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I have been using the officially supported Sailfis OS on Sony Xperia devices for years as my main device: https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ https://jolla.com/sailfi

I have been using the officially supported Sailfis OS on Sony Xperia devices for years as my main device: https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ The idea is you buy one of the supported Xperia phones, buy a Sailfish OS license and flash it on the phone. The license you bought pays for continued software updates (new features & security fixes) as well some external software they integrate (predictive typing support & android app emulation support). Yeah, if the native Sailfish OS apps are not sufficient for you, it can also run most Android apps via an emulation layer. So while Sailfish OS is not fully open source unfortunatelly, it's at the moment IMHO the best mobile Linux distro available on easy to get modern hardware. Ideally over time fully open source distros and more open hardware take over but till then Sailfis OS can serve as a good "bridge", AZ it has since the Jolla company taking care of it was started by the ex N900/Maemo/MeeGO crew.

loosescrews 6y ago
Also note that Sailfish is fairly inexpensive. My current Sailfish phone (Xperia 10) cost me ~$200 USD new including the license from Jolla.
mempko 6y ago
I am using Sailfish OS with Sony XA2. It's my daily driver and has been for years. Jolla still releases updates with new features and UI fixes. They also have been upgrading their Android support and most of the apps I care about work well. Going to buy the Sony 10 II once they release support for it.
stiray 6y ago
Same here. Sony Xperia 10 plus and sailfish os. Daily driver, used all the time. I also have Cosmo Communicator in a drawer - it could be useful but not having camera on phone in linux is a no go. I am trying to get linux on my phone since HTC Blueangel (Ångström linux was the first booting from SD card) and it was always barely usable. Sailfish works so great that it was no brainer to pay those 50 euros for license. Fingerprint reader, camera, bluetooth (as common painpoints for linux on phone) are all working flawlessly. I had to reverse 1 android application that I really need (banking app) and remove safetynet checks but beside that, zero issues. And I dont any other application from android ecosystem that I dont have here as native (and far less battery draining) version. I hope that Jolla will continue its great work and I really hope they start supporting some other phones like Huawei. I am sick of google and its toxic, spyware driven ecosystem. I dont have issue paying for useful application or operating system. But having operating system that is preinstalled with google spyware and than 99% of applications you try to install try to steal your data (not to mention that they all ignore GDPR) is not acceptable.
skvark 6y ago
I have currently Sony XA2 with Sailfish OS. Just ordered Xperia 10 II so I have it ready when they publish the official version for it. I have been using Sailfish as my daily driver since the original Jolla phone was released in 2013. The only issue that I might see as a blocker for some users is that the Android layer is not perfect. It does not support Bluetooth properly so pretty much any Android app that connects to some external peripheral like smart watch will not work. Additionally, you might need to install for example microG to run some apps via the Android layer.

loosescrews 6y ago

Also note that Sailfish is fairly inexpensive. My current Sailfish phone (Xperia 10) cost me ~$200 USD new including the license from Jolla.

mempko 6y ago

I am using Sailfish OS with Sony XA2. It's my daily driver and has been for years. Jolla still releases updates with new features and UI fixes. They also have been upgrading their Android support and most of the apps I care about work well. Going to buy the Sony 10 II once they release support for it.

stiray 6y ago

Same here. Sony Xperia 10 plus and sailfish os. Daily driver, used all the time. I also have Cosmo Communicator in a drawer - it could be useful but not having camera on phone in linux is a no go. I am trying to get linux on my phone since HTC Blueangel (Ångström linux was the first booting from SD card) and it was always barely usable. Sailfish works so great that it was no brainer to pay those 50 euros for license. Fingerprint reader, camera, bluetooth (as common painpoints for linux on phone) are all working flawlessly. I had to reverse 1 android application that I really need (banking app) and remove safetynet checks but beside that, zero issues. And I dont any other application from android ecosystem that I dont have here as native (and far less battery draining) version. I hope that Jolla will continue its great work and I really hope they start supporting some other phones like Huawei. I am sick of google and its toxic, spyware driven ecosystem. I dont have issue paying for useful application or operating system. But having operating system that is preinstalled with google spyware and than 99% of applications you try to install try to steal your data (not to mention that they all ignore GDPR) is not acceptable.

skvark 6y ago

I have currently Sony XA2 with Sailfish OS. Just ordered Xperia 10 II so I have it ready when they publish the official version for it. I have been using Sailfish as my daily driver since the original Jolla phone was released in 2013. The only issue that I might see as a blocker for some users is that the Android layer is not perfect. It does not support Bluetooth properly so pretty much any Android app that connects to some external peripheral like smart watch will not work. Additionally, you might need to install for example microG to run some apps via the Android layer.