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Smartphone users are usually torn between the two choice — Android or iOS. Their dominance is such that other competing OS like Windows, BlackBerry OS, or Symbian have almost been abandoned.Those who don't want either of them can opt for Pine64's Linux phone dubbed the PinePhone which offers good hardware and software at an affordable rate of $149.
The phone's specs aren't great, but it does include a headphone jack (I wonder if it's capable of using the JACK audio system?) and the article notes that it may provide physical switches for disabling various components. The company behind it, Pine64, also produce the PineBook Linux laptop, which also use an ARM processor.
Source: https://fossbytes.com/pinephone-linux-smartphone-149/
Related: Kickstarter: Pine A64, Cheaper and More Powerful than Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ilPapa on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:54AM (3 children)
Is it my imagination or are products like this announced every six months or so for the past 10 years and never end up actually selling or coming to market? It seems like this entire pitch (open source, low-cost basic phone for cheap without bloatware) is something I've heard before.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:48AM (2 children)
Not your imagination. I've noted the same thing. But, SOME FEW of them actually make it to market. There is one in Europe right now, that won't ship to the US. (I think it's Sailfish OS.) Makes me want to choke some Europeans, but it's a real thing. Librem actually seems just about ready to ship. We could still be disappointed with them, but Librem has sold real products in the past, and their phone is on the verge of being ready.
Yeah, lots of failures, and the successes all seem to be limited. But, that doesn't stop us hopeful optimists from looking!
As an aside, it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that products like this are selling in China and the rest of Asia on the black market. In a business environment where Apple devices are routinely knocked off, it makes sense that someone is building and selling unlocked Linux and other devices that are completely under the control of the end user.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:45PM
This is actually very likely to come to market. The Pine guys have been shipping boards for years and are probably the biggest next to raspi. Plus, this thing seems to be mostly using their existing hardware (the compute module, which would mean these things might just be easily upgradeable!).
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:48PM
Yup. I have Sailfish on a Sony XA2. I use it as my daily driver. There are one or two bugs - knowing the triple-press of the power button to disable the proximity detector which the OS sees as being locked to 'something is near me so turn off the screen' mode means it works well enough for me.
Jolla have just released the beta-software that includes support for Android 8.1 apps [jolla.com], which is pretty irrelevant for me, as I don't use Android, but important to others. I'll be upgrading the OS as soon as I get the time to do so.
Sailfish is NOT Open source. Bits of the OS are proprietary - but much isn't: sources are here: http://releases.sailfishos.org/sources/ [sailfishos.org]
A diagram of the mix of open and closed software is here: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FbfD5dlCtEA/VtYez7UFDHI/AAAAAAAAA3g/1XByZOdCKYY/s1600/Sailfish_Architecture%255B1%255D.jpg [blogspot.com] (I can't find it on the officla pages right now)
The PinePhone looks interesting.