this post was submitted on 03 Oct 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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There are no realistic linux options for your phone. These memes are pipe dreams by people that haven't actually looked at how utterly incapable linux currently is at powering a smart phone for normal daily use and how these apps that they're complaining about android and apple are removing won't run on the linux phone in the first place.
Sounds like switching will mean we will lose everything we're already losing. Might as well go ahead and quit cold turkey.
Yeah... I'm rapidly approaching the point of just learning to live without a smartphone altogether as it becomes more and more frustrating to find one that has what I want.
That is correct, currently, moving to a linux phone will lose you more than what you're losing with Google and Apple changes.
Apps are just part of the problem. Running a full linux OS on a phone with all the normal mobile phone capabilities is also an exercise in frustration. Taking Ubuntu Touch as an example, the OS has been around since 2011, was released in 2014 and it's list of approved phones is still minuscule. If you're a person on VZW, that list grows even smaller as VoLTE is problematic enough to be considered impossible to get working reliably.
I truly hope that the linux phone landscape shapes up but in it's current form, it's actually losing ground as it's development is slower than the hardware development and at it's current rate, will never be a viable option.
At this point I'd rather keep my freedom and lose the convenience. If it means losing apps and horsepower, fine by me. I'm already half resigned to going back to a dumbphone. I'm also looking at options to assemble my own phone with off the shelf parts if that's what it takes.
When you abandon freedom to achieve security, you lose both and deserve neither. - Thomas Jefferson
As read by Spock although Civilization a slightly different version attributed to Benjamin Franklin.
All dreams start as pipe dreams. Every one.
There's options, yes. Ubuntu Touch is getting better.
AFAIK, the main bottleneck (aside from hardware support) is a working open source IMS stack. IMS is the IP Multimedia Subsystem that is responsible for things like VoLTE/VoWIFI, SMS/MMS, etc. The last time I looked at Ubuntu Touch, it only supported baseband (not sure if that's the right term?) calls and SMS/MMS. Basically those only work in "3G" mode and won't work if your carrier requires VoLTE.
Lack of an open source IMS is also problematic for some other Android distros as well (and why flashing a newer GSI ROM to an older handset won't necessarily give you VoLTE).
And don't even get me started on the complete fustercluck that is RCS 😠
Sadly VoLTE isn't actually a standard and implemented differently by every vendor. Ubuntu Touch does support VoLTE on some of their supported devices these days, but it is an uphill battle due to the lack of a common standard.
Why isnt stolen license a thing?
UBPorts is a solid foundation. It just needs more adoption and backing.