- https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/sailfish-os-clarifying-claims...
Edit: I'm well aware of the differences between typical Linux and Android (especially the security architecture!), and I'm willing to make some sacrifices in the name of FOSS... but only if it's actually FOSS.
Then again, SailfishOS is a linux with much of the usual linux stuff like userland with bash, coreutils, glibc, systemd, wayland, pulseaudio etc.
https://github.com/sailfishos/sailjail-permissions/blob/mast...
Given how sensitive information most people have on their phones (banking, chats, and whatnot), it's a disaster in the making.
The typical answer is "but I'll only use open source apps that I trust". Sandboxing doesn't only protect you against rogue apps, it primarily protects you against 0-days in apps that you do trust.
If you are worried about big players profiling you (hard to avoid, high likelihood of happening, low likelihood of damage), then you want Sailfish.
If you are worried about apps profiling you (easy to avoid, high likelihood of happening, moderate likelihood of damage), you want Android or iOS.
Graphene and Sailfish sit on different points on that spectrum, just like OpenBSD and Linux do.
Even if you choose not to install Play Services/Play Store, you will still have access to many more apps than on SailfishOS - from many open source Android apps to proprietary apps that you can download without the Play Store. Plus, with the Linux terminal support in Pixels (note: not all Android phones support this, e.g. Snapdragons don't support privileged virtualization), you can also run Linux desktop apps.
Android (and by extension GrapheneOS) uses Linux as a kernel, but it lives in its own world and is completely unrecognizable. I'd say it's even more alien than macOS. For most users, the differences don't matter. If you're a programmer or a sysadmin with reasonable expectations, you feel like a fish out of water very fast. And I cannot honestly the changes are for the better.
The practical downside, however, is that this phone does not natively run Android apps, while GrapheneOS runs all Android apps bar those that require Play Integrity. Desktop GNU/Linux programs are either unusable or a terrible experience on a mobile device with a small screen and no mouse.
Is this an assumption or coming from your experience? Because I'm typing this on a GNU/Linux phone in a desktop browser and use a bunch of desktop applications daily and haven't noticed.
Of course if you run GIMP or something like that it won't fit unless you plug an external screen and a mouse in, but all the applications I use daily are perfectly usable. There's a lot of Kirigami and libadwaita programs these days that just work well on a phone, and if I need to launch my bank's application there's always Waydroid.
I have a pinephone and try it out year after year.. Well, let's just say that there is so many areas of improvement to make "GNU/linux" run on a mobile device (that sorta includes laptops as well, even though I have done so for years) that we might as well start over from statch.
For example one can't just let everything run whenever it wants, wasting battery life. Android's "more complicated" system and binder was criticized in this thread, but that's exactly what ties together the whole thing to be able to run on a device that fits in your hand, with centrally managed "let's pause this app now" etc
Also, I'm perfectly capable of deciding whether I need an application to be running at a given moment myself, I don't need the OS to make dubious decisions for me.
There are more, not every application that works fine has metadata filled up (and not everything is on Flathub either).
I do use some webapps, but with Epiphany rather than Firefox.
See also: https://linuxphoneapps.org/
The app will also build and run on your desktop without any/many changes, if you need that.
I got a fairly nice linphone GTK4 phone frontend app this way. So it's not just for toy apps. FOSS/Linux phones are well positioned for this self-building/self-updating prompt based software development, because you don't need separate computer and shitton of SDKs to build the apps, and while phone UI is shit for manual programming, it's not at all shit for writing prompts.
If you say, rely on google maps, banking apps, apps for your IoT appliances, etc. it's certainly relevant. I don't have any of that though.
For me the most and truest pressing issue is that cell modems are very, very tightly coupled with Android. It's still true for the Jolla Phone that it simply is a worse phone because the modem drivers are buggy. This is a complicated issue that isn't getting better, and is mostly to do with legislation legally mandating the tivoization of cell modems, a weird line in the sand on what responsibilities fall to the hardware or to what software, as well as the modem manufacturers themselves not really caring.
My impression (also for Ubuntu Touch, etc.) is that all these systems use the upstream vendors' Linux kernels trees and firmware blobs for Android.
Unfortunately, since we are not talking about Samsung or Google, but just some random Chinese ODMs, it's usually years old Linux versions and ancient firmware blobs full of known holes (e.g. the C2 is running a Linux tree from October 2022). It's only thanks to the tireless work of postmarketOS etc. that some devices boot on modern kernels.
Everything I listed was an advantage. Now see, I don't think Unix is the be-all end-all of operating systems design. I don't particularly care for Linux, the BSDs, macOS, etc. But Android is a definite regression in the strongest terms. Give me a PIMOS or Genera or Squeak phone that works well. I'll be happier than I would with a Linux phone.
Only iOS comes anywhere close.
But I hate phones. All I want is navigation, sms/call, signal, steam and firefox.
https://commodore.net/callback/
It's pretty cool looking! Very optimistic about it.
Of course, if your goal is to run SailfishOS, there is currently not much of another option.
My phone would have a screen time of a few mins per day. I can't stand doing anything on these tiny touch screens or browsing the web on a phone screen.
A cheaper 6a would be EOL next year.
They also came later vs 6/6Pro
6a is a 2022 phone, 7a is $150 on Swappa.
Where are we going with this?
All I can give you is my reasoning for picking it. Not giving google my money is always a plus in my book.
and I don’t consider buying used and flashing “giving Google my money”.
Although it definitely enables the market for Pixels, they definitely don’t make much (if any) money selling Pixels, due to they’re being cheap-yet-flagship devices.
It might even hurt Google for you to buy them and not capture all your data with their OS!
Our desktop OSes are just incompatible with running untrusted software, and you're gonna want to do that.
So you're saying people should only use walled garden closed source OSes? Sounds like tyranny to me.
I would really appreciate it if you could give some references - any at all - to back this claim.
All I have seen is GrapheneOS folks (or probably just a certain individual affiliated with the GrapheneOS org) accusing them of doing this.
I know the people behind SailfishOS, they’re not like, friends or anything: just ex-Nokia developers who got fucked by Microsoft (like I did, btw, which is how I know of them).
I feel like the big tech smartphone duopoly would have a reason to spread such rubbish, but its so patently obvious that I doubt they are so stupid.
"It acquired new investors in 2016, among them the Russian company Votron. In March 2018 they were joined by Rostelecom (which is state owned) as investor, which took over Votron and OMP."
Note that was after 2014 russian invasion into Ukraine.
(I actually couldn't find information on their nationality, they might be e.g. Ukrainian or second-generation Russian immigrants; Micay is somewhat Russian-sounding too, btw, although I think he's known to have been born in Canada).
https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/plea-for-official-statement-f...
GrapheneOS is owned by a Canadian nonprofit foundation. One of the three board members is a Ukrainian national (currently conscripted but still on the board).
Flipper Devices is a Delaware corporation, it indeed started in Russia, but it moved out after the Ukraine war. Ukrainian nationals are on the team. It does not export to Russia.
Just to clear up some common misconceptions.
that can mean a whole range of different things both in perception and in intention, but even at best it's "russian government currently doesn't control the company". if we speak about the /connection/, it can mean different things.
but the question worth asking -- are the people who took money from the russian government in past are the people I want to give my money to?
>Flipper Devices is a Delaware corporation, it indeed started in Russia, but it moved out after the Ukraine war. Ukrainian nationals are on the team. It does not export to Russia.
believe it or not, but the same goes and I would judge those Ukrainian nationals too.
https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/open-sourcing-proceeding/2468...
https://github.com/sailfishos/sailfish-weather/
https://github.com/sailfishos/jolla-camera
It's still more open than AOSP
I don't think this is true at all? AOSP is completely open source modulo driver blobs (which Sailfish has too) and Google services.
One can make a fully functional system, modulo drivers, out of only open-source components using AOSP. It's not possible to do this using Sailfish; the compositor, UI libraries (Silica), and most of the "core" apps are still closed source.
And OSS projet based on the SFOS core exist : https://nemomobile.net/, https://github.com/nemomobile-ux
If we're going to start counting forks, we get to count LineageOS and GrapheneOS for Android, and then the goalposts really move.
The main point is that AOSP as a system (modulo firmware) is open source and SailfishOS is not. Also, even though Sailfish has an Android compatibility layer (though only for official devices), compatibility is most likely always going to be worse than 'real' Android.
That said, I hope that Jolla Phone becomes a success, more competition is good. Hopefully being funded better will move them to fully open source the base system.
A true AOPS image is missing most core Apps.
The thing that sounds really fishy is the "User configurable physical Privacy Switch". If you can configure it in software (how else?), then it's software-defined. If it's software-defined, then it's not physical.
I'm not advocating any of those specifically but I do recommend you take whatever step you are comfortable with to a saner mobile technology lifestyle.
IMHO it's a worthwhile learning journey that is probably less challenging and more empowering than you can imagine.
https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-an...
E.g. on most Samsung phones you can uninstall (from the user partition): third-party Meta/Microsoft/etc. apps, the McAfee app scanner that not enabled by default, Gemini, Bixbee, most Google apps, most Samsung apps, some analytics services. You can make a pretty vanilla phone with just OneUI.
That said, best is to grab a Pixel, the only phone with an unlockable bootloader that also has modern device security (separate security processor, MTE, etc.). Installing GrapheneOS gives you a very pristine and quiet OS, while still providing great compatibility through sandboxed Google Play Services.
Also the only OS that provides Android 17 now, besides Pixel OS (and obviously betas like the OneUI 9 beta).
So Pinephone seems to be what you're searching for.
[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/honor_600_lite_debuts_with_dimensit...
Jolla phones are fine. I have friends who use it every day. Happy to support them all the best I can.
—— Sent from my iPhone 17 Pro
What about the regulatory side where all of Europe is starting to require stock Android or iOS to even have an ID card?
I've only ever bought refurbished or budget ones
Right now I'm more excited about PostmarketOS which seems to be more vanilla Linux with more approachable UI…
I thought it was very cool. It felt a lot more like a "computer that I could use as a smartphone" than a "smartphone with some computer stuff". I thought the interface was clean and nice and it was fun to hack on.
I really should buy a compatible phone and play with it again...I'm sure they've done a lot of work on it.
I never really did a lot of banking on my phone before, but it really wasn't that hard to let that go. I'd say the biggest hangup is not having Venmo or something for splitting bills with friends, yard-sales, etc, but I've started carrying some amount of cash again for those instances and it's worked out alright.
Been daily driving a dumbphone since 2023. Yes it takes a bit of work, but it's so SO worth it.
I don't think you NEED to open your online banking on your phone every day. Just use cash and cards.
2FA should be easily available on any OS
That's an overgeneralization. In many countries online payments require approval through a smartphone. There are also banks that barely have a mobile banking website (e.g. Bunq last time I had it).
I've not heard of a bank in the last while that doesn't have the restrictions, at least in Ireland and Italy.
I think the challenges here exist but the reality is overblown to be honest, the vast majority of banking apps (everything that isn't struck through in that list) work just fine.
Fully agree the concern is discouraging adoption though. I would love to see more of a solution here, it seems like purely anti-competitive behaviour by Android that will block competitors emerging.
I'm never ever, ever buying anything from Jolla. They can go out of business for all I care.
People who remember when phones had "flat backsides" and were constantly getting scratched and abraded by regular use just putting them on tables and picking them up again.
The tripod posture is a feature, not a bug.
I still occasionally use my iPhone 4 as a music player, and the flat back not only makes it susceptible to scratching, it makes it hard to pick up off of smooth surfaces like my coffee table. With a bump, you have something to grip.
Currently Russia is sanctioned so it’s illegal to do business there. If it were legal they would be straight back.
Russians hate the West and the incumbents know it. If Western companies started to muscle in again they would drop the price to protect their market shares.
Kind of silly to give up your entire market share over an unwinnable war.
reply to below: I had to add the rebuttal to your racist comment earlier (which you ironically deleted) by editing this comment, because I am being throttled and cannot reply to anymore comments.
Pick and place PCB assembly is very different from the final assembly of batteries in terms of who is capturing value and building a reasonable moat. Their sales angle is around European autonomy.
Low wage workers putting batteries in phones is not that, but PCB assembly is much closer to that.
Or am I just spoiled by apparent local regional abundance of cheap roboticists?
Hiring people to put batteries in phones and phones in boxes? Never done that specifically, but other assembly line stuff like that does not require much. Certainly not a multi year culture building process. I used to work for a company that built food gift boxes. When we staffed up for the holiday season, it took about 20 minutes to train new hires. We once added an entire line in a day to make a custom product. I’m not saying that the managers and workers didn’t work hard, but it was not particularly complex work. Most of the difficulty was in finding ways to reduce packing times by a few percentage points.
Put this way: your company have a week to build one of the above processes for 1500 phones a week, and they get a $1mm bonus if they succeed. Do you choose pick and place assembly or battery assembly.
OTOH, I'm not sure how much it matters. Apple products are "designed in California" (which is a bit of a lie to begin with), and very much assembled overseas.
Of more interest is how few units they've pre-sold compared to mainstream phones. I wish them well, but I doubt they'll change history.
I've seen "Packaged in $country" on boxes before, so I suspect they are two different things.
Like food made in Canada that shows up in American chain stores being labeled "Distributed by QFC." There's lots of rules about this sort of thing.
Reminds me of back in the late 90's when Wal-Mart was all rah-rah about "Made in the USA!" on all of its products. Then my company bought every employee a Sam's Club membership and the cards were all marked "Litho en Mexico."
The solution that I would implement ifI wanted a small phone would be a Motorola flip.
In the era of hallucinated apps, this doesn't even seen like an imaginary wishful scenario.
You can unlock a Pixel's bootloader and install GrapheneOS. It would be highly ironic if the Jolla's was locked.
Basically a screen, battery and LTE chip with microSD storage for times
The way most people use phones are functionally useless without internet, so thats already a critical requirement and having the “phone” part of it you can do with 5c of hardware and free software.
...
Congrats on selling them but "assembled in EU" can't be the main selling point.