[lug] Linux Phones

[Kevin Fenzi]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 08:56:17AM -0700, Simos wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Dec 2020 06:38:17 -0700 Stephen Queen <svqueen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > Has anyone on this list bought one of the linux phones such as the librem5
> > or pine phone? If so, what are their impressions? Are they user friendly?
> > How do they compare to the mainstream phones?
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Steve
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've been vaguely interested in Linux phones as well, especially after seeing a couple of recent articles at a Linux gaming site I follow:
> 
> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/11/kde-teams-up-with-pinephone-for-the-pinephone-kde-community-edition
> 
> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/11/the-pro1-x-smartphone-looks-like-an-awesome-linux-phone-for-tech-fans
> 
> Hopefully Linux phones won't be just another "next year is the year of the Linux desktop" scenario because I'd love to have a basic sub-$200 hackable phone without Android/iOS.

So, I have actually two pinephones now. ;) I got one of the orig 2GB
memory models, and then later picked up a 3GB ones with usb-c minidock.

They really are not close to being a daily phone yet, but there's pretty
rapid progress. There's a ton of distros making images for them. 

It's going to be a while before they are day to day phones, and then a
bit longer after that for everything to percolate upstream and land in
mainstream distros. That said, it should be a pretty nice (if cheap and
slow) phone then. :) 

Right now most folks are using a kernel by 'megi' that has a ton of
pinephone related patches on it. You can see a feature matrix at: 

https://xnux.eu/devices/pine64-pinephone.html

They also have a image that has 17 os'es on it: 
https://xnux.eu/p-boot-demo/

For $150 (or 200 if you want the usb-c minidock and 3GB) is pretty cheap
for a phone and while it's slow and the res isn't great, it's a fun toy
to play with. 

I did a blog post with more initial thoughts: 
https://www.scrye.com/wordpress/nirik/2020/07/25/pinephone-initial-thoughts/

Probibly should do another soon. 

Happy to answer questions. 

kevin
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