Linux Phones Are Finally Poised to Challenge Android and iOS

No, they won't become a viable alternative:

- Worse compatibility with the millions of Android apps already out there.

- Hardware vendors (outside Apple) all target Android.

- The usability of Android/iOS is far better than non-Android Linux phones.

- The security of non-Android Linux phones is in a bad state (e.g. lacking proper app sandboxing). Heck, even the Android emulation layers that some of these phones have, throw the strong Android sandbox model out of the window.

The answer is very obvious and it is AOSP. Even though Google is trying to close AOSP more (e.g. by not pushing source continuously to the AOSP Git repos and keeping QPR1/3 for themselves), it is still an open source system. Play Services can either be run sandboxed or emulated with microG. AOSP allows alternative systems to hit the ground running, you get great app compatibility, a tested security model, great usability, and support from hardware vendors, including vendors that are alternative friendly (used to be Pixel, now Motorola, Fairphone, etc.). If ever needed, AOSP could be forked and it would still be leagues ahead of non-Android Linux phones.

All the downsides that apply to AOSP-based systems (like things getting blocked by Play Integrity, unlockable bootloaders) also apply to non-Android Linux systems.

I have been using the Librem 5 as my daily phone since 1 May 2022 (https://janvlug.org/blog/one-week-librem-5-field-trial-day-1...). And the Librem 5 is getting better and better, and its PureOS Linux operating system is actively maintained, and patches are still upstreamed (https://puri.sm/posts/tag/pureos/).

I really enjoy having a phone that gives me full root control, and that is very similar to the Fedora (GNOME) distribution that I have on my desktop and laptop.

Buying a Linux phone from a pure Linux hardware vendor like Purism helps sustaining the mobile Linux ecosystem.

Yes, the Librem 5 is a bit older phone with some rough edges, but for me it is a really good phone. It gives freedom in the free software sense, and consistency with my Linux computers. I gladly accept some minor inconvenience to have a phone that respects my freedom and privacy.

I cannot foresee the future, but for me the experience on a Linux phone that I control is far more superior than any phone that spies on me and takes away my freedom, like Android or iOS, basically any phone from any manufacturer that disrespects me.

I'm always surprised when I read articles about Linux phones that don't mention VoLTE support. Without it, phone calls will drop constantly as we tear down old cell infrastructure. In my experience I've only been able to find one phone that supports VoLTE in America. I get the impression that there's much more interest in Linux phones in Europe where VoLTE (or whatever it is over there) support seems much easier to achieve.

The Furi guys put an insane amount of work into getting their phone working on every network in America. They have a Telegram channel where you can talk with the developers themselves. They will SSH into YOUR phone and poke around if they can't figure out what's going on on their end. These people work like crazy to make the experience seamless.

Phone specs, UI, security support, etc are important but if I can't make calls on the thing I'll never even consider it.

Unless regulators enforce (at the very least) that hardware documentation sufficient to produce open source firmware/drivers must be supplied with that hardware, no - probably not.

Drivers and firmware are the biggest hurdle outside of locked bootloaders for competition in the operating system space.

Examples; Anything Apple (MacBook, iPhone), anything Samsung, anything Google, the list goes on.

There _is_ open hardware, but it has poor performance / battery / build quality and the vast majority of users will not accept that.

IMO "the right to repair software" is essential and this duopoly is a function of explicit monopolistic practices.

Maybe LLMs can help open the "reverse engineering" Pandora's box - but we have yet to see that realised - at least for drivers / firmware

Let's make a thought experiment: let's think about designing a new Linux distro from scratch. Obviously starting with Linux-the-kernel, and then thinking about what we need to be a modern smartphone OS.

- We'll probably want the security model, with the nice sandboxing and I would argue the verified boot.

- We'll want the battery optimisation.

- We'll want access to the firmwares of the components running in the phone.

- ...

From the very first step "start from Linux-the-kernel", every single question I ask myself goes towards the Android design and away from the classical Linux distro design.

In other words, the open source Linux distribution that is the closest to a modern mobile system is... Android :-).

iOS and Android have an incredible amount of engineering to make them RAM and battery efficient that desktop Linux simply doesn't have.

And its not a case of simply implementing some feature, since all apps have to written with this stuff in mind: apps can be suspended/killed at any time and should be able to restart gracefully, notifications go through a side channel, etc etc

Do these phones have any of this?

I wish the Ubuntu Phone kept going. Damn shame. I liked Ubuntus storage offering, it felt like Ubuntu was trying to compete harder with Windows in a nicer way, sadly they abandoned a lot of those initiatives, what could the world look like if Ubuntu found the right hardware partner to get Ubuntu devices into most mainstream computer stores? We wont ever know I guess.

I just want a virtual phone on my Android device. Why is this so hard?

So a new phone means just moving the VM. The only unique thing my Android layer has to do is route the internet..

Yes. And I would argue that in the form of the Sailfish OS devices.from Jolla, they already are a viable alternative.