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I’m sad that people are spending time on this when they should be building a Linux phone.
by ed_mercer 9mo ago
I’m sad that people are spending time on this when they should be building a Linux phone.
- fsflover 9mo agoLinux phones already exist: Librem 5 and Pinephone.
- adrian_b 9mo agoThose have a ridiculously low performance. While this phone still does not have an Armv9-A CPU, but only a quadruple Cortex-A78, that is nonetheless like 4 to 10 times faster than the phones mentioned by you and faster than a light notebook of a decade ago. The other Linux phones are barely competitive with a laptop of 25 years ago and they are not really usable as a personal computer today, unless you like waiting for your computer.
- fsflover 9mo agoSpecs do not show the whole pucture: https://puri.sm/posts/the-danger-of-focusing-on-specs/ https://puri.sm/posts/the-danger-of-focusing-on-specs/ Librem 5 is my daily driver btw.
- adrian_b 9mo agoWhile I partially agree with what it says at your link, about specs depending on the context, I am also well aware about the actual performance of quadruple Cortex-A53 CPUs and how it compares with alternatives, because about a decade ago I have used many single-board computers with various kinds of such CPUs (including Raspberry Pi, but also other very different SoCs). I eventually abandoned them for better alternatives. If you have modest requirements, you can be content with such a CPU, e.g. for reading and editing simple documents or browsing the Internet with scripting disabled. The point is that there is no need to restrain yourself to cope with its limitations, because for more than a decade there have been much better alternatives. Even when your target is a sub-$100 computer, it makes no sense to use any CPU weaker than a quadruple Cortex-A76, like in the many computer models using Rockchip CPUs or in the current Raspberry Pi. While there are much more sources of Cortex-A76 based computers, the number of those offering much faster Cortex-A78 based CPUs using Qualcomm or Mediatek SoCs, including this smartphone, are steadily increasing.
- fsflover 9mo ago> The point is that there is no need to restrain yourself to cope with its limitations, because for more than a decade there have been much better alternatives. Where are those alternatives? Which phones with a better CPU can run GNU/Linux?
- JCattheATM 9mo agoWhat about phones from OnePlus for example, sever of which can run PostmarketOS.
- fsflover 9mo agoAFAIK none of them can run GNU/Linux natively: only on top of Android.
- JCattheATM 9mo agoNever heard anything like that about PostmarketOS before, and couldn't find anything confirming that's the case.
- fsflover 9mo agoGood call. It seems this is just one way to run it, https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Hybris https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Hybris. Another way is to run mainline kernel, which is currently supported by few devices, including Librem 5, Pinephone, Fairphone 2, OnePlus. It seems only the first two run with all FLOSS drivers and full support: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices So, for OnePlus, you may stop getting updates for proprietary drivers whenever the vendor decides so. Also, not all features are supported due to the difficulty of reverse-engineering the drivers.
- JCattheATM 9mo agoDriver updates generally stablize, and new updates aren't really needed, so I don't think that's an issue.