• tomenzgg@midwest.socialEnglish
    20·
    24 hours ago

    I’m probably going to spam this around a bit, since most people don’t seem to know about it, but a reminder that FuriLabs has a (GNU+)Linux phone with decent spec.s and the ability to run Android app.s (from what I’ve heard) pretty decently: https://furilabs.com/

    Biggest drawback is it’s based on Halium. Usual growing pains of a new product/company apply but apparently the company is pretty responsive and their dev.s have worked with customers to get things like calling working with the carrier and bands of their country where it hasn’t worked before so improvements move pretty quickly.

    Collection of different experiences I’ve variously seen online over the last year or so:

    I don’t own one, myself, so I can’t give any personal experience but I’ve seen it around for a few years now but most people don’t seem to even know about it. Maybe there’s a reason for that? But none I’ve ever seen anyone say.

      • tomenzgg@midwest.socialEnglish
        16·
        23 hours ago

        https://halium.org/ (not me insinuating you should’ve just searched for it; I just like to be thorough and give all possible information, even if unneeded)

        The very simplified explanation (as far as I understand things) is that it uses an Android kernel to run Linux on so that hardware issues are minimized (the biggest difficulty that Purism and the Pinephones have had and why they’ve been harangued in terms of what they can do is they’re trying to provide open hardware that can work with the pure Linux kernel).

        So the plus side is that things work with Android hardware – because you’re, ultimately, using the Android kernel – and you can (theoretically) open up the number of devices you can run on exceedingly.

        Downside is (I believe) you get Google/Android closed bits running and you’re tied to the development of whomever made that modified kernel. All the complaints about not getting kernel upgrades after a while (because you’re using a modified kernel, you can’t just pull the latest and greatest from upstream and use it) that people have with Android will still apply.

        Given the moves Google’s making, it’s not a deal breaker, for me, but I know it can be for some people so just wanted to give people the heads up.