17 ms·

I got the jolla on the 28th or so (bought mine in late November), and I've been using it a little since. I haven't switched from my iPhone, but I do have some i

by krig 13y ago

I got the jolla on the 28th or so (bought mine in late November), and I've been using it a little since. I haven't switched from my iPhone, but I do have some impressions: Good: - Sailfish OS is really nice looking, and the gestures have grown on me. Actually, I find myself trying to perform the gestures like closing an app by swiping down on the iPhone as well, and when it doesn't work, the iPhone feels old and clunky. - The phone feels good in the hand, the back has a pleasant smooth feel. It's nowhere as plastic as the galaxy phones, but doesn't have the weight and solidity of the iPhone. In general, I'm happily surprised by the quality of the hardware. - Terminal and SSH access is one click away. Con: - There are no apps. The ones that are there (a media player, a calendar, a mail app) are extremely bare bones. They work, but lack essential functionality. On the plus side, they look good. Well, the browser looks a bit iffy and some of the UI choices there are no good. - Android apps don't really work that well. Of the ones I've tried, only the official Twitter app and the Youtube player really work okay. Most apps either fail to detect network connectivity or crash. Plus, the Android apps run in a VM, not appearing as separate apps in the sailfish UI, and are pretty sluggish. Not a great experience. - The screen is not great, fonts in the browser in particular look terrible. Hopefully this is something that can be improved (some of the fonts in sailfish itself look great). It's not a terrible screen, but it's fairly low resolution. - The camera is pretty bad. This is a bit sad, since my last maemo/meego phone was the N900, and it had a fantastic camera for its time. - Wireless and 3G data are flaky, and 4G is not working at all, yet. Right now, my impression is, despite its flaws, pretty positive. Once there are more apps, the worst bugs are fixed and the browser is a bit more polished, it'll be a pretty nice OS on a slightly outdated phone. If they can get sailfish running on something like the nexus 5, I think that could be a pretty nice choice.

smashthewindow 13y ago
You use Terminal and SSH on the phone???
- _delirium 13y ago
  I do! Though on Android. For things like IRC sessions I prefer to have them running in a screen session remotely and just ssh in. Well, mosh rather than ssh, because it has better support for intermittent connectivity: http://mosh.mit.edu/ http://mosh.mit.edu/
- ama729 13y ago
  Maemo/Meego and Symbian phone have that since a very long time.
- chipotle_coyote 13y ago
  I've used SSH on my iPhone on occasion (and on the iPad somewhat more regularly). It's not that utterly crazy, as long as you have a good SSH app and can run something like tmux or screen on the server side.
- krig 13y ago
  It's great, yeah. One useful example of what you can do with SSH access is to set up a cronjob on a computer to do automatic backups of the phone.
- sspiff 13y ago
  As do I. I have a keyboard phone, and things like irssi and screen have nothing that can compete in the Android market.
- vidarh 13y ago
  During the company christmas dinner, I ssh'd in to our monitoring server to disable alerts for a server that had been decommissioned (someone forgot to disable the alerts after shutting the server down before we left the office). Ssh on the phone is cumbersome but indispensable for me - it means I have fewer reasons to lug laptops around or find myself suddenly looking for a computer I can borrow. I'm using Android, and there at least it can be made fairly bearable with things like Hackers Keyboard which gives you an onscreen keyboard more suitable for the command line.
- yashau 13y ago
  I use mosh[1] via JuiceSSH[2] on my phone. [1] http://mosh.mit.edu/ http://mosh.mit.edu/ [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.juicessh https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.ju...
- pessimizer 13y ago
  As an N900 user, probably 10 times a day. It often makes up for a lack of hyperspecialized apps. The only way I regularly get data on and off of my phone is rsync.
  - giovannibajo1 13y ago
    Can you cite an usage that doesn't compensate for a missing feature of the platform? iOS offers wifi sync and backup (plus cloud if you want), and there is an ecosystem of products around it to explore/modify/share backups in the standard format, so I don't see me running SSH for it even if I could.
    - boomlinde 13y ago
      > Can you cite an usage that doesn't compensate for a missing feature of the platform? A missing feature, such as your phone not running the server that you need to do light maintenance on? > iOS offers wifi sync and backup (plus cloud if you want), and there is an ecosystem of products around it to explore/modify/share backups in the standard format There is also an ecosystem of products to explore/modify/share rsync backups. Tools like cd, mv, cp, cat, tar... Sorry if I sound harsh, but the wheel can only be invented so many times. I agree that the iPhone backup system is a huge convenience, but if you really want your backups in a "standard format" you'll use a format you are sure Apple won't change at a hunch and that you can manipulate in the same way you do your other backups.
      - giovannibajo1 13y ago
        The problem here is that UNIX tools and shell are not a solution for a generic consumer device. So unless you are arguing that everybody should be able to use them (in which case, I leave the discussion for not being interested in debating the topic), you need to accept the fact that there has to be a user-level feature for backup. At which point, unless it is badly implemented, it is probably far easier and safe than trying to mirror with rsync your phone and then figure out how to handle software upgrades, restores, different partitions, separate software from data, and whatnot. Moreover, I would add that file-based manipulation in my opinion is useful when the single files do expose some value. If I need to backup a sqlite DB with my contacts with rsync, I might as well use a high-level tool that offers me much more without me having to write DB-manipulation code, for instance, syncing/converting with the address book on my OS that might be in a different format. On the other hand, if I edit a .odt file on a tablet, I can see a value in directly manipulating with the shell, as that file is something that I create and I want to access and move around. But only a subset of the things that I want to backup are document files that I created. If I backup the settings of my phone, I wouldn't even want to know HOW they are stored. And assuming I found out, I don't want to be bothered to thinking if direct file copying is the correct way to restore it on a newer/older version of the operating system. This is a level of detail that is beyond what I (personally) want to know about a smartphone. So, to rephrase, does the shell on a smartphone empower you to do things that you couldn't reasonably expect to be implemented as consumer-level features?
muyuu 13y ago
Not sure if I should jump in now, or wait for the 2nd device... I'm really looking forward to use a non-American device due to privacy/surveillance concerns. As far as I can tunnel all my connections through VPN and have a decent maps app (perhaps based on openstreetmap) I'm set. A big plus would be to have stuff like LINE and Skype from Android in a sandboxed environment so it would not access any of my data. Same for the browser. With proper browsers most of the native apps are not really necessary.
- krig 13y ago
  Well, I'm cynical enough to think that there might never be a second device, so I took the plunge now. ;) VPN: Haven't tried yet, waiting to see what the next update brings. I know people in the forums have had some success running OpenVPN, but I don't think there is any UI for it yet. On maps: The included maps app is not great. I think the underlying map data is pretty good, certainly better than apple maps, but the UI lacks features (like the other apps). I doubt there will ever be turn-by-turn navigation, there's no street view. It's actually possible to install and use the Google maps app for android, and it at least doesn't crash. LINE: Just tried installing and running it, seems to work perfectly fine (with caveats about running an android app in sailfish). People say Skype is one of the android apps that works the best. I've installed it but haven't actually tried a Skype call, so I can't speak to that. Edit: Missed the part about sandboxing. I think there has been some talk about that, at the moment there are no access controls for individual apps at all. All the parts that need to change to make that possible are open source, so hopefully someone will make it happen.

by krig 13y ago

smashthewindow 13y ago

You use Terminal and SSH on the phone???

_delirium 13y ago
I do! Though on Android. For things like IRC sessions I prefer to have them running in a screen session remotely and just ssh in. Well, mosh rather than ssh, because it has better support for intermittent connectivity: http://mosh.mit.edu/ http://mosh.mit.edu/
ama729 13y ago
Maemo/Meego and Symbian phone have that since a very long time.
chipotle_coyote 13y ago
I've used SSH on my iPhone on occasion (and on the iPad somewhat more regularly). It's not that utterly crazy, as long as you have a good SSH app and can run something like tmux or screen on the server side.
krig 13y ago
It's great, yeah. One useful example of what you can do with SSH access is to set up a cronjob on a computer to do automatic backups of the phone.
sspiff 13y ago
As do I. I have a keyboard phone, and things like irssi and screen have nothing that can compete in the Android market.
vidarh 13y ago
During the company christmas dinner, I ssh'd in to our monitoring server to disable alerts for a server that had been decommissioned (someone forgot to disable the alerts after shutting the server down before we left the office). Ssh on the phone is cumbersome but indispensable for me - it means I have fewer reasons to lug laptops around or find myself suddenly looking for a computer I can borrow. I'm using Android, and there at least it can be made fairly bearable with things like Hackers Keyboard which gives you an onscreen keyboard more suitable for the command line.
yashau 13y ago
I use mosh[1] via JuiceSSH[2] on my phone. [1] http://mosh.mit.edu/ http://mosh.mit.edu/ [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.juicessh https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.ju...
pessimizer 13y ago
As an N900 user, probably 10 times a day. It often makes up for a lack of hyperspecialized apps. The only way I regularly get data on and off of my phone is rsync.
- giovannibajo1 13y ago
  Can you cite an usage that doesn't compensate for a missing feature of the platform? iOS offers wifi sync and backup (plus cloud if you want), and there is an ecosystem of products around it to explore/modify/share backups in the standard format, so I don't see me running SSH for it even if I could.
  - boomlinde 13y ago
    > Can you cite an usage that doesn't compensate for a missing feature of the platform? A missing feature, such as your phone not running the server that you need to do light maintenance on? > iOS offers wifi sync and backup (plus cloud if you want), and there is an ecosystem of products around it to explore/modify/share backups in the standard format There is also an ecosystem of products to explore/modify/share rsync backups. Tools like cd, mv, cp, cat, tar... Sorry if I sound harsh, but the wheel can only be invented so many times. I agree that the iPhone backup system is a huge convenience, but if you really want your backups in a "standard format" you'll use a format you are sure Apple won't change at a hunch and that you can manipulate in the same way you do your other backups.
    - giovannibajo1 13y ago
      The problem here is that UNIX tools and shell are not a solution for a generic consumer device. So unless you are arguing that everybody should be able to use them (in which case, I leave the discussion for not being interested in debating the topic), you need to accept the fact that there has to be a user-level feature for backup. At which point, unless it is badly implemented, it is probably far easier and safe than trying to mirror with rsync your phone and then figure out how to handle software upgrades, restores, different partitions, separate software from data, and whatnot. Moreover, I would add that file-based manipulation in my opinion is useful when the single files do expose some value. If I need to backup a sqlite DB with my contacts with rsync, I might as well use a high-level tool that offers me much more without me having to write DB-manipulation code, for instance, syncing/converting with the address book on my OS that might be in a different format. On the other hand, if I edit a .odt file on a tablet, I can see a value in directly manipulating with the shell, as that file is something that I create and I want to access and move around. But only a subset of the things that I want to backup are document files that I created. If I backup the settings of my phone, I wouldn't even want to know HOW they are stored. And assuming I found out, I don't want to be bothered to thinking if direct file copying is the correct way to restore it on a newer/older version of the operating system. This is a level of detail that is beyond what I (personally) want to know about a smartphone. So, to rephrase, does the shell on a smartphone empower you to do things that you couldn't reasonably expect to be implemented as consumer-level features?

muyuu 13y ago

Not sure if I should jump in now, or wait for the 2nd device... I'm really looking forward to use a non-American device due to privacy/surveillance concerns. As far as I can tunnel all my connections through VPN and have a decent maps app (perhaps based on openstreetmap) I'm set. A big plus would be to have stuff like LINE and Skype from Android in a sandboxed environment so it would not access any of my data. Same for the browser. With proper browsers most of the native apps are not really necessary.

krig 13y ago
Well, I'm cynical enough to think that there might never be a second device, so I took the plunge now. ;) VPN: Haven't tried yet, waiting to see what the next update brings. I know people in the forums have had some success running OpenVPN, but I don't think there is any UI for it yet. On maps: The included maps app is not great. I think the underlying map data is pretty good, certainly better than apple maps, but the UI lacks features (like the other apps). I doubt there will ever be turn-by-turn navigation, there's no street view. It's actually possible to install and use the Google maps app for android, and it at least doesn't crash. LINE: Just tried installing and running it, seems to work perfectly fine (with caveats about running an android app in sailfish). People say Skype is one of the android apps that works the best. I've installed it but haven't actually tried a Skype call, so I can't speak to that. Edit: Missed the part about sandboxing. I think there has been some talk about that, at the moment there are no access controls for individual apps at all. All the parts that need to change to make that possible are open source, so hopefully someone will make it happen.