this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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The software for linux phones is pretty much there. Gnome and KDE mobile are surprisingly capable. There’s built in apps for every basic thing you’d need on a phone like a dialer, SMS app, camera, etc. plus all the normal apps adapted to work with mobile like the calculator and maps apps.
The only real limitation is with the hardware. I have no idea why all new linux phones launch with specs from a decade ago. You can get a better experience by flashing ported Postmarket OS to an Android phone like the Nothing phone or a OnePlus 6t.
It shouldn’t be like that, no idea why it’s impossible to just have a linux phone with decent specs and a good camera on par with modern flagships.
Linux phones try to build from upstream Linux, and the major phone SoC vendors HATE upstreaming their code.
They believe every character in their source code is absolutely top secret.
A middle ground I wish was considered more is taking Google's kernel and the vendors DLKM partition/DTB/DTBO for hardware support, and putting a GNU userspace on top.
This has had problems in the past, because vendors would modify syscall tables such that they don't match userspace anymore, but with GKI, I think we're closer to that being a possibility
Thats always the problem with building hardware open source products. You spend millions developing the OS to work with your stuff and you get like six months before someone else is competing with you, except they didn't have to spend that investment. The only reason we got the steamdeck was because the guys that made it ALSO owned the means of putting games on it, so they didn't really need to make money on the product itself (kinda like with Google and the play store).
At least with the vendors I'm referring to (2/3 that make all Android phones), they just took the open source code, hacked it up as quickly as possible to get some basic drivers working, and moved on.
There wasn't any "special sauce" in the source, they just didn't want to spend the effort to upstream it
Edit: Just because you said "hardware open source" I wasn't advocating for open hardware, just for hardware vendors to, ya know, support the hardware
100% I got a pixel, secondhand, to allow for gOS.
All I want is a linux phone that takes good photos that I feel is secure. I need it to launch android apps in sandbox instances too but I understand that is possible.
Linux phones are always missing modern stuff be it fast charging, nfc, decent compnents, etc.
Love a tablet too, the pixel tablet with speaker stand is ideal if it wasnt the devils products.
Because Linux phones with proper hardware are sold at 1k and hundreds of people want to but that, not thousands or millions and thus they don't actually get built. Couple of attempts just lasttear didn't pan out.
"You can get a better experience by flashing ported Postmarket OS to an Android phone like the Nothing phone or a OnePlus 6t"
Can you relock the bootloader when flashing Postmarket OS to those phones? The only other OS that allowed for relocking the bootloader after flashing on certain phones was DivestOS, and unfortunately it went the way of the dodo.
Glad to hear it, as years back with the Pinephone, I had a.. worse than that experience. It was not good.
Give me a flx1s with usbDP alt mode and usb3 and I’ll switch today.
My 9a running Graphene works with a laptop usb C dock beautifully btw, just had to enable the beta in developer options.
That is not the same thing
Sorry, what about it isn't the same? Is the pixel not using DPAlt mode do handle external montors/docks?
It’s still just android. A Linux phone is like a full Linux PC in your pocket. Android is an abusable compromise.
Graphene is doing good work and is a great stopgap solution, but it’s not the end goal.
Ah, understood. I thought you were talking about the hardware.
Ah. kk.