Linux OS for a smartphone?

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Vaj2

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Hi all. I posted a thread a few days ago and have appreciated the informed feedback received from some of the forum stalwarts regarding likely real world implications of switching to Linux Mint/Cinnamon - this on a laptop with the intention of stepping clear of the steadily more abusive behaviours coming from MS in the context of Windows.

Similar issues arise in respect of smartphones - I bought a new mid-range Android Honor 70 model a few months ago and have been taken aback at just how much more intrusive and aggressive Google had become since setting up its predecessor some years ago. I managed back then to get the functionality I needed whilst avoiding signing up to a Google account - but this time around have simply had to do without. I found for example that I couldn't find a safe source from which to download an app like MS Outlook without first signing my life away.

One option is to revert to something like a Nokia dumb phone (while buying a stand alone digital camera to cover that base), but it'd be nice to still be able to access the web and to send and receive emails for example. I'm not for the above reason much of an app user, but maps for example would be nice too if it didn't involve Google/Facebook/What's App etc.

It emerged this morning that there are a number of Linux based smart phone operating systems available - Ubuntu Touch, PureOS, and Manjaro ARM for example.

Does anybody have experience of using any of these? What might be the pros and cons? Is there one which is user friendly and reliable with at least basic apps available?

The Mint/Cinnamon route has emerged as sounding very practical for a user as opposed to techie oriented newcomer in the case of the laptop. I still have to figure out whether or not Mint offer a smart phone OS (perhaps not) - but might it make sense to use the appropriate variant of the same distro on both the smartphone and the laptop for compatibility and familiarity/ease of use reasons?

If for example Mint do not do a phone OS is there be an alternative Linux distro available which is similarly user friendly, reliable and capable of use (in appropriate variant form) on both the smart phone and on the lap top?

Thanks
 


Linux is notoriously difficult to install on a tablet or cell phone.
It can be done.

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But usually, the hardware is so different. Different video drivers, different network drivers,
different audio drivers, different types of storage drives, etc...

So the problem becomes your phone. Some phones are widely supported,
others are not, but usually these "cell-phone" Linux's are tied to just a few cell phone models.
 
Vaj2 said:
Similar issues arise in respect of smartphones - I bought a new mid-range Android Honor 70 model a few months ago and have been taken aback at just how much more intrusive and aggressive Google had become since setting up its predecessor some years ago. I managed back then to get the functionality I needed whilst avoiding signing up to a Google account - but this time around have simply had to do without. I found for example that I couldn't find a safe source from which to download an app like MS Outlook without first signing my life away.
Click to expand...

Google has been collecting user data and selling it for many years just as everyone else does and has been and still does.

You can't hide from data collecting if you've any online accounts / doctor patient portals / credit card / bank accounts whatever.

You can be as safe as you want on your end but are the other online accounts you visit safe and secure HELL NO they aren't.

I no longer worry about data collection as you can't stop it nowadays.

Everywhere I visit uses Windows OSs and I can guarantee they are not as secure as they tell you.

This is based on reliable IT folks I know who work for state and government agencies.

I don't access anything from my Smartphone and don't even have a Smartphone account.

I use a pay as you go phone where all that is needed is the cash money to buy one every year.

Just buy a regular Smartphone and be careful about what you allow to go out over it.

Stop worrying as all of your personal information is already out there as you said you used to use Windows OSs just as most everyone has.
 
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Thanks d2u. It sounds then as though it's not as simple as choosing a distro etc for PC.

What you said suggests that installing a Linux OS my Honor 70 may or may not be a good idea - that it'd be wise to ensure that it's at least listed as being fully compatible with whatever Linux operating system.

The link you posted shows a series of phones offered by businesses - some seem to be OEM/new models, others reworked versions of used Android phones. They are I guess one way of getting around the problem of ensuring that the hardware is matched to the operating system - and of being able to access support.

Is it possible I wonder re. ongoing availability of support that some of these companies are quite small operations? I wonder what the user experience with them and their products is?

Searching since my original post turned up that there are applications available which permit an Android phone to talk to a Linux PC. The trouble with that I suspect is Goggle et al will still be present on the phone in full force.

That apparently is seen as a advantage by many. (it's at least sold as being that)
I've studiously avoided social media from day 1 (feeling that it can only generate time wasting chatter and propagate memes many of which are very unhealthy) so I guess I don't have much to lose.

Under (mild) pressure from my daughter I signed up to What'sApp at one point - but after serial requirements to accept ever expanding terms and conditions and other intrusions called enough and removed it from the phone...
 
Thanks TD. That's for sure the reality of the situation.

I'm (critical banking etc information apart) not actually all that concerned about keeping my 'ordinary' data secret. Much like yourself I for example flat out refuse to use my phone for anything that could be problematical like banking, ecommerce or payments.

I don't for the reasons you set out trust commercial websites accessed from my PC very far either. The difficulty is that I do a lot of woodworking and engineering (in a small country) and would struggle big time if I couldn't order supplies on line. Doing so requires a big swallow however - again for the sorts of reasons you set out. Also because experience suggests that in the event of a problem I will be left speaking to multiple rule bound call centre operatives without the authority to do anything, concerned primarily with staying clean in their organisation, and with no incentive to resolve the matter in my favour.

That's just the sensitive information part. A bigger and always present problem is the increasingly in your face aggression towards and disregard for the customer shown by MS and the other big service providers.

I simply won't wear it.

That's stuff like the requirement to repeatedly sign up to ever expanding terms and conditions, 'help' prompts which are actually forced advertising for unwanted products, use of sensitive information for which for which permission was not knowingly given, over-riding of and more recently elimination of user default settings, greying out (and no doubt removal before long) of uninstall commands etc..

Then there's the ever multiplying 'features' (mostly gimmicks) which might even genuinely have been intended as improvements but are almost never of use. They obscure basic functionality, complicate use of applications, get shoved in your face and amount only 99.99999% of the time to sources of frustration.

It's to my mind at crisis point. I for example gave MS card information to cover the cost of an ongoing Windows and Office subscription. I've been horrified to have them of late without any permission or authorisation repeatedly (on Amazon for example) to pop it up in ****xxx form when trying to persuade me to use a (payments and selling?) system they call 'Wallet'.

A further concern is that at least the bigger commercial and other sites like Amazon may (?) be colluding in this - how else can a third party open a window on their website?

Similar stuff is going on with the over-riding of default browser settings in Windows - they ignore my default browser election to open linked sites in Edge . This site always opens in Edge. If I try to open a second Brave browser page from this forum it goes straight to a browser like Microsoft deal called 'Start' which I presume is Edge related...

MS in addition have started repeatedly opening an AI thing call Copilot in other apps - for example in Titan Mail....
 
Thanks for the link BW - will check it out.

I somehow never thought to search for info on this forum...
 
That's short and to the point BW. Thank you.

It seems that unless a version of an operating system is designed to work on the specific model of phone that (given the risk of basic hardware incompatibilities) the only truly practical option for the non-technically expert is to buy an OEM Linux phone as above.

It was indeed always thus TD. There's been some big shifts in recent years I think though:

(a) Cloud based computing, subscription based software and the associated frequent updating of that software has permitted those controlling operating and similar systems to boil the frog in the pot without his/her (apart from the more awake) realising what is happening.

This by their incrementally and covertly introducing software and other changes. e.g. default browser selection in one case has gone from being a clearly a matter of user choice to a not so easy to access advanced setting (often over-ridden at the next update) to the complete over-riding of user default browser selection. Next up i suppose if it keeps going will be elimination of the option to select.

There are other situations where e.g. removal of the presence of a major service provider from a device without badly messing it up has become so difficult that it requires very high levels of technical expertise to do so..

(b) We're seeing measures implemented ever more aggressively by the companies. What's happening now would not so many years ago have resulted in a damaging and large scale industry and media backlash.

(c) We perhaps are witnessing the rise of a generation that has a much weaker grasp of what business integrity is. While the development has it's good and bad sides public morality is not what it was. A culture of entitlement seems in parallel to have ensured minimal willingness to do without...
 
Vaj2 said:
That's short and to the point BW. Thank you.
Click to expand...
You have probably read enough of my post, to see that I don't over dress the situation, some think it's harsh, but I say to the point
 
Vaj2 said:
That's short and to the point BW. Thank you.

It seems that unless a version of an operating system is designed to work on the specific model of phone that (given the risk of basic hardware incompatibilities) the only truly practical option for the non-technically expert is to buy an OEM Linux phone as above.

It was indeed always thus TD. There's been some big shifts in recent years I think though:

(a) Cloud based computing, subscription based software and the associated frequent updating of that software has permitted those controlling operating and similar systems to boil the frog in the pot without his/her (apart from the more awake) realising what is happening.

This by their incrementally and covertly introducing software and other changes. e.g. default browser selection in one case has gone from being a clearly a matter of user choice to a not so easy to access advanced setting (often over-ridden at the next update) to the complete over-riding of user default browser selection. Next up i suppose if it keeps going will be elimination of the option to select.

There are other situations where e.g. removal of the presence of a major service provider from a device without badly messing it up has become so difficult that it requires very high levels of technical expertise to do so..

(b) We're seeing measures implemented ever more aggressively by the companies. What's happening now would not so many years ago have resulted in a damaging and large scale industry and media backlash.

(c) We perhaps are witnessing the rise of a generation that has a much weaker grasp of what business integrity is. While the development has it's good and bad sides public morality is not what it was. A culture of entitlement seems in parallel to have ensured minimal willingness to do without...
Click to expand...
total agreement with you here. I thought I was the only one but it seems we have produced a younger generation of sheep. You can literally smack them in the face and they will be good with it and say thank you. But your words can hurt them for life. What happened to the generation of "Question authority"? I have senior citizens come in my shop with better concept of all this than the young generation.

It is horrible that I have to learn a new language to talk to the people that just let things go and do not put a stop to these things... can anybody help me with learning how to "Baaaaaaa"?
 
Hi,

i have tested linux on mobile in past. But is must say its not realy ready to be a daily worker.

For example:

  • PinePhone with mobian is good but the battery hold only some hours
  • Android converted to ubuntu mobile => Some essential funktion missing for example store password for browser

Finaly is switched to e/os its privacy friendly an usable in the most cases.
 
Thanks vs2-f-u. That fits with the feedback here and with what my reading on the topic suggests.

My smartphone is an Honor 70 - I can find no information anywhere regarding its compatibility with any Linux OS. I bought it hoping that by being of Huawei origin it might be light on Google but the opposite proved to be the case.

PinePhone and Murena seem to offer OEM Linux phones in Europe at a price point that is feasible for me. There's however so far very little independent information coming up regarding how they might perform in the hands of a non-expert user. It's a bit unclear how established/solid the organisations behind them might be too.

I'll be doing some more digging, but it at this stage starts to look as though one of the higher spec but Google free Nokia dumb phones plus a separate digital camera might be as good an option as any...
 
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An update.
Losing interest in the OEM Linux phones - quite expensive and hard to decide whether or not they might be reliable/how stable the companies might be.
Also looking closely at dumb/feature phones. There's an enormous variety out there but it's quite difficult to separate them in terms of functionality. Nokia/HMD for example don't seem to offer a user friendly comparison tool.
It seems in principle that you get voice plus text messaging and a basic camera on most - with the more expensive versions offering better specs. (still modest by smartphone standards) and nicer builds.
As the spec gets even fancier they start to use KaiOS and similar. Some have email and a basic browser which would be nice, but they typically include YouTube, Facebook and Google app buttons - all players I'm working to avoid involvement with.
The big question which is hard to answer from reviews etc. is whether or not activating these apps on these more basic phones entails signing up for accounts, being bombarded by pushy 'use this' messages and ads, being tracked and so on...
 
Hi all. Just an update.

It's been a busy couple of weeks so not that much done on the phone front.

First on feature/dumb phones. They are a possibility but far from ideal.

The basic ones are really only voice and text - and the physical build quality is very poor.

The fancier ones have basic browsers and apps but unless somebody knows better require a google account. Doro seem to do a better build quality but I'm as a matter of principle not signing up to Google so that's that.

Doro also do a simplified smartphone aimed at seniors (but actually more in usability terms like what a smartphone should be) but it's a version of Android so the Google problem is there too.

The leading contender in an OEM phone at this point (for use in Europe) is a Murena Teracube 2e. (I only need the basics as above) It's relatively low powered in processing terms but seems to do OK - presumably the result of its running a de-googled Android which is presumably much less resource hungry than the regular variety.

One big advantage is that it includes most of the apps I requires - plus the company offers its own app store. Plus a four year warranty and flat repair cost.

Has anybody got any views on it - not just on the phone but also on how financially sound/long lived the company is likely to be?

The other option may be to run Graphene or similar on my Honor 70 - but it's possibly heavier on security than I need and less user friendly...
 
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