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- Hacker News
- Windows Phone was a great idea and worked so well. But it was killed by the fact that people didn't want to maintain apps for 3 platforms. Nowadays when most of the things runs on web/electron anyway, isn't this the time to rediscover that idea?
Make something novel? RTOS like response like blackberry, secure, fully opensource and such? With the era of LLM accelerated developement (don't crucify me), this wouldn't be such unreachable goal.
We would have to sacrifice bank apps but imho still worth it.
by po1nt - Surface Duo 2 tried to rediscover it.
Next one will probably take a while, but be a relative hit.
by DANmode - Thanksfully it is not all web. Though indeed there is no lack of native multiplaform solutions.
But app is not the hardest challenge compared to supporting all the hardware, camera, screens and the many core protocols
by hithre - We should be eagerly sacrificing bank apps anyway. If your bank treats you with hostility, time to get a new bank.by uncletammy
- Not to mention that your android/ios device is still shipping a bunch of bluetooth tokens for "track and trace" system. Cryptographically signed to you.
- Exposure Notifications is no longer available in Android as of like 2023. https://developers.google.com/android/exposure-notificationsby striking
- It is encrypted ciphertext rotated every 10m in lockstep with your Bluetooth identifier.
You will need to turn off your Bluetooth if you want to stop advertising a rotating random number.
The only difference with the contact tracing is that a key, on the device, can correlate the ciphertext. I have it off because the utility was never demonstrated.
by conradev - > Cryptographically signed to you.
That's a bit of an oversimplification that makes this sound more concerning than it is. Not that it's 100% un-concerning, but I suggest that anyone concerned about this read the linked docs. It really was designed to be quite privacy preserving, though it's obviously a difficult challenge in this context.
by pdabbadabba - Smartphones(android, iphone) is just smart OTP now. Bootloader unlock unavailable(i hope this is just security concern for AI era), attestation is now a thing(regulations?). Most application(incl ChatGPT, X) says Android-available, but in fact it's Google-Android only.
As daily driving Linux desktop/laptops, I mostly find that android(at least samsung galaxy-flavored) is next gen of Microsoft Windows, in bad ways. At least you can "hack" the Windows to customize something by your own, android does not. Performance also questionable nowadays, not for gaming but browsing purpose for me, may drain more battery than expected. Also MS acknowledges the issues and made statements to fix while I haven't seen samsung's.
Anyway, My opinion is, If you are nerd like me, I would buy one phone that 1) can unlock the bootloader 2) can root 3) at least kernel source available, some companies do not disclose until legal? actions 4) optional, linux port-able (via community) 5) optional, officially supporting linux(not aosp)
and then buy second phone, that has great security support, e.g Apple iPhone or Google Pixel, and use it like a wallet(banking/cam/gps/... I would not like to support other vendors, what if they abandon security patches, and then phone being vulnerable). I believe more android application will be more restrictive than before in the future.
For linux, you own the hardware. Because it's open source, you can audit and harden the every aspects, e.g You might able to use proprietary bluetooth codecs, which vendor disables in android ROM. When AI era, you may able to investigate and mod stuffs which you don't fully understand. This take risks, and we have right to take the risks instead banning it.
by ilsubyeega - I need a phone I can root and still have their shit attestations. Rooting alone is not even that important anymore, you can’t install almost any app that’s useful or use payments. So can’t be your main daily phone. Then what’s useful for? You could potentially browse internet with a custom app, and run some tooling kind of apps that can’t be installed on regular android? besides that nothing useful.
Rooting is important so I can mock provide fake data for: location, other sensor data, contacts, files, etc that’s what’s a a truly owned device. He does what I say.
Not what the app wants. If apps says you can work only in location X my phone takes the app side instead of mine. That’s not mine.
I can’t copy this text or take screenshot because restrictions: fucking stupid. I’ll just take a photo with my second device (or output to usbc device that can record screen) and parse the text. My phone just made me waste my time. I still can do what I want, just extra hops. Because, again, is not truly my phone. Is an adversary to my daily use.
Anyway it’s a lost cause. The only hope is for ai to bypass their security and allow owners to truly own a device.
by skeptic_ai - Is there such thing as a palm-sized mobile PC that can just run a desktop Linux distribution (or Windows for that matter) that supports mobile features (calling, SMS, and data)? Even if it has rough edges or compromises?by summermusic
- https://thehammer.io/ right now texting device, runs linux :)by pacifi30
- What's wrong with just Android?by TheRoque
- Looks like some of GPD Pocket systems can have sim cards. But don't know how good the linux compatibility is.by dsp_person
- GPD Pocket / GPD microPC seem to be the only "small PC" products nowadays. But they do not support calling and SMS (they have 4G modem option for data, but it's not seemingly not very good).
At that point I think I might get one of those and use them as an everyday computing device (with Waydroid for Android apps) plus a small light Android phone for calling, tethering and locked down apps that do not work otherwise.
by matejdro - Purely an akchally, but there is the Fujitsu F-07C. Topologically it was a Windows 7 stick PC duct taped to a 3G flip phone that acts like a KVM console and a modem.by numpad0
- PinePhone (Pro) or Librem 5
> run a desktop Linux distribution (or Windows for that matter) that supports mobile features (calling, SMS, and data)?
The above use ARM SoCs. Palm-sized x86 with cell modem? Doubt it.
by jolmg - Librem 5 or one of the other recommended mobile Linux devices: https://linuxstans.com/linux-phone/by righthand
- Google Play Services ruins dream of this. I've noticed that automotive digital keys don't work with Graphine OS due to how Google Wallet works.by t1234s
- Can't you use an open-source wallet app? F-Droid seems to have a bunch of them.by warkdarrior
- FWIW I think tesla app works fine on Graphine/Lineage OS as a digital key where the BMW system (and maybe other MFGs) use something with Google Wallet which requires something with Google Play Services to work.by t1234s
- What about real keys?
- Or most banks, government apps, and so on. Which all require an app to login, rather than support any open and actually secure standard.by shakna
- If I had a car with that feature and no clear way to permanently disable it, I would take it back.by MrDrMcCoy
- I think a Linux phone probably appeals to the same kind of person who prefers real keys over digital ones.by Gigachad
- I thought I would miss google wallet but after 2 years of using graphene I came to the conclusion that it is easy to live without it.
A non problem imho.
by prmoustache - I've tried a few times over the years to make Ubuntu Touch work. God how bad I wanted it to work here in the US. The lack of apps and VoLTE support really soured me on it ever working here.
If you're outside of the US, the availability of useable mobile OS's outside of Android and iOS is pretty abundant compared to the situation here in the US.
- I've just switched over to Ubuntu Touch again recently. We'll see if I stick with it, but... at least on my device (Fairphone 5), VoLTE works now!by ryukafalz
- Ukraine. Diia (open-source govt services app) likely won't work. monobank either. on banks there is also Oshchad, Privat, Pumb, and none of them will work on Linux. GPay is a staple, I don't even have a plastic card (mono customer) because it's so good to just not fuck with keeping plastic around. plus there is a strong Quick Share culture, which I don't see working on Linux particularly wellby bpavuk
- I bought Jolla Phone 2026. Was thinking about Pixel 10 and another round of GrapheneOS, but changed my mind.
Was using Sailfish OS on Sonys phone but drove me nuts for two reasons:
- had to reverse banking up to kick out the checks each time when new version came out and I became quite proficient at it (decompiled into git and each new version over it, then git diff, and fix the checks, committed the changes)
- worse part was that there was no bluetooth to android bridge and local bus company required it for contactless paying
There was nothing I missed from the phone, even reversing banking app was not really an issue, but bluetooth was just needed.
I defected to GrapheneOS after two years, now I am moving back, I hope for good. The fixed the bluetooth while for hardware I dont care.
I have solved the banking app issues by changing the bank and getting cheap old pixel just for banking app. It doesnt even have SIM, only wifi and used Automatize to turn on airplane mode on lock screen and turning it off for unlock.
I dont care about NFC payment or any other android junk, for photos I have EOS and phone just doesnt cut it, while camera is good enough for taking shots at everyday things like shopping list.
I really hope I wont need to see android ever again.
by stiray