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I see alot of comments here recommending other Linux OS's that the author could try and I think those comments are missing the point. I think of my phone as "cr

I see alot of comments here recommending other Linux OS's that the author could try and I think those comments are missing the point. I think of my phone as "critical tech", that is tech that _must always work_. I love to tinker with things, but my phone is not one of those things because it needs to hold an extremely high bar of reliability. I can mess around with my PiHole or my PLEX box and if that breaks then it's ok I can fix it. But when it comes to my phone I often find myself in situations where I need to pull up a boarding ticket, or order an Uber, or call a friend when we are trying to find each other. In each of these case, something not working is just not an option.

iudqnolq 3y ago
Agreed. I also use my phone as an important part of my backup for my computer, which I'm willing to mess with more. Specifically my phone has my password manager 1password: - If I wanted to restore my computer from a disk backup I'd need the backup encryption key. - If I wanted to recover my computer from a fresh install I'd need my GitHub password, Google Drive password (I sync my Documents folder to drive), email password, etc. I have paper backups of my 1Password account recovery information but I wouldn't necessarily have those accessible while traveling. And I consider my phone to be the primary and most reliable of those. (I'd really like a backup of my 1password but they don't make that trivial so it's on my to do list. At least each of their apps on my devices acts as an offline backup. I think that I can copy the SQLite database and the exact version of the app on my computer to a usb drive but that's obviously something I'd want to test) There are also lots of little annoyances you don't necessarily think of. If you break your computer's network stack it's really annoying to debug without a way to Google, for example. I could borrow my partner's laptop for a quick check, but I'd rather not for an extended session.
eternityforest 3y ago
Yep, same. It's not a phone, it's a mobile terminal from a sci-fi movie. My tolerance for tinkering with anything that matters is already low, but with phones it's pretty much zero. I don't want an OS that has less than a billion other people using it. I feel bad about e-waste, but I don't care nearly as much as I would for other devices. I'll happily upgrade my phone every 4 years, because it means there's a dozen other things I don't need to own in the first place. Besides, I like android better than Linux by a lot. I use Linux because of the ecosystem of stuff that runs on it, but I'd be jumping for joy if Android for Servers became a thing and they ported the desktop apps I use to it.

iudqnolq 3y ago

Agreed. I also use my phone as an important part of my backup for my computer, which I'm willing to mess with more. Specifically my phone has my password manager 1password: - If I wanted to restore my computer from a disk backup I'd need the backup encryption key. - If I wanted to recover my computer from a fresh install I'd need my GitHub password, Google Drive password (I sync my Documents folder to drive), email password, etc. I have paper backups of my 1Password account recovery information but I wouldn't necessarily have those accessible while traveling. And I consider my phone to be the primary and most reliable of those. (I'd really like a backup of my 1password but they don't make that trivial so it's on my to do list. At least each of their apps on my devices acts as an offline backup. I think that I can copy the SQLite database and the exact version of the app on my computer to a usb drive but that's obviously something I'd want to test) There are also lots of little annoyances you don't necessarily think of. If you break your computer's network stack it's really annoying to debug without a way to Google, for example. I could borrow my partner's laptop for a quick check, but I'd rather not for an extended session.

eternityforest 3y ago

Yep, same. It's not a phone, it's a mobile terminal from a sci-fi movie. My tolerance for tinkering with anything that matters is already low, but with phones it's pretty much zero. I don't want an OS that has less than a billion other people using it. I feel bad about e-waste, but I don't care nearly as much as I would for other devices. I'll happily upgrade my phone every 4 years, because it means there's a dozen other things I don't need to own in the first place. Besides, I like android better than Linux by a lot. I use Linux because of the ecosystem of stuff that runs on it, but I'd be jumping for joy if Android for Servers became a thing and they ported the desktop apps I use to it.