and (ma

I like this announcement and still root for any alternative phone platform. The thing is - which device would I buy? Plasma Mobile supports the Nexus 5 and (maybe) the OnePlus One right now. CopperheadOS doesn't support either of those. I was unable to get a reliable source for supported devices for Ubuntu Phone (best I found was [1], not even sure if that's related) and so far I don't believe that the supported devices for THAT platform intersect with the other two. Searching for sailfishOS device support only comes up with Jolla phones. It seems as if not only is the market lacking alternative systems, it's also near impossible to try out the ones that do exist. Buying a device for some experimental OS is something I have done (Flame for FxOs - still sad that it died, owned a Palm Pre), but cumbersome and expensive. 1: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices

zanny 10y ago
Plasma Mobile is more meant to be a standardization platform to make phone OSes than the be all end all one in and of itself. Copperhead is just a liberated Android for the most part, it just replaces Replicant. Since Jolla develops sailfishOS, and the OS itself is mostly proprietary, it should be no surprise there isn't a hobbyist community supporting it on Android phones. Plasma Mobile and Firefox OS were both in a class that could feasibly eventually sell phones with it stock. Its the same problem as the desktop Linux ecosystem - as long as you have to actually install the OS yourself, the market is nonexistent compared to the preinstalled market. You need units in stores in peoples faces before you can start making meaningful inroads into market adoption.
- darklajid 10y ago
  I understand that, and I certainly understand that these (any?) projects shouldn't cater to me (I'm not representative of the market at large). What I'm hoping for is some sort of 'reference device' (i.e. the Flame for FxOs) that is supported across platforms. It doesn't matter if it's ~older~ (Nexus 4?), just a way to compare platforms against each other: Run Ubuntu Phone, Plasma Mobile and CM on the same device (not at the same time ofc), check out if your use cases are supported/the platform can do what you need. Keep whatever is best, retry in 6 month. That'd be awesome.
- milcron 10y ago
  > Copperhead is just a liberated Android for the most part, it just replaces Replicant. "Liberated" to the extent that it removes Google stuff such as Play Services, yes. However CopperheadOS is not completely libre. They do include non-free 3D drivers, for instance. I agree that Copperhead largely appeals to the same group of people, and it's much more actively developed.

zanny 10y ago

Plasma Mobile is more meant to be a standardization platform to make phone OSes than the be all end all one in and of itself. Copperhead is just a liberated Android for the most part, it just replaces Replicant. Since Jolla develops sailfishOS, and the OS itself is mostly proprietary, it should be no surprise there isn't a hobbyist community supporting it on Android phones. Plasma Mobile and Firefox OS were both in a class that could feasibly eventually sell phones with it stock. Its the same problem as the desktop Linux ecosystem - as long as you have to actually install the OS yourself, the market is nonexistent compared to the preinstalled market. You need units in stores in peoples faces before you can start making meaningful inroads into market adoption.

darklajid 10y ago
I understand that, and I certainly understand that these (any?) projects shouldn't cater to me (I'm not representative of the market at large). What I'm hoping for is some sort of 'reference device' (i.e. the Flame for FxOs) that is supported across platforms. It doesn't matter if it's ~older~ (Nexus 4?), just a way to compare platforms against each other: Run Ubuntu Phone, Plasma Mobile and CM on the same device (not at the same time ofc), check out if your use cases are supported/the platform can do what you need. Keep whatever is best, retry in 6 month. That'd be awesome.
milcron 10y ago
> Copperhead is just a liberated Android for the most part, it just replaces Replicant. "Liberated" to the extent that it removes Google stuff such as Play Services, yes. However CopperheadOS is not completely libre. They do include non-free 3D drivers, for instance. I agree that Copperhead largely appeals to the same group of people, and it's much more actively developed.