Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, Tizen, Mobian, etc.
No apps => Nobody buys => No users => Nobody makes apps
I’d seriously consider if I at least got the bare necessities, like my bank.
Depending on your bank, you may be able to use their website.
The “no apps” isn’t “that big of an issue” (at least for me), as there’s Waydroid available, and it’s just standard Linux with all the desktop apps right from Flathub. There’s also plenty of webapps available.
There’s tons of other issues with Linux mobile, like general usability, battery life, responsiveness (especially when receiving calls or notifications), and hardware support.
The biggest one I’m running into is sleep states. I can either have 4-ish hours of battery life, but if my phone is charged, I get notifications, alarms go off, and calls come in immediately. Or I can have about a day idle battery life, but have to check my phone before any of that stuff comes in.
There’s also the fact I use my phone for media a lot (Jellyfin, Lemmy), and the experience isn’t great on Linux mobile. “Apps” integtate less with each other, and video playback is kind of a mess. (For example, I can’t “share” on a photo from Lemmy to send it to a friend on Matrix).
Are you using PMOS? Have you checked SailfishOS? It sounds like it would be quite a lot more polished and more usable
I’m running on postmarketOS, SailfishOS includes significant proprietary components, besides firmware. Like the user-interface. My Android daily driver is already running strict FOSS-only ROM and apps (with an exception in firmware), there’s no reason for me to switch to sometbing proprietary.
That is definitely choice. In my mind SailfishOS is open enough as most of it is open. But of course it is good to have options. For me carrying two phones would be no-go, which leads me to be mostly interested as polished options that can meet my app needs --> don’t know other Linux option (currently) in this case than SFOS
Check SailfishOS, there you can run even quite many banking apps: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/banking-apps-on-sailfish-os/18438/183
Cant you run most android apps on linux?
No banking apps or NFC payments.
Because of very limited support for phone models, and many, many apps not supporting them.
To extrapolate…
Phones are many and varied and while a manufacturer might assist google to ensure android is compatible they sure as shit aint helping any linux OS.
There is no gargantuan megacorporation funding linux OS development, and there is practically no revenue for the few small companies that do. This means the existing implementations are, not very well polished.
Because the UX is so terrible it’s just a non-starter for non-enthusiasts.
Because there are no users there are no app developers.
Nobody is helping Google do anything, phone OEMs develop their own private spin on Android (for example, Samsungs OneUI). They make sure their device works in their OS, nothing else.
I would recommend to check SailfishOS. Quite a few officials supported devices and even more community ports
Hardware is too locked down. Open source chip platforms are only starting to be developed now after decades of computing. It’s all been running off the same architectures from monopolists. Linux phone devs like PostmarketOS work in such a tiny box that AOSP guys get much further. That is what I have gathered learning about it past few years anyways.
SoCs used in phones are heavily tivoised. You can’t just run any OS you want on them. This is also slowly but steadily coming to PCs with UEFI and those very important “security” chips and “technologies”.
The situation will improve not earlier than when we are able to print chips at home, as we can now with small plastic parts.
Which is not going to happen anytime soon IMO. Even if we were able to print our own chips at home, they would be just DIY devices only to be used by geeks, meaning no mainstream apps/programs would work and it would be just like Linux desktop days back in 2000s (some still don’t work even today).
It’s getting more and more into a dystopic future where freedoms are willingly given up by people under the excuse of “advancing” or “getting the best technology we can ever get right now”. Meanwhile companies make more billions and getting more power by stealing more and more data from their user base. So I’m not as optimistic as you.
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They’re horrible
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So you designed an OS, nice, so, the apps are vertical to match, right?.. r-right?
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As many pointed out, lack of apps.
Don’t know how much it improved over the years,
but battery life wasn’t the best either.What Linux mobile needs to gain traction imo,
would be Android app virtualisation.Kinda like Waydroid, WSL, WSA, WinApps, WinBoat…
But then specifically for seamless Android apps on Linux mobile.That could close the gap of lack of apps,
resulting in more users/devs,
resulting in more native apps,
eventually resulting in less need for Android apps on Linux mobile.Sailfishos has this their own Android App Support. That integrates Android apps to native UI quite beautifully what I have seen
Because they aren’t fully baked and they aren’t properly backed by billion/trillion dollar companies.
Hardware support.
If I have to own a specific phone or line of phones, that I otherwise would never buy, I’m not going to get one just to run Linux on it.
A lot of technical answers, but consider a social driver: Linux users and developers are a lot more likely to prefer to do their computing on a “real” computer with a keyboard and large screen. Therefore, Linux as a desktop/laptop OS will always be significantly ahead of mobile offerings.
I’m sure what I’m about to say has already been echoed by others, but there are a few factors working against them. This is from a US/Canada perspective. Other countries may have more or fewer barriers.
- Mobile hardware - Mobile hardware has higher security. Some of this is by design for the user, since mobile devices are more likely to fall into wrong hands than e.g. a desktop. Some of it is corps preventing users from using their hardware in ways they don’t want you to, though. The level of locked down mobile hardware has only increased over time.
- Carriers - This one is particular to North America, I think. Carriers here have a long history of meddling in phone hardware - from bloatware to SIM locks and everything in between. One of the things they do since LTE is require device makers to pay them to get certified to make calls on their network. Linux capable devices are too niche to be able to afford this. This is why Fairphone, for example, even with its Android-based OS, only works on one carrier here.
Those are the main two barriers here. Things like apps can have workarounds for those that would be interested in early adoption of Linux phones. But there’s no way around the combination of carrier certification costs and limited options of only very locked down hardware.
In terms of the mobile side, these OS’s aren’t very well polished, and the Linux phone is quite new. However, there are Linux phones being made, but this is more of a niche kinda deal, as people tend to use GrapheneOS or an iPhone (Stock Googled Android is a no-go anymore due to the malware that both Google and other malicious devs add to the Play Store). That’s just how I see it, though.
because phone manufacturers don’t make them available without going through hoops.
@ryujin470 Difference between ARM architectures, few standards, closed bootloaders, no interest for developing apps…
Because they don’t work as phones, at least not for practical use
No one has cracked it yet, some projects seem to be getting close, but the radio in a phone is a very complicated and poorly documented black box
Android is Linux based and arguably the most popular mobile OS.
You know that isn’t what OP asked.
Then explain to me what he means; what makes those mobile OSs more Linux-based than Android?
You know exactly what they* mean, don’t be obtuse.
I was talking about other Linux based mobile OSes that aren’t Android or derivatives of it.
They aren’t popular because there already is a very popular linux based mobile OS: Android. What would be the point of another one? Why would anyone want to use a new OS with zero app support and no advantage to using it?
If you want to overcome the obstacle of being a new platform with no support then you have to provide a significant advantage to make it worth the pain, and there simply isn’t one.
Why did people switch to iOS and Android phones when companies like Nokia had the market cornered? Because they offer a massive improvement in UX over the established players. What advantage do those OSes you mentioned have?
Urgh… Come on… -.-’
“Why aren’t Linux based mobile OSes more popular if we ignore the fact that the most popular mobile OS by far is Linux based”.
Gee, I wonder why.
Come on, you’re being disingenuous. You know exactly what this person was talking about. You’re acting in the exact same way that people are acting when they unironically post the whole “Actually, what you’re referring to as Linux is actually GNU + Linux” or whatever. Come ooon…
What is the difference between Android and any of the other Linux based mobile OSes?
