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[–] 98 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is great news!

For those unaware, Google is continuously enacting policies that are closing down the open environment of Android, and I fear this will significantly harm projects like GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, and others.

If you can spare a couple dollars, please consider throwing some money at PostmarketOS or any other mobile Linux project you like.

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  • [–] 28 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    are you aware of any articles/documentation that can make a noob aware of how these projects compare to each other?

    i'm going to eos on a nothing phone in the near future, but that's only because i can find step-by-step documentation with exact hardware and eos version on how to do so thanks to Lemmy.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    the newest device on that list is 5 years old. is this project still active?

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    yup it is very active. u can follow the account here: @postmarketOS

    as for why the devices seem old: it takes a lot of work trying to get the old android kernel working with the mainline kernel. its much harder than lineageos as we dont reuse the old android kernel and a lot of work needs to be done on both the kernel and userspace

    basically one person is doing an entire engineering departments work

    if ud like the newest phone, u can get a fairphone 5

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  • [–] 64 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    The sooner there is a rom compatible with most android devices, the better.

    I'd be off Android so fast.

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  • [–] 34 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    They already have a Linux app, I can't see them not making UI adjustments for Linux phones.

    I'm also personally fine just using matrix but thats just me.

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    The Signal lead has been vocally against doing a fully fledged version for Linux for a while now. He really likes his closed ecosystems. "for security"

    Desktop Linux is soooo insecure because users can access their own data.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Project status: archived

    oof

    i know Flare is another client for Linux, which does adapt itself to window size so it should work on mobile

    tho it can’t be used as a primary device easily (so you’ll need signal on another phone) and from past experience, the linking can be pretty iffy

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    The Linux app is just the desktop app, which doesn't have the functionality that the Android and iOS apps do. It only works when paired with an Android or iOS device, so you'd still be shackled to those ecosystems without proper support for a mobile Linux app.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Like 90% of the blame here goes to Qualcomm AFAIK :/

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Why is that? (Genuine curiosity)

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  • [–] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Most of the chips in a smartphone are made by Qualcomm, both processors and peripheral chips like 5G modem, LTE modem, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Qualcomm chips require proprietary binary blobs to function, and usually only have a support lifetime of about 2 years. They also only supply those blobs to the manufacturer of the device.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Qualcomm being what they are is the reason Apple was able to provide a better lifespan for their phones for like a decade (you'd get 5-6 years of iOS major version upgrades compared to 0-2 on Android phones).

    Google actually pushed the Android ecosystem to do better by creating its' own Tensor SoCs which they support for longer... But they don't really make the drivers for those open source either. So we're still not doing better in that regard.

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    are there any decent devices that have a fully working pmos build?

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    The best ones where basically everything works as intended are: OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T, Xiaomi POCO F1

    I have a OnePlus 6T and the only missing pieces are calls and camera. Both work, but not reliably yet. Everything else is pretty much there.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

    rooting for the guys although I don't want none of them things. I run my device without a modem on (hopefully I disabled it correctly) and I want it to run like my other shit runs - I turn it on when I want it, no doing shit in the background nobody asked it to, syncing to the clown, none of that.

    the results are awesome - I get like days of standby out of a severely degraded battery that can't manage a whole day under android. still, I understand that other people need this stuff. for me, SMS and calls utilizing the utterly broken, insecure, and definitely compromised telecom infra shouldn't be a thing in 2025.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    syncing to the clown, none of that

    What did that clown ever do to you?

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  • [–] -2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Will there ever be an app ecosystem for Linux phones. I don't see how could happen. I'm talking actual apps like banking or payment systems. Institutional software such as government apps that requires a stable platform. Not a janky Linux system that is prone to breakage every few updates or scatter across different distros. Seems like the year of the linux desktop meme could end up morphing into the year of the linux phone.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Why can't we just use banking websites? You don't need an app ecosystem for that. They just need to build a responsive website that will work on a computer or phone. If you have bank to bank transfer (like e-transfer in Canada) that can be done from the mobile website as well.

    Payment like NFC payment is a different story. I suspect its unlikely we ever see that.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    Banks sometimes need a 2FA app, this is what some people need "banking apps" for. The bank website itself is trivial to just use, but you need to be able to log in. In sweden, much of society, from fetching a post package to booking an appointment with a doctor or getting a bus ticket, relies on this 2FA app. You can barely function in society without this app.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It's unfortunate that sweden decided to lock 2FA behind proprietary smartphone apps.

    For every country its going to be a different story. I think instead of trying to build an app ecosystem for things like bank apps on linux it would be easier for citizens of those countries to convince the government / banks to allow other 2FA methods like OTPs that can work on any a device using an OTP client. That would honestly benefit more people as whole since they wouldn't be lock down to just Android/Apple or even owning a smartphone. They could do all their important government/finance stuff just with a computer.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Well, they all have standard web interfaces, and so many apps are merely wrappers for it or a rebuilt front-end. On a Linux device one would presume you’ll have a standard web browser so all you need really is a wrapper for the website and the browser engine handles all security. Is there any reason not to just go that route?

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