this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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Linux Phones

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The Discussion on Linux-based Phones.


Benefits:

  • Hardware freedom.
  • Perfect operating-system competition.
  • Full utilization of specs.
  • Phone lifespan raises to 10+ years.
  • Less e-waste.

Linux Mobile Distros:

  • Postmarket OS
  • Ubuntu Touch
  • Mobian
  • Sailfish
  • Manjaro Arm
  • Pure OS
  • Plasma Mobile
  • LuneOS
  • FuriOS
  • Nemomobile
  • Droidian
  • Mobile NixOS
  • ExpidusOS
  • Maemo Leste
  • Tizen
  • WebOS

Linux Mobile Hardware:

  • Fairphone 5
  • Volla Phone
  • Librem 5
  • PinePhone

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[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

No removable battery & no headphone jack? That's a helluva downgrade IMHO. I was just saving up for the original, too. That's gonna be a no buy from me. I'll keep an eye out in case they wise up in the future, but this is a no-go.

[–] opensourceopenmind@social.vivaldi.net 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

@SanctimoniousApe @cm0002 I need a head phone jack too, but I guess using a USB-C to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter is way cheaper and simpler than engineering a brand new Linux phone that caters exactly to everyone's preferences : )

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

But they're not engineering it (at least not the first one - haven't bothered looking into the new one yet). The first one was a rebadged phone from another company. I can't find it now, but when I initially researched the phone someone pointed out how much the specs and appearance matched another android phone. They've also stated that they were working with a Chinese "partner" - likely a company that needs sales, and was willing to give the info needed to make drivers for their hardware.

[–] opensourceopenmind@social.vivaldi.net 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

@SanctimoniousApe Yes, I think the previous one may have been a Gigaset #GX6. That could be a good thing comparedto engineering a phone like Purism, Pine64, etc. It's just going top to bottom, rather than the reverse, so normie-users get stuff working out of the box and can daily drive it.

I don't think #FuriLabs are opposed to engineering a phone with mainline kernel support, but who is going to finance that? Certainly not enough users willing to pay for the purist approach - which I support BTW as #Librem5 / #postmarketOS user. So their approach does make sense with very limited money, time and support.

I never said otherwise, just pointed out that they weren't engineering it from scratch. I agree there's no need for that as long as they are given the info they need to write the drivers.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Even worse, apparently no alt DP display out anymore, which is a killer feature for Linux phones.

[–] 1peter10@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

The FLX1 did not have DP alt mode either, unless I am totally mistaken. All external display concepts for the FLX1 were/are to require sth like DisplayLink. So all that's lost are file transfer speeds over USB.

[–] Tundra@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thirded. Like GD, the original looked great. What are they thinking?

[–] 1peter10@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

From what I could gather, they wanted to make more of the original FLX1, but could not get the a manufacturer to do that. I am actually not too unhappy with this one, the orginal FLX1 was too big and heavy for my liking.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Wow now I'm sad I missed the first one, looked great

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also, this is not a pure Linux phone. They decided to go with halium android bootloader/drivers and then put the Linux as the DE. i guess this path is ok for unofficial Linux implementations on existing android phones, but if a phone is marketed as Linux I'd hope it to really be full Linux.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How difficult would it be to get a similar setup running on any arbitrary Android phone (with unlocked Bootloader)?

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

https://droidian.org/

Is basically what FuriOS is based on. The aricle is incorrect in referencing Mobian with similar to PostmarketOS is not using the Halium Android shim.

Ubuntu Touch is also similar but better maintained.