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This is fabulous! There are millions of old phones out there with decaying versions of iOS and Android. Google and Apple are ignoring them, so these devices are

by evv 9y ago

This is fabulous! There are millions of old phones out there with decaying versions of iOS and Android. Google and Apple are ignoring them, so these devices are just plummeting in value. This is the perfect market for an actually-open-source mobile OS! If somebody can get React Native to run on PostmarketOS, then we could start building up an ecosystem of non-walled-garden apps that are compatible with iOS and Android!

epoch1970 9y ago
> If somebody can get React Native to run on PostmarketOS, then we could start building up an ecosystem of non-walled-garden apps that are compatible with iOS and Android! What leads you to believe this would actually happen? PhoneGap/Cordova have been around for ages, and they could have already enabled such an ecosystem to have formed, but we haven't seen that happen. Of course, there are other similar technologies out there, too. Even Firefox OS failed, and that was with the backing of Mozilla and its eager community. What's different about this case?
- evv 9y ago
  Good question. I think there are two big reasons this is more feasible now than it has been in the past. 1) Proliferation of compatible devices. Firefox OS attempted to launch with zero compatible phones. (The dev device I bought would crash on boot, every time). Postmarket OS is launching with hundreds of thousands of compatible devices already in the wild, many of which are sitting unused in people’s drawers. If it gets much contributor momentum, there will be millions of devices ready to switch. 2) As a React Native contributor, I am totally biased, but I think it represents a big shift in mobile development. Personally I don’t think ionic/cordova apps feel very good, especially on older devices. RN is the first open-source xplat mobile app environment that allows you to produce high-quality apps. Or at least, by the standards of FB, Airbnb, and Microsoft.
jacquesm 9y ago
Why would that require react? You can build apps for a phone running a Linux distro with just about any tool you want.
- crush-n-spread 9y ago
  It would require react-native because then phones that are not running gnu/linux can also use those react-native apps. So, if you build an app with react-native, then it runs on Postmarket OS and the commercial phone OSes. Perhaps I'm missing the reason why another tool is just as cross-platform? EDIT: Looks like there are plenty of options for cross-platform mobile UI libraries including QT and Kirigami. Like others have said, why use React then.
  - ollieparanoid 9y ago
    There's KDE Kirigami, which will create programs that run on GNU/Linux/Android/iPhone from what I understand. But I have not tried it myself yet: https://dot.kde.org/2017/01/02/kde-releases-beta-kirigami-ui-20 https://dot.kde.org/2017/01/02/kde-releases-beta-kirigami-ui...
    - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
      Still using Qt Quick. Native QtWidgets would be blazingly fast on old smartphones.
  - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
    You can do even better with Qt support. Then you don't have any VM or JS tax and don't need the resources to do JIT or AOT.
    - crush-n-spread 9y ago
      Thanks, I just looked it up and yeah, looks like QT has cross platform mobile supported. Great.
746F7475 9y ago
For longest time I used Samsung Galaxy with CyanogenMod, while it was usable. It was pretty much a stretch. I'm also guessing using that old ass phone for so long is one of the huge factors why smartphone isn't a big part of my life (as it seems to be for most of people of my age). Since my phone was so slow and barely worked I always opted for other means of communication and face-to-face socialising.

by evv 9y ago

epoch1970 9y ago

> If somebody can get React Native to run on PostmarketOS, then we could start building up an ecosystem of non-walled-garden apps that are compatible with iOS and Android! What leads you to believe this would actually happen? PhoneGap/Cordova have been around for ages, and they could have already enabled such an ecosystem to have formed, but we haven't seen that happen. Of course, there are other similar technologies out there, too. Even Firefox OS failed, and that was with the backing of Mozilla and its eager community. What's different about this case?

evv 9y ago
Good question. I think there are two big reasons this is more feasible now than it has been in the past. 1) Proliferation of compatible devices. Firefox OS attempted to launch with zero compatible phones. (The dev device I bought would crash on boot, every time). Postmarket OS is launching with hundreds of thousands of compatible devices already in the wild, many of which are sitting unused in people’s drawers. If it gets much contributor momentum, there will be millions of devices ready to switch. 2) As a React Native contributor, I am totally biased, but I think it represents a big shift in mobile development. Personally I don’t think ionic/cordova apps feel very good, especially on older devices. RN is the first open-source xplat mobile app environment that allows you to produce high-quality apps. Or at least, by the standards of FB, Airbnb, and Microsoft.

jacquesm 9y ago

Why would that require react? You can build apps for a phone running a Linux distro with just about any tool you want.

crush-n-spread 9y ago
It would require react-native because then phones that are not running gnu/linux can also use those react-native apps. So, if you build an app with react-native, then it runs on Postmarket OS and the commercial phone OSes. Perhaps I'm missing the reason why another tool is just as cross-platform? EDIT: Looks like there are plenty of options for cross-platform mobile UI libraries including QT and Kirigami. Like others have said, why use React then.
- ollieparanoid 9y ago
  There's KDE Kirigami, which will create programs that run on GNU/Linux/Android/iPhone from what I understand. But I have not tried it myself yet: https://dot.kde.org/2017/01/02/kde-releases-beta-kirigami-ui-20 https://dot.kde.org/2017/01/02/kde-releases-beta-kirigami-ui...
  - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
    Still using Qt Quick. Native QtWidgets would be blazingly fast on old smartphones.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  You can do even better with Qt support. Then you don't have any VM or JS tax and don't need the resources to do JIT or AOT.
  - crush-n-spread 9y ago
    Thanks, I just looked it up and yeah, looks like QT has cross platform mobile supported. Great.

746F7475 9y ago

For longest time I used Samsung Galaxy with CyanogenMod, while it was usable. It was pretty much a stretch. I'm also guessing using that old ass phone for so long is one of the huge factors why smartphone isn't a big part of my life (as it seems to be for most of people of my age). Since my phone was so slow and barely worked I always opted for other means of communication and face-to-face socialising.