this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 116 points 9 months ago (19 children)

I wish Valve would make a Steam Phone. They seem to know how to do Linux devices.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago

Valve laptop to revive the thinkpad glory days

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

they don't know to make a good android app, and you want them to make an entire cellphone💀💀

[–] [email protected] 65 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (15 children)

They made an entire Linux-powered portable game system that's revolutionizing Linux gaming at the moment...an embedded engineer is not the same skillset as an app developer. Not even close.

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[–] AdmiralShat 95 points 9 months ago (17 children)

Linux phones will need to run established Android apps to get users, devs won't move where there is no users, users won't move there if there aren't apps. It's almost cyclical

Right now we're working with people who are exceptions to this, users who want to experiment and devs who don't care about money.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (17 children)

Waydroid runs decently on the pinephone. On a phone with better specs, it might be downright usable for proprietary apps.

Potentially a proton-style layer could really ease transition, like on the steamdeck

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (2 children)

BlackBerry 10 was actually a pretty slick OS that supported Android apps and you could even side-load Google Play services.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Progressive Web Apps. Web programs broke the need for Microsoft Windows.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I appreciate the people who daily drive pinephones. They are paving the way for when they'll be viable alternatives for the masses. (Or verifying that they won't be, we'll see.)

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Everyone saying Android is completely missing the point. I mean yeah, it runs the linux kernel, but i feel like most of yall wouldn't call ChromeOS linux on the other hand.

The obvious connotations are privacy, choice, wayland/x11 support, a useful terminal, a rich foss ecosystem, and arch btw.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

ChromeOS is Linux and even starting to become it's own full blown distro.
ChromeOS even uses Wayland now.
Lacros

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Daily drivin Manjaro (Plasma mobile) on my Pinephone Pro for over a year now. If you are not into the whole "taking pictures all the time" thing you can easiy use it as a daily driver. (This message was typed on it)

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I respond to you just because yours is the last of the "I daily drive a PinePhone" comments, but this is meant for everyone with the same opinion.

Do you, in all honesty, feel comfortable enough with your device that you would confidently run a business solely through it?
I'm not an influencer, so my job isn't "taking pictures all the time", but still I wouldn't rely on a Linux phone to run my business because I cannot risk:

  • to miss a phone call, a text or an email;
  • to run out of battery if I'm outside my office all day long;
  • to have a faulty GPS should I use a navigator to meet a client;
  • that Bluetooth disconnects mid-call for the 5th time in a day while I'm driving;
  • that I have to take a picture to collect information and the latest update borked the camera.

All of these things happen frequently on a Linux phone, and if you have a job where you can live through it good for you, I envy you TBH.
On the other hand, keep in mind that it's not just the "Instagram people" that need a reliable device.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Of course, everyone has different requirements on their phone, so the question if one would be comfortable running their buisness of a pine phone is quite divers.

Phone calls, texts and E-Mails

Text and E-Mails pretty much work as well as on every other phone. Phone calls work too, but the audio quality is below what one could expect from a modern iPhone.

Battery

While the battery runtime of one battery is definitely lower compared to competing devices, it is also replaceable. I usually spend my day in the office were the phone can be charged, so the battery life does not become an issue. When I am traveling I bring some extra batteries. The form factor is commonly available and batteries cost around 10 €, so I got 4 of them, which last me for ~36 hours until I have to charge them. I have so far never spend more time away from an outlet.

GPS

Works nowadays pretty reliable, accuracy of around 20 m is also good enough to find were I need to go

Bluetooth

Definitely not perfect but random disconnects happen rarely. On the other side I have an headphone jack, which always works reliably

Camera

Ok, this point goes to you, the camera is not usable. When taking pictures of documents I usually have to use my tablet.

So now to the overarching question:

Do you, in all honesty, feel comfortable enough with your device that you would confidently run a business solely through it? No, I would not feel comfortable to run a business through a phone, I need a real computer for my work. If I could only use a phone I would choose the pine phone, because at least it can run all software I require for my daily work. Connected to keyboard, mouse and a monitor it could be a slow, but acceptable work machine I can certainly imagine that there are jobs, which rely more heavily on a phone. But in these cases one should have separate work and private phones anyway

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I couldn't run a business on any phone, frankly. That's what computers are for.

Also the GPS worked fine for me.

Let me guess, Manjaro or another unstable distro is where things broke for you? Mobian did not break things on update, much like Debian on desktop. I know the person you replied to uses Manjaro, but if you want a stable experience you really shouldn't.

And most people aren't running a business, so there's that.

I don't deny that the user experience isn't great, it is development/early adopter hardware, but it's definitely usable as a daily driver.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Who's gonna tell him Android is based on Linux ?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Nobody because everybody knows this. Android is still not what people mean when they say linux

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Android is Linux, they literally use the Linux kernel. They replace most other stuff, but Linux it is.

They even work towards mainline kernel support, making updates easier for longer times.

Android is a good example, why "Linux" is not a good term for "Desktop Gnu+Linux".

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago (10 children)

"Android is already a Linux phone" They hated Jesus because he told them the truth.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago

... or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Really a shame that Nokia gave up. The N900 was a well working Linux phone. I miss it dearly.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

Ms did it to nokia

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (13 children)

Okay look I get what we're trying to say here but would it be problematic if I pointed out that Android is also running Linux?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago (3 children)

It’s a valid point, but unfortunately your non bullshit options are limited to replacing the OS with something like Graphene or Lineage.

The powers that be REALLY want your data.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (9 children)
[–] AdmiralShat 33 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Modified Linux kernel, but you very well know what people mean don't you

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (18 children)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What do you miss the most?

[–] [email protected] 86 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (5 children)

How much did it cost, how long have you had it and what are the most obvious pros and cons?

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I was downvoted before for suggesting the Pinetab is not a viable Android or iPad replacement. That thing doesn't even have a working wifi driver yet, you have to plug in a dongle just to connect to wifi. I'd love to have good smart devices running Linux one day, but we're not there yet.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I'm quite optimistic about a usable Linux phone in the near future, maybe 5 years from now or so. When smartphones were a new thing, it was really hard for open source projects without a major company backing them to keep up with all the new developments. Hence all the projects that died out. But innovation on smartphones has basically come to a halt these days. Sure, your phone can get a little bit faster and have round displays now, but nobody cares anymore. Nothing of all that is essential. So, give it some time, we'll get there.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago (13 children)

If your needs are very simple, and you’re willing to go without a lot of luxuries, then yeah, it could work for you.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've been daily driving Ubuntu Touch on the Fairphone 4 for over a year. I love it, even if some features are lacking. Calling and text is stable, but unfortunately Volte support is still missing. Waydroid is also working great.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

ironically, the fact that i would genuinely rather spend my money on a pinephone as opposed to an android should go to show how little i care for android devices.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

it's a fun toy, not super useful but probably fun to tinker with
I've done some ungodly stuff to my android phones (even non-rooted ones, I'm totally abusing them) and I can't even imagine all the possibilities with a proper linux distro. Having a pocket pc with a full arm64 linux sounds awesome

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

Hear me out: THEY ARE VIABLE TO ME

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