this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Linux phones look more and more attractive

[–] Mohamad20ZX@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Couldn’t agree more Especially when the Pine Phone Pro is improving every year since its has came out and with Posh shell and Waydroid nothing will stop Linux from succeeding in the modern era

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

sadly

The PinePhone Pro was officially discontinued in August 2025, as it didn’t sell well enough to keep production going.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PinePhone_Pro

[–] Mohamad20ZX@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

Aw shucks now that’s something you don’t see often on the internet

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

My tears, maybe I can afford to eat today.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

I've been following this for a while.

You have two main branches to follow

Bare‑metal (native Linux kernel + native drivers) pros:

  • True Linux kernel
  • Long‑term maintainability
  • No Android blobs in userspace
  • Cleaner architecture

cons:

  • Driver support is the biggest pain point
    • Modems, cameras, GPUs, sensors often require reverse‑engineering
  • Power management is worse
  • Hardware acceleration may be incomplete
  • Fewer devices are viable

You can put this on an old pine phone, or a pixel 3 or a fairephone 4/5 You can buy a preconfigured puresim librem 5 Battery life is pretty rough. You can find lots of youtubes recounting their attempts at daily driving both PostmarketOS, Puresim and UBPorts on bare metal

Halium‑based (Linux userspace on top of Android hardware abstraction)

pros:

  • Excellent hardware support (camera, modem, GPU, sensors)
  • Better battery life
  • Runs on many more devices
  • More stable than bare‑metal

cons:

  • Controversial in the community
  • Relies on Android blobs
  • Not “pure Linux”
  • Kernel is usually Android‑based, not mainline
  • Long‑term maintainability depends on Android vendor support

You can buy preworking models from Volla or you can put it on a Fury Phone there are a number of options for used phones if you want to install it yousel.

IMO, If you want a daily driver with working cameras and good battery life, Halium is usually the practical choice.

You also have to beware of usage in some places, looks like most of the carriers in Australia will refsue to active VoiceOverLTE even though the phones support it.

[–] generic1546@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] Allero@lemmy.today 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

As far as I know, it is still reliant on the whims of Google through shenanigans with AOSP, and of course having to use a Pixel.

Linux offers a more solid and independent foundation, and while it is less polished yet, to me it's the only real way out in the long run.

Still, GrapheneOS is a big step in the right direction - hope it wouldn't come across as me being against the project.

[–] nile_istic@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They've signed with an OEM (still secret atm, but the best guess seems to be Motorola?) who will produce the first flagship GrapheneOS device sometime this or next year iirc. Supposed to be revealing the manufacturer next month. That'll at least take some of the Google dependency by having to use Pixels.

[–] hellomoto@lemmings.world 5 points 1 week ago

Motorola

Oh hello.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago

Yep, heard a bit about it. Didn't include here because it's still a big WIP.

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 10 points 1 week ago

Yup, if enough people switch to graphene big G will fuck them over. Exiting entirely is the only long term solution.