19 ms·

And let's be honest, it's not like there hasn't been spent a decade or more, with thousands of developers working tirelessly on making Android as good as it is

by gf000 1y ago

And let's be honest, it's not like there hasn't been spent a decade or more, with thousands of developers working tirelessly on making Android as good as it is today. Like linux laptops not burning up immediately is itself a change upstreamed from android development, but that's just half of the story. A mobile OS fundamentally needs a different application model -- apps can't just decide to run whenever they like. How will desktop GIMP know that it shouldn't waste my battery when in the background (unless it very specially requests it throuhg an API made just for that)? Does suspending it work as you expect? For how long will you suspend it, shouldn't you kill it as well after a while? Who saves stuff? I can't help but feel that anyone strongly advocating for a GNU Linux phone (because let's be honest, Android is the linux phone) is just not familiar with the actual context of what it entails.

mixmastamyk 1y ago
No one is running gimp on their phone, besides for laughs. There are a number mobile-centric apps in the repos, stick to them and you'll be fine.
- drnick1 1y ago
  The issue is that the mobile-centric apps are few and far fetween, and not nearly as polished as the Android ecosystem.
  - linmob 1y ago
    I maintain a project [1] that tries to collect and track them all, and ... at least for keeping track of how they all develop, there's not a few apps. ;-) [1]: https://linuxphoneapps.org/apps/ https://linuxphoneapps.org/apps/
    - gf000 1y ago
      You currently list 720 apps, Google Play Store has 3.3 million. Even if we assume that a good chunk of that may be "duplicate" in terms of functionality (e.g. todo apps), that is still just a completely different dimension of apps and use cases covered by android natively.
      - mixmastamyk 1y ago
        I don't recommend using the vast majority of mobile apps, which exist for data-mining and addiction-maintenance purposes. Android is specifically known as the worst ecosystem in this regard. Browsers continue to work, despite the corporate push to dark patterns. It's Linux, if you need something you or someone else will eventually write it. But first there needs to be acceptable, working hardware. Enter the FLX1/s, and we come full circle.
        gf000 1y ago
        Sure, the majority of mobile apps suck. But even then, 1% of it is still orders of magnitude larger than the number of "Linux" apps, and there are surely more actually decent mobile apps than that. Besides, open-source doesn't have to be GNU, there are a bunch of open source apps on F-Droid.
        mixmastamyk 1y ago
        (See cousin comment.) I don't need more than a handful of apps, one being a browser. These already exist.
        drnick1 1y ago
        I also reject non-free apps whose main purpose is to snoop on their users like Facebook. But what about dozens of FOSS projects like Home Assistant, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, KeePass and many others? All of these have polished clients that work perfectly on Android and provide an experience that rivals or surpasses commercial offerings. They took years to develop and I don't expect Linux phone versions will ever be released because of the chicken and egg problem. You can emulate these apps with Waydroid on a Linux device, but you will almost certainly lose some features like GPS access or notifications. At the end of the day, you will mainly be running Android apps anyway, free or non-free, so you are better off with an Android device in the first place.
        mixmastamyk 1y ago
        I currently use 0 Android apps, so honestly believe one could survive without them. I'm glad Waydroid is a thing for folks that are, and sorry attestation prevents full compatibility. But neither issue should get in the way of investment in modern Linux phones, which I've been desperately waiting for, for years. Web apps are still a thing as well, believe it or not.

by gf000 1y ago

mixmastamyk 1y ago

No one is running gimp on their phone, besides for laughs. There are a number mobile-centric apps in the repos, stick to them and you'll be fine.

drnick1 1y ago
The issue is that the mobile-centric apps are few and far fetween, and not nearly as polished as the Android ecosystem.
- linmob 1y ago
  I maintain a project [1] that tries to collect and track them all, and ... at least for keeping track of how they all develop, there's not a few apps. ;-) [1]: https://linuxphoneapps.org/apps/ https://linuxphoneapps.org/apps/
  - gf000 1y ago
    You currently list 720 apps, Google Play Store has 3.3 million. Even if we assume that a good chunk of that may be "duplicate" in terms of functionality (e.g. todo apps), that is still just a completely different dimension of apps and use cases covered by android natively.
    - mixmastamyk 1y ago
      I don't recommend using the vast majority of mobile apps, which exist for data-mining and addiction-maintenance purposes. Android is specifically known as the worst ecosystem in this regard. Browsers continue to work, despite the corporate push to dark patterns. It's Linux, if you need something you or someone else will eventually write it. But first there needs to be acceptable, working hardware. Enter the FLX1/s, and we come full circle.
      - gf000 1y ago
        Sure, the majority of mobile apps suck. But even then, 1% of it is still orders of magnitude larger than the number of "Linux" apps, and there are surely more actually decent mobile apps than that. Besides, open-source doesn't have to be GNU, there are a bunch of open source apps on F-Droid.
        mixmastamyk 1y ago
        (See cousin comment.) I don't need more than a handful of apps, one being a browser. These already exist.
      - drnick1 1y ago
        I also reject non-free apps whose main purpose is to snoop on their users like Facebook. But what about dozens of FOSS projects like Home Assistant, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, KeePass and many others? All of these have polished clients that work perfectly on Android and provide an experience that rivals or surpasses commercial offerings. They took years to develop and I don't expect Linux phone versions will ever be released because of the chicken and egg problem. You can emulate these apps with Waydroid on a Linux device, but you will almost certainly lose some features like GPS access or notifications. At the end of the day, you will mainly be running Android apps anyway, free or non-free, so you are better off with an Android device in the first place.
        mixmastamyk 1y ago
        I currently use 0 Android apps, so honestly believe one could survive without them. I'm glad Waydroid is a thing for folks that are, and sorry attestation prevents full compatibility. But neither issue should get in the way of investment in modern Linux phones, which I've been desperately waiting for, for years. Web apps are still a thing as well, believe it or not.