Linux Phone 2024 - Tue, Sep 10, 2024

Exploring alternatives to overpriced privacy and under priced privacy invasion

Preface

I bought a Pinephone 2 years ago but it was too hard to use.

I bought another iPhone because the Pinephone was too hard to use.

My iPhone needs replacing.

A mate bought a “Nothing” phone which caught my eye…but it still has Googled Android.

I looked for alternatives.

The beginnging of the alternate adventure is to see how far Linux has come on phones, to determine if they are a daily driver yet.

Options

Ubuntu Touch

For some reason, no matter what I do, I can’t get Ubuntu Touch to boot from the eMMC memory. This is on the back burner.

Postmarket OS

I still havent worked out what this is.

Mobian

Doesn’t appear to have a lot of publicity but does appear mature and stable.

PureOS

Not clear if I can run this on a phone that isn’t a Librem. I don’t have the spare dosh to buy a Librem to work out if it’s gonna be OK.

Phosh

Still trying to work out what this is, but I think it’s the GUI which PureOS uses, but also works on other distros.

GrapheneOS

It’s still android.

LineageOS

It’s Android, and it’s Google free by default, but does this mean google will still jump in?

Fairphone Open

It’s still Android.

I think I want a Linux Phone. We need more competition in the OS market for devices. I want to help.

Progress

Mobian is installed, boots from eMMC and is running the weekly build. THis means it’s using Debian Trixie (which isn’t stable yet?)..I dunno, this is building on Linux know-how.

Modem firmware was updated to 0.80 and appears to be working fine. SMS, In and Out calls and Data are all working. Haven’t tried MMS yet…

I left the phone overnight, off charge with a SIM card inserted and wifi on. It dropped from 91% to 83% which is better than my current iPhone does, and they’re roughly the same age.

Next Steps

Remember, I’m an electrician, I’m not a programmer.

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