Linux Phones

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Community about running GNU/Linux on phones. Projects like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, PostmarketOS, Mobian etc. Either on former Android phones or hardware like the PinePhone.

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What used phone should I get to try alternative OS? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi everyone,

Having successfully left windows for Linux (Fedora) a few years ago, I thought I’d the same for my phone.

I have a professional iPhone 13 provided by my employer, but I have an old Samsung GT-I8730 lying around.

Sadly, there is apparently nothing (except stock Android) that I could easily install on it.

So I’m kind of looking for a cheap second hand phone that I could get for my birthday in order to try to have a degoogled and deappleified private phone (I’m now using my work iPhone for everything).

What phone should I buy for max 150.- (around 180$) second hand?

Also what OS should I try to install on it?

To be honest, I’m really a rookie in the phone world and I’m not even sure if I’m looking for a degoogled Android phone (/e/os, lineage, graphene) or a linux phone (Ubuntu touch, KDE mobile).

It would be important for me to be able to daily drive the phone. Listening to music and using my banking apps on it would be important features.

So I’m looking for advice regarding all of this and I’m thankful in advance for your help.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But why is it riskier to have an end of life phone? As far as I know, my girlfriend MacBook Pro from 2012 was end of life for macOS (not receiving updates) and I installed Linux on it and it doesn’t seem more at risk than my newer Surface Go with Linux too. Is it different for phones?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Yes it is (sadly) very different for phones.

When an the OS for an Android phone is created, the Linux kernel is forked, and the firmware/drivers for it's hardware components are laid on top (instead of being upstreamed to the kernel). When the manufacturer decides they no longer care about that phone, they stop updating firmware and that will no longer receive updates. You might use a rom that still updates everything else, but these critical parts won't get updated anymore.

The newer Pixel generations get 5-7 years of security updates (IIRC). I believe IOS devices get 5 years.

Android and arm has (/had? I might be partly out of date) a lot of out of tree (not included in the upstream Linux kernel) code which makes booting it on Linux a shit show.
This is also why so few devices are supported by the Linux-phone-OSs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Thanks for the explanation. It’s a shame as it’s the perfect way to create mountains of e-waste.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I've been wondering this too, thanks!