Out of curiosity, what GNU/Linux phone would you recommend?
Most of the ones I have read about are still fairly alpha-level products, particularly for the phone software and app ecosystem.
I would love to have a fully-functional phone running GNU/Linux that I can use as a phone and carry around in my pocket and then plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and have a "good enough" computer for basic office and programming capabilities.
Having a proper fold-out QWERTY hardware keyboard makes for an eccentric Android experience, but Termux (or, alternatively, their dual-boot Linux solution) makes a huge difference.
Shame about the keyboard problems, though. They rushed it out before fixing them when the Gemini had them.
A common issue is that alt-tab activates caps lock because alt is adjacent to fn, and fn-tab is caps lock. I'm not an engineer, but I assume it's poorly designed.
I have the Gemini PDA and will never give that company my money again.
I have the Gemini PDA and love it. (I don't use it as my 'phone though, even though it has cellular). I've ordered the AstroSlide and will be using that as my 'phone when it arrives.
I have seen some happy & successful users of the PinePhone[1] on my social network feeds. The price is great, capabilities are all there & supported, the community has been doing a good job scratching-their-own-itches & furthering support. The only thing that's held me back from fully adopting it is that the main camera is 5MP, and I have been feeling a little short with even the 12MP camera on my Samsung S series daily driver.
Cool, thanks for the resources. I'm also looking for anecdotes from users, because the last time I tried Anbox on Linux, I couldn't run much, and I'm wondering if it's any better now.
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I would love to have a fully-functional phone running GNU/Linux that I can use as a phone and carry around in my pocket and then plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and have a "good enough" computer for basic office and programming capabilities.
As much as I like the idea of 100% FOSS in my pocket, it's simply not practical because I need to use Android apps to hail rides and contact friends who often use only closed-source messenger apps.
If you're in the same boat, a very realistic alternative would be to just carry around a Raspberry Pi.
>> it's simply not practical because I need to use Android apps to hail rides and contact friends who often use only closed-source messenger apps.
That is currently where I am as well.
Termux has been a wonderful way to get simple programming tasks done on the go because I can just plug in an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor and have a command line, text editors, compilers, etc.
I am concerned about how Android 10's limitations will impact Termux since I would hate to lose such a useful tool.
Seeing what GNU/Linux phones are out there at least provides some other options about where I might want to go next once my current phone ages out.
On the other hand, every other non-terminal task would be far less convenient. And maybe even impossible, given that some tasks require apps that are only available on Android or iOS.
While this is strictly true, 1. it's reduced by Android compat via anbox, 2. some version of that is always true; Android users don't get iOS-exclusive apps, iPhone users don't get Android exclusives, and neither of them can get some desktop apps (although Android can do VNC with termux or a chroot to get very very close, and iOS does have iSH, bringing us back to "if the compatibility layer is good enough..."). The question is whether the apps that each users wants are sufficiently available on the platform of their choice. And true, sometimes the answer is no; just as some people are stuck on NT because WINE doesn't work and they need a Windows app, so some people will be stuck on Android/iOS, but by the same token some of us are doing just fine on FOSS platforms.
It's not a necessity that non-terminal tasks are less convenient. It depends on the GUI and definitely can be done well. For Android-only apps, there is anbox.
Librem 5 has a number of features generally only found in high-end phones, such as USB 3, dual-role port, DisplayPort alt-mode, high resolution video out and a discrete audio DAC, but its CPU performance and its video processing capability are those of a low-spec phone from several years ago. For people who want to buy a phone that supports convergence or a specialized security/privacy phone, the price of the Librem 5 is very competitive with the other options on the market.
Yes, this is all true. I did not try to say you were wrong. But I'm curious, what are you going to do with it? Why do you need the high-end performance?
Agreed. I think to a fairly tech literate person from the early 2000's it would look like an awesome Windows/Linux hybrid. To a sys admin from that time, it would look like a nasty, restrictive ball of crazy. I'm personally really interested in the librem phones because Id love to carry a fully functional Linux box in my pocket, something I could write shell scripts for and run them from simple GUIs.
Do you know any on-screen keyboard for mobile Linux that is as good as (or at least approached) Hacker's Keyboard on Android?
I have a Librem 5 on pre-order, and am following PureOS and PinePhone related development somewhat, but so far I have not seen an on-screen keyboard that gives you all the modifier/control keys (+ chording of keys) and arrow keys...without those, the CLI really is not very useful unless you're always going to use an external keyboard (doesn't make sense to me, it's no longer portable then) :-/
Most of the ones I have read about are still fairly alpha-level products, particularly for the phone software and app ecosystem.
I would love to have a fully-functional phone running GNU/Linux that I can use as a phone and carry around in my pocket and then plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and have a "good enough" computer for basic office and programming capabilities.