5 ms·

Purposefully not updating software on a networked machine is rarely the clever answer. Switching from Android to something else might be, depending on what the

Purposefully not updating software on a networked machine is rarely the clever answer. Switching from Android to something else might be, depending on what the something else is.

mehrdadn 7y ago
I'm not being clever, I'm just being practical. Feel free to throw suggestions for how I can run Linux binaries on my phone and I'll happily consider them.
- K0SM0S 7y ago
  SailfishOS comes to mind. But it's not on par with Android (yet, or ever), however it's Linux, the real thing. I learned about it in the AskNoahShow ep.144 titled "SailfishOS" [1], you might wanna check it out. It runs notably on open-source phones from Sony. You can bet that's my next toy! [1]: https://podcast.asknoahshow.com/144 https://podcast.asknoahshow.com/144
  - voltagex_ 7y ago
    I bought a Sony Xperia XA2 Plus for this express purpose. A couple of things: fastboot oem unlock is a one way trip, it blows some kind of fuse and you can never relock the bootloader. While I give Sony lots of points for having a page showing where the UART is in their phones, they lose all of those points for deciding that unlocked devices can no longer get OTA updates, even when reflashed to a stock ROM. Sailfish was really, really janky when I tried it, I couldn't even turn on developer mode without signing in to a Jolla account, then it hung for at least 5 minutes trying to enable the developer mode. For the XA2 Ultra, there's also no LineageOS build.
    - K0SM0S 7y ago
      Thanks a lot for the feedback, I'll definitely keep it in mind! My idea and recommendation, taking a cue from Noah Chelliah (link above), is basically to have two smartphones — 1 dedicated to SailfishOS, and 1 "fallback" on Android for everything else. Then see from there.
      - blotter_paper 7y ago
        I'm pretty sure the Xperia that GP mentioned is supported by both MultiROM and Sailfish, so if you're buying devices specifically for this purpose you should be able to dualboot both Sailfish your Android fallback on that one device (among others you could choose from).
        K0SM0S 7y ago
        Oh? This sounds awesome! I'm really not a phone person, barely use it —PC all the way!— so I'm pretty sure I'll be just fine with a dual boot. My intent with Sailfish is to replace the laptop actually, for all those times when it's just too much and I only need a quick terminal session. Thanks for that.
  - m4rtink 7y ago
    I have been running Sailfish OS as my main smartphone since launch (November 2013) on various devices (Jolla 1, Jolla c, Xperia X) and while definitely not perfect I find it totally usable in this role. And having a real Linux distro in your pocket is really really nice & only illustrates how stripped down are regular Android phones and tablets every time I interact with one.
    - K0SM0S 7y ago
      This is music to my ears. > illustrates how stripped down are regular Android phones and tablets Oh don't get me started on that... I could probably write a short novel about it. But you know that already. Part of me feels disappointed that of all the Linux-y podcasts and blogs and comments I've been exposed to over the years, it took me this long to identify Sailfish as my probable salvation.
- blotter_paper 7y ago
  That's really hard to do in the general case, since I know nothing about your phone or how locked down it is (other than that it presumably runs Android 9). Honestly, support is spotty and it's usually easier to purposefully buy a device that's well supported for some method than it is to start with whatever device you have in your pocket and go from there. That said, you might get lucky and find a method for your device by searching the XDA Developers Forum for it. On that forum you can also find multiple bootloader projects that each support different devices to varying degrees.
- vertex-four 7y ago
  A LibreM 5.
- opan 7y ago
  It may be worth looking into postmarketOS, although chances are your device won't be well supported from the start.

Purposefully not updating software on a networked machine is rarely the clever answer. Switching from Android to something else might be, depending on what the something else is.

mehrdadn 7y ago

I'm not being clever, I'm just being practical. Feel free to throw suggestions for how I can run Linux binaries on my phone and I'll happily consider them.

K0SM0S 7y ago
SailfishOS comes to mind. But it's not on par with Android (yet, or ever), however it's Linux, the real thing. I learned about it in the AskNoahShow ep.144 titled "SailfishOS" [1], you might wanna check it out. It runs notably on open-source phones from Sony. You can bet that's my next toy! [1]: https://podcast.asknoahshow.com/144 https://podcast.asknoahshow.com/144
- voltagex_ 7y ago
  I bought a Sony Xperia XA2 Plus for this express purpose. A couple of things: fastboot oem unlock is a one way trip, it blows some kind of fuse and you can never relock the bootloader. While I give Sony lots of points for having a page showing where the UART is in their phones, they lose all of those points for deciding that unlocked devices can no longer get OTA updates, even when reflashed to a stock ROM. Sailfish was really, really janky when I tried it, I couldn't even turn on developer mode without signing in to a Jolla account, then it hung for at least 5 minutes trying to enable the developer mode. For the XA2 Ultra, there's also no LineageOS build.
  - K0SM0S 7y ago
    Thanks a lot for the feedback, I'll definitely keep it in mind! My idea and recommendation, taking a cue from Noah Chelliah (link above), is basically to have two smartphones — 1 dedicated to SailfishOS, and 1 "fallback" on Android for everything else. Then see from there.
    - blotter_paper 7y ago
      I'm pretty sure the Xperia that GP mentioned is supported by both MultiROM and Sailfish, so if you're buying devices specifically for this purpose you should be able to dualboot both Sailfish your Android fallback on that one device (among others you could choose from).
      - K0SM0S 7y ago
        Oh? This sounds awesome! I'm really not a phone person, barely use it —PC all the way!— so I'm pretty sure I'll be just fine with a dual boot. My intent with Sailfish is to replace the laptop actually, for all those times when it's just too much and I only need a quick terminal session. Thanks for that.
- m4rtink 7y ago
  I have been running Sailfish OS as my main smartphone since launch (November 2013) on various devices (Jolla 1, Jolla c, Xperia X) and while definitely not perfect I find it totally usable in this role. And having a real Linux distro in your pocket is really really nice & only illustrates how stripped down are regular Android phones and tablets every time I interact with one.
  - K0SM0S 7y ago
    This is music to my ears. > illustrates how stripped down are regular Android phones and tablets Oh don't get me started on that... I could probably write a short novel about it. But you know that already. Part of me feels disappointed that of all the Linux-y podcasts and blogs and comments I've been exposed to over the years, it took me this long to identify Sailfish as my probable salvation.
blotter_paper 7y ago
That's really hard to do in the general case, since I know nothing about your phone or how locked down it is (other than that it presumably runs Android 9). Honestly, support is spotty and it's usually easier to purposefully buy a device that's well supported for some method than it is to start with whatever device you have in your pocket and go from there. That said, you might get lucky and find a method for your device by searching the XDA Developers Forum for it. On that forum you can also find multiple bootloader projects that each support different devices to varying degrees.
vertex-four 7y ago
A LibreM 5.
opan 7y ago
It may be worth looking into postmarketOS, although chances are your device won't be well supported from the start.