I’m very open to being an early adopter of mobile Linux phones. I’ve been unable to because of a couple of factors. I last seriously checked about half a year ago so take this with a pinch of salt.
Limited support for specific models. This means that the phone will work as a computer but won’t have the correct drivers for gyro, sim and whatnot.
Lack of extensive driver support. Phones turn off components to save power, this was not supported the last time I checked and halves the battery life compared to stock android.
Waydroid support incomplete. Many apps will work but some apps will bug out. Waydroid also has performance issues so it’s not as good as WINE for example.
Not big enough community. A lot of models are maintained by a single dev that checks in every blue moon.
To get a Linux phone to be competitive on performance we’ll need to get driver APIs and component lists open sourced so it’ll be easier to gather the appropriate info and make drivers.
There has been tons of progress though, Gnome and KDE have really strong touch support now and the apps scale decently.
It’s coming but now fairphone is the only phone that openly supports Linux mobile distros and is open sourced.
I’m up for installing Linux on my last phone when it’s added to the list of devices that have official/unofficial support. I’m not going to install anything until WiFi and mobile data is supported tbh.
I tried installing Ubuntu touch for fun a couple of years ago but it didn’t boot. I just want to get to a point where I can install the OS and send bug reports.
I get what you are saying, but unless you buy a specific linux phone with some semblance of professional support (e.g. Pinephone) this won’t really get better. The best time to buy a Linux phone was a bit over 10 years ago when Canonical still actually supported Ubuntu Touch. That was pretty much the last time there was any serious effort in that regard. Since then it’s just been hobbyists doing hobby things in hobby quality.
Lack of extensive driver support. Phones turn off components to save power, this was not supported the last time I checked and halves the battery life compared to stock android.
The lack of extensive driver support is real, but I’ve actually doubled my battery’s power with Lineage OS just by removing bloatware
I’m very open to being an early adopter of mobile Linux phones. I’ve been unable to because of a couple of factors. I last seriously checked about half a year ago so take this with a pinch of salt.
To get a Linux phone to be competitive on performance we’ll need to get driver APIs and component lists open sourced so it’ll be easier to gather the appropriate info and make drivers.
There has been tons of progress though, Gnome and KDE have really strong touch support now and the apps scale decently.
It’s coming but now fairphone is the only phone that openly supports Linux mobile distros and is open sourced.
vs
What you are trying to say is you are very open to be a late adopter of mobile Linux phones, adopting a Linux phone when it actually works.
Early adopters are those who tough out the crap. The issue with Linux phones is they’ve been stuck in early adopter land for the last 20 years.
I’m up for installing Linux on my last phone when it’s added to the list of devices that have official/unofficial support. I’m not going to install anything until WiFi and mobile data is supported tbh.
I tried installing Ubuntu touch for fun a couple of years ago but it didn’t boot. I just want to get to a point where I can install the OS and send bug reports.
I get what you are saying, but unless you buy a specific linux phone with some semblance of professional support (e.g. Pinephone) this won’t really get better. The best time to buy a Linux phone was a bit over 10 years ago when Canonical still actually supported Ubuntu Touch. That was pretty much the last time there was any serious effort in that regard. Since then it’s just been hobbyists doing hobby things in hobby quality.
In my case my country simply doesn’t get any
The lack of extensive driver support is real, but I’ve actually doubled my battery’s power with Lineage OS just by removing bloatware
LineageOS is based on android so it gets a lot of goodies with it.