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I have used a Linux phone for 12 years or so. First the N900 and later the Jolla/Sailfish ones. None of them has been a great product. The software has limited

I have used a Linux phone for 12 years or so. First the N900 and later the Jolla/Sailfish ones. None of them has been a great product. The software has limited features and there are few apps. The lack of manpower in development cannot be hidden. I cannot buy a subway ticket in several cities and I get difficulties with banks, because I have no Google playstore and we live in a world worse than Orwell's 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 could imagine. When I want to tinker I have a shell, can become root and I know what I am doing. Yes, I want a Linux phone.

panny 6y ago
I had a Motorola a1200 in 2006 :) >None of them has been a great product The a1200 ming was pretty slick for its time. It had a 2MP camera when everything else shipped with 0.3MP at best. Touch screen, stylus, see through flip so you could see the screen when closed. That was a pretty cool phone.
paulcole 6y ago
> we live in a world worse than Orwell's 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 could imagine You have read those books right?
- usr1106 6y ago
  I did finish 1984 on 31-Dec-83. Maybe I need to read it again, don't remember too many details... For Fahrenheit 451 I have seen the movie twice and I remember it quite well. No idea how much it is different from the book, have not read it. Of course not all aspects of those fiction works apply, especially outside of China, Russia and the like. But Orwell would be not have foreseen how Google/Apple/Facebook can use positioning info or face detection of their users or how Russian internet trolls can influence US presidential elections or German vaccination opponents.
  - theon144 6y ago
    I really don't mean to rail on you, but this confirms the parent comment's suspcisions quite precisely - having "seen the movie" about a book whose major point is the eradication of books in favor of more easily digestible media like movies; and having read the other book you mentioned almost 40 years ago, whose themes are completely irrelevant to Russian trolls or face detection...
TheRealSteel 6y ago
>I get difficulties with banks, because I have no Google playstore and we live in a world worse than Orwell's 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 could imagine. It's such a shame we're locked into platform-specific apps. If only there was some way banks etc could make some kind off app that runs on any platform. What if we had some sort of... app like thing - documents with interactive elements and media, even code that runs (safely sandboxed), but not tied to any one platform. We could have one central app, a platform within a platform, that fetches and displays these documents, which are made according to a set of specifications and standards that can be implemented freely by anyone. It wouldn't be easy or cheap to do so, but the engines could be open source so that new OSes could still run them. I don't know... it's probably a crazy, unrealistic idea. Sadly, since no such thing exists, the banks have no choice but to lock us into the Android-iPhone duopoly.
throwdbaaway 6y ago
> I have used a Linux phone for 12 years or so. First the N900 and later the Jolla/Sailfish ones. > None of them has been a great product. Likewise, and I disagree. The phones that support Sailfish X or later are all great. With Xperia XA2 or Xperia 10, you can install micro-g via f-droid, and then most android apps should work fine. Yes, it is not ideal that we need android/ios apps to function properly in a society. Blame it on SV. Oh, that's us? Anyway, back to Jolla. A good example is that if the LCD screen breaks, I can just buy a replacement, ssh into the old phone, and scp from it to the new phone (this actually happened). That's a Linux phone.
- usr1106 6y ago
  >> I have used a Linux phone for 12 years or so. First the N900 and later the Jolla/Sailfish ones. >> None of them has been a great product. > Likewise, and I disagree. The phones that support Sailfish X or later are all great. With Xperia XA2 or Xperia 10, you can install micro-g via f-droid, and then most android apps should work fine I am still on Xperia X and since last fall I cannot even update Firefox any more. The few commercial apps I did try like my bank say they won't run on a rooted phone. The models with the newer kernel/Android had their own share of issues what I read from the forums. So I did not feel any urge to upgrade to a hardware that does not fit into my pocket. Of course the blame is on the kernel misery for phone SoCs, Google de-facto monopoly accepted by companies and governments publishing apps. So I could say I have a great phone and all the others are wrong... > ssh into the old phone Sure, you don't have to tell me, that's those reasons why I use it.
  - throwdbaaway 6y ago
    Ah you are still on Xperia X, that explains. For me, Xperia X was great for a year or so circa 2018, before: * everyone started to abandon the perfectly capable android 4.4 API, mostly due to the support of TLS 1.2 * payment / transport / banking / e-commerce / travel / food / coffee all started moving to mobile-first Following that, there was a rather rough 2~3 months transition period when I upgraded to XA2 in early 2019. It has been smooth sailing since. I once was a strong proponent of small form factor too, but I am afraid that boat has sailed, and well, XA2 Ultra actually still fits in mine :)

panny 6y ago

I had a Motorola a1200 in 2006 :) >None of them has been a great product The a1200 ming was pretty slick for its time. It had a 2MP camera when everything else shipped with 0.3MP at best. Touch screen, stylus, see through flip so you could see the screen when closed. That was a pretty cool phone.

paulcole 6y ago

> we live in a world worse than Orwell's 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 could imagine You have read those books right?

usr1106 6y ago
I did finish 1984 on 31-Dec-83. Maybe I need to read it again, don't remember too many details... For Fahrenheit 451 I have seen the movie twice and I remember it quite well. No idea how much it is different from the book, have not read it. Of course not all aspects of those fiction works apply, especially outside of China, Russia and the like. But Orwell would be not have foreseen how Google/Apple/Facebook can use positioning info or face detection of their users or how Russian internet trolls can influence US presidential elections or German vaccination opponents.
- theon144 6y ago
  I really don't mean to rail on you, but this confirms the parent comment's suspcisions quite precisely - having "seen the movie" about a book whose major point is the eradication of books in favor of more easily digestible media like movies; and having read the other book you mentioned almost 40 years ago, whose themes are completely irrelevant to Russian trolls or face detection...

TheRealSteel 6y ago

>I get difficulties with banks, because I have no Google playstore and we live in a world worse than Orwell's 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 could imagine. It's such a shame we're locked into platform-specific apps. If only there was some way banks etc could make some kind off app that runs on any platform. What if we had some sort of... app like thing - documents with interactive elements and media, even code that runs (safely sandboxed), but not tied to any one platform. We could have one central app, a platform within a platform, that fetches and displays these documents, which are made according to a set of specifications and standards that can be implemented freely by anyone. It wouldn't be easy or cheap to do so, but the engines could be open source so that new OSes could still run them. I don't know... it's probably a crazy, unrealistic idea. Sadly, since no such thing exists, the banks have no choice but to lock us into the Android-iPhone duopoly.

throwdbaaway 6y ago

> I have used a Linux phone for 12 years or so. First the N900 and later the Jolla/Sailfish ones. > None of them has been a great product. Likewise, and I disagree. The phones that support Sailfish X or later are all great. With Xperia XA2 or Xperia 10, you can install micro-g via f-droid, and then most android apps should work fine. Yes, it is not ideal that we need android/ios apps to function properly in a society. Blame it on SV. Oh, that's us? Anyway, back to Jolla. A good example is that if the LCD screen breaks, I can just buy a replacement, ssh into the old phone, and scp from it to the new phone (this actually happened). That's a Linux phone.

usr1106 6y ago
>> I have used a Linux phone for 12 years or so. First the N900 and later the Jolla/Sailfish ones. >> None of them has been a great product. > Likewise, and I disagree. The phones that support Sailfish X or later are all great. With Xperia XA2 or Xperia 10, you can install micro-g via f-droid, and then most android apps should work fine I am still on Xperia X and since last fall I cannot even update Firefox any more. The few commercial apps I did try like my bank say they won't run on a rooted phone. The models with the newer kernel/Android had their own share of issues what I read from the forums. So I did not feel any urge to upgrade to a hardware that does not fit into my pocket. Of course the blame is on the kernel misery for phone SoCs, Google de-facto monopoly accepted by companies and governments publishing apps. So I could say I have a great phone and all the others are wrong... > ssh into the old phone Sure, you don't have to tell me, that's those reasons why I use it.
- throwdbaaway 6y ago
  Ah you are still on Xperia X, that explains. For me, Xperia X was great for a year or so circa 2018, before: * everyone started to abandon the perfectly capable android 4.4 API, mostly due to the support of TLS 1.2 * payment / transport / banking / e-commerce / travel / food / coffee all started moving to mobile-first Following that, there was a rather rough 2~3 months transition period when I upgraded to XA2 in early 2019. It has been smooth sailing since. I once was a strong proponent of small form factor too, but I am afraid that boat has sailed, and well, XA2 Ultra actually still fits in mine :)