this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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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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As Google Chrome warns uBlock Origin may soon be disabled in the future. They’re going to eventually ban adblockers for chromium. We need to quickly respond with alternatives to android, we must end this market consolidation.

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Stop using Chrome? Firefox works with uBlock Origin just fine.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Yeah. Google want to be a monopoly in any field they engage with. We as consumers don't have any obligation to treat them as such.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 4 months ago (10 children)

One can use firefox or deviations.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why are you using Chrome or a Chromium based browser. Change now, as the first step.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (18 children)

I’m using Librewolf, Firefox and Safari.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I run Ubuntu Touch on Google Pixel 3A XL and use Firefox and waydroid for android apps. Runs great even though it was released back in 2019. Governments must legislate all phone boot loaders, and service providers, be unlocked.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is this something a normie could do? I run fedora on my laptop, but I never really get past anything more than basic GUI stuff. I mainly use it for writing papers for school and some web browsing. My phone, however, I use pretty heavily. It's where I do 95+% of my web browsing, Lemmy, YouTube, streaming video, and some of my school stuff. Banking apps I'm sure I wouldn't be able to use on that, but I could always use my bank through the browser, I'd imagine.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

It's fairly straight forward. Just need to make sure your unlocked phone includes the bootloader being unlocked. There's a list of supported devices for UT on this link. https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/

[–] hellofriend 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Just curious, but does Waydroid open the full OS environment like it does on desktop or does it just open apps in a container?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I‘m using postmarketOS and helping with development.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

How long does it take to learn the programming language?

Thank you for your service 🫡

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Thats the beauty of it. You dont need to code for any large project to be able to contribute. We need people test it on old phones (and new ones if they wish) and report back their findings in an organized fashion. We need people to tinker with the cameras so we can get them to work at some point, we need help with proper documentation, people to spread the word, you name it.

But to answer your question, its not one language. Its linux, the base is C, then there are the desktop environments. Some is config files written in yaml, some is css. Most people dont comprehend how ginormous linux as a platform really is and how much potential there is to help.

Check postmarketOS.org for opportunities to help out.

[–] Landless2029 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I started doing git with bug testing.

Most devs are happy to have someone file a competent bug report with: issue, environment specs, steps to replicate and screenshots/recordings.

I've gone back and forth with devs testing things like game mods and android FOSS apps.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Thats really awesome. Thanks for sharing your experience. We need more people to talk about it and show that its not only for some unknown elite to help with foss development.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I think I will write documentation and work on the functionality for the Pixel 3a xl

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Sounds like an awesome idea. Every person investing some brain power into FOSS is a win for the community.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'm working on porting Mobian to the Pixel 3a, pretty much everything works, even eSIM. The kernel dev is already working on upstreaming the patches, some are already in the next Linux release.

I've recently posted about the progress: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/19600671

Updates to that post would be that eSIM does work and that the internal microphone will work very soon once the already existing patches are pushed to the git repo.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (11 children)

Isn’t Firefox an alternative? Works today.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

From what I've heard uBlock Origin Lite only barely falls short of the ad-blocking coverage that regular uBO offers, so there will still be options for Chrome users after this happens, not to mention the multitude of alternative browsers and app stores for Android.

I still think that making Linux phones a viable alternative is very important, but it's not significantly more important now than it was a month ago.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I agree with you.

Linux phones have always been important and some ad-blocking controversy (which I don’t know the details about) isn’t making it more important than before.

Linux on desktop is now user friendly and I hope one day will reach that on phones too, even if for now it sounds way too complicated for me.

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[–] NutWrench 13 points 4 months ago

Yup. We need to get away from Google, if we really want privacy. I'm glad I switched to a Linux desktop, but Google collects a crap load of info.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm donating $1 a month to postmarketOS in my retaliation against Google

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

I wish I could, but I'm broke as a badger and need to get a GrapheneOS phone first, moving onto getting a Linux phone second and using it to contribute towards development.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (7 children)

What are the current viable choices for everyday use? I currently use a Pixel 6a with Graphene and I like it a lot as it does everything I want it to. It doesn't work with my bank app but I don't really care about that as I just use a browser when I need to access it.

Ubuntu touch, postmarket and sailfish are the ones I have heard of but I don't know what state they are in in terms of how usable they are on a day to day basis.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I can only comment on postmarketOS as I‘m using that on a near daily basis. It is great and fund to use. It’s not end user ready yet though. Normal stuff works. Watching videos on firefox or a native app, music, phone, messages. All no problem. Just cameras are a problem atm, next to some quirks that need ironing out.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

What does this have to do with Android? 100% expected this to be about the Graphene issue, but instead it's a simple "use Firefox or a fork."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Currently running DivestOS on my second-hand fully degoogled Fairphone 3 and everything works pretty much perfectly (a couple minor things are glitchy but it's only aesthetic). I get 80 % of my apps from F-Droid and the remaining from Aurora Store. Things like my bank apps also work after setting up microG

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

My bank won't support unlocked phones with custom ROMs. For security reasons. But sure, online banking using any browser is no problem....

Well, I'm going to ditch them soon anyway but I wonder whether it will be better with the next one.

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[–] tahoe 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Meanwhile, you’ve been able to use ad blockers on Safari for iOS for years and years. Once the EU forces Apple to let developers publish actual other browsers on the App Store (and not just reskinned Safari), iOS should be pretty great in terms of browsing liberty & comfort.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In the EU only. Fuck Apple.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Yes, fuck apple. But also fuck all politicians who are not as stringent with legislature as the EU.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

We need to push for more countries to regulate the tyranny of the app store.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

While we're on this topic:

Anyone running PostmarketOS for daily driver? I got a Fairphone 4 running LineageOS but am thinking to switch to it. I looked on the wiki but seems the support is incomplete..

[–] buzz86us 3 points 4 months ago

Only issue is that you can't interact with most corporate services.. I want to see Linux phones succeed as well

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