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Unless what's discussed in the Anbox section of the article (how to run apps that people came to depend on, such as WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal) is properly addres

Unless what's discussed in the Anbox section of the article (how to run apps that people came to depend on, such as WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal) is properly addressed, most people wouldn't even consider one of those phones. We should remember that the late Blackberry phones did have Android app compatibility and still failed. Librem and PinePhone are not even at the starting point yet, which is unfortunate.

Mediterraneo10 5y ago
Signal on the Librem 5/PinePhone is already usable through one client (Axolotl), with possibly more clients on the way – the Signal devs still don’t publicly endorse third-party clients, but they have softened their stance and even quietly helped some other projects. So, a working Anbox isn’t seen as a must-have for Signal.
- CameronNemo 5y ago
  Good to hear. But I still use Venmo, Slack, Zoom, iNaturalist, and my bank app. Along with plenty of open source android apps that I will pretend can be automagically ported or reimplemented.
  - Mediterraneo10 5y ago
    Don't expect your bank app and other common non-FOSS apps to ever work on Anbox. The problem is that more and more Android apps are requiring the device to pass SafetyNet. Not only will Anbox not pass SafetyNet, but even de-Googled Android ROMs like LineageOS have generally lost this war. Generally supporters of FOSS phones who have to run an Android bank app or their country’s official ID app which is SafetyNet and Play Services-dependent, are encouraged to simply get a cheap Android phone for those limited purposes. Not to expect the PinePhone or Librem to run such apps.
    - CameronNemo 5y ago
      My bank app works on my degoogled android, and I live in the US so I think I am far from needing an ID software. I don't even have a "real" physical state ID yet haha.
twiclo 5y ago
This is the same "Well linux doesn't run my program" argument windows users make about switching to linux. The appeal isn't that it's a platform that I can twist into Android it's that it's Linux and it does things the right way. Blackberry didn't have an amazing OS to hold it up. That's why it failed
- redthrow 5y ago
  I think the mobile situation is a bit different. People who depend on e.g. WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family simply won't switch to a phone that doesn't run WhatsApp. Those messaging apps (or apps like Uber/Lyft) in particular have network effect (i.e. the decision is not solely your own) and a new entrant for the phone hardware has to support those apps (hence the Blackberry's decision to be Android compatible) or they are dead on arrival. I don't think there are many apps that people depend on on Windows or Mac in the same way people depend on WhatsApp or Uber on their phone. Sure, people in certain occupations may need to use Windows/Mac-only apps, but there's plenty of people who don't use them. I run Linux Mint on my laptop (and have for years) because there's no Windows or Mac apps I personally want to run. This is thanks largely to (a) webapps (e.g. Google Docs), and (b) cross platform dev tools that made e.g. VSCode, Brave, etc possible (which doesn't exist for phones outside Android/iOS), and (c) me not being a gamer.

Mediterraneo10 5y ago

Signal on the Librem 5/PinePhone is already usable through one client (Axolotl), with possibly more clients on the way – the Signal devs still don’t publicly endorse third-party clients, but they have softened their stance and even quietly helped some other projects. So, a working Anbox isn’t seen as a must-have for Signal.

CameronNemo 5y ago
Good to hear. But I still use Venmo, Slack, Zoom, iNaturalist, and my bank app. Along with plenty of open source android apps that I will pretend can be automagically ported or reimplemented.
- Mediterraneo10 5y ago
  Don't expect your bank app and other common non-FOSS apps to ever work on Anbox. The problem is that more and more Android apps are requiring the device to pass SafetyNet. Not only will Anbox not pass SafetyNet, but even de-Googled Android ROMs like LineageOS have generally lost this war. Generally supporters of FOSS phones who have to run an Android bank app or their country’s official ID app which is SafetyNet and Play Services-dependent, are encouraged to simply get a cheap Android phone for those limited purposes. Not to expect the PinePhone or Librem to run such apps.
  - CameronNemo 5y ago
    My bank app works on my degoogled android, and I live in the US so I think I am far from needing an ID software. I don't even have a "real" physical state ID yet haha.

twiclo 5y ago

This is the same "Well linux doesn't run my program" argument windows users make about switching to linux. The appeal isn't that it's a platform that I can twist into Android it's that it's Linux and it does things the right way. Blackberry didn't have an amazing OS to hold it up. That's why it failed

redthrow 5y ago
I think the mobile situation is a bit different. People who depend on e.g. WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family simply won't switch to a phone that doesn't run WhatsApp. Those messaging apps (or apps like Uber/Lyft) in particular have network effect (i.e. the decision is not solely your own) and a new entrant for the phone hardware has to support those apps (hence the Blackberry's decision to be Android compatible) or they are dead on arrival. I don't think there are many apps that people depend on on Windows or Mac in the same way people depend on WhatsApp or Uber on their phone. Sure, people in certain occupations may need to use Windows/Mac-only apps, but there's plenty of people who don't use them. I run Linux Mint on my laptop (and have for years) because there's no Windows or Mac apps I personally want to run. This is thanks largely to (a) webapps (e.g. Google Docs), and (b) cross platform dev tools that made e.g. VSCode, Brave, etc possible (which doesn't exist for phones outside Android/iOS), and (c) me not being a gamer.