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by fractallyte 1402 days ago
Just a datapoint: UK banking apps work perfectly on my Sailfish phone.

Jolla's Android emulation is unreasonably excellent, one of their technological gems. If other Linux devices ever lift off, this will be one of the killer features that Jolla can license out. (And why not? I'm absolutely in favor of vendors selling Linux software.)

As for Sailfish - it still offers the best, most consistent, simplest UI/UX of any currently available mobile device.

Edit: and I don't have to root my phone. I can SSH into it (or use the included terminal emulator with my Bluetooth keyboard) and I have access to the full Linux filesystem. For app development, there are no hoops to jump through (like Apple's developer license).

Mobile Linux is already here, and it works!
3 comments
GekkePrutser 1401 days ago
Indeed, one of the amazing things would be if Android apps could be individually sandboxed on a Jolla (or other Linux) phone. Like each app would "think" it's running on a clean phone with absolutely nothing else on it.

So they could be completely blocked from accessing hardware I don't want them to (e.g. location) and communicating with other apps. Right now Android is way too open, every app can see what other app is on my device if I so much as need to share 1 photo.

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tetris11 1401 days ago
Anbox and Waydroid
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ploek 1401 days ago
Adding to the banking data points: I have an Xperia 10 II running Sailfish. MobileBankID and Swish (Sweden) as well as the ING Banking app (Germany) work on it.

I was pleasantly surprised by that. I upgraded from an Xperia X, where Sailfish had the old Android 4.4-compatible runtime and nothing worked. I kept an Android phone around, just for these three apps. As that one was also getting old in terms of OS (Android 7) and security updates, I'm very happy to no longer need it.

I have however come across Android Apps that don't work: - Betala P (Parking app for Stockholm, no clue why this doesn't work) - OI.Share (for remote-controlling OM-D cameras. I assume it has to do with it trying to control the WiFi on the phone)

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dimensionc132 1402 days ago
what phone do you use?
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fractallyte 1402 days ago
Sony Xperia XA2
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dimensionc132 1402 days ago
good to know it's friendly to sailfish
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fractallyte 1402 days ago
More info (and more devices) here: https://shop.jolla.com/
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voltagex_ 1402 days ago
Just a warning with that one - if you unlock it, it will never receive another Sony OTA, and there's no re-locking. Probably less of a problem now that it's out of support. Sailfish was also really rough on it.
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GekkePrutser 1401 days ago
It's long out of support from Sony but still runs the very latest LineageOS, Sailfish etc. And it was one of the very few officially supported sailfish phones, sailfish is just a bit rough itself :)

It's pretty decent hardware, mine still lasts 2 weeks on standby. Granted, I don't do much with it, I just use it to test out new lineage updates. No SIM in it. But it does receive some push messages through MicroG. I'm surprised how well it aged.

Not a fan of its hardware design though, with its overcomplicated ridges, seams and edges.

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