Following on from my review of Ubuntu Touch on the Pixel 3AXL last month, I have just published an article detailing my mostly very positive experiences with Droidian on the same device:
If anyone knows how to address the Nextcloud issues, I’d be grateful to learn more.
I think we should all give Flare some love, as this is the first Signal linking app in the Linux mobile environment that seems to actually work, which is huge, and the developer was very quick to respond to my questions with fixes!
As as side note, I’m curious about an answer the question whether or not it was ok that I installed Droidian directly after Ubuntu Touch. Some people in the Matrix rooms seem to suggest that I should have reinstalled Android (9?) again first, and then installed Droidian, but I don’t see any negative effect in the way I’ve done it.
Not many Droidian users on here and my experience relates only to Sony Xperia 5 upon which android 11 was already pre-installed. I would imagine the advice offered was given on a belt and braces basis as is often the case with android custom roms too. That way if something does go wrong with the install it is more likely that you will find someone who has also experienced the same bug and can provide you with a fix.
Back again and just read your blog. Very interesting and definitely the kind of stuff that is likely to attract more into checking out Droidian which is still classified as a ‘grey area’ for many, hence the reason for the lack of interest on here, but having used it myself I too believe that if google continue to turn the screw on CR’s then more will follow. Still using my iode phone for daily driving but the Droidian 5 is awful close and is certainly looking like replacing my SFOS sony as a standby. It’s only fair to point out that I’m only loading up Waydroid with FOSS apps same as on all my devices now, but that’s the good thing about having no big G dependencies. You are always free to do as you please.
The reason I am a Linux mobile enthusiast is because I hope that the space will one day become like the experience we can all have with Linux on desktop today. I wish there were a more modern (i.e. faster) version of the PinePhone. I don’t know if the Librem phones are also completely non-Android but they are expensive.
The Librem phone is supported by Mobian along with the Pinephone as they are both native Linux phones. Droidian is a fork of Mobian that has been configured specifically with android processors in mind.@Any1 is correct when he posted ‘iode.tech’. iode is Lineage based same as several other CR’s but is more focused on privacy than most.
Are those two the only two native Linux phones that exist?
Is this very different to /e/OS and Murena phones? My kids use /e/OS, so if Iode is better then maybe I should give that a try on their devices (Fairphone and Motorola).
The only other native linux phone I’m aware of (here in the west), is the Volla phone but Linux is probably bigger in the East these days with Russia, China and India moving away from Google and Apple due to the geopolitical situation we are seeing kicking off at the moment. TBF China had already banned Google a few years back and Harmony OS, originally based on AOSP but now has its own proprietory Linux kernel, is now the biggest OS for domestic users out there. So In terms of the number of users there are likely more Linux phone users in the East than there are in the West. Russia has already announced their intention to replace MS, google and ios with alternatives. Sailfish OS was big in Russia before sanctions were introduced but not sure now.
I have e/os on my spoofing Sony that I don’t use much now I’m completely Google free but it is very similar. The e/os fake location feature and the hide IP address are both handy for spoofing but iode’s blocking app gives it the edge for security and privacy. So iode for regular phone activities and e/os for spoofing purposes if I had to choose one over the other.
I’ve been reading on their site and I don’t think Volla is a native Linux phone. Volla OS is Android and Halium is required to run Ubuntu Touch on it. Seems risky that they completely rely on F-Droid and Aurora Store, as those can always be at risk of changing. ( Volla OS | Volla Devices )
You are correct it’s not a native linux phone. Serves me right for not doing my homework. So you’re left with pinephone and librem but TBH if you look at it pragmatically, it makes sense to use an Android device with the capacity to run native linux rather than attempt to do it the other way around as the sheer volume of them along with the wider choice of spec’s and accessories makes them very affordable. Particularly so on the 2nd user market at the moment.