Hacker News Reader

Comment by m4rtink | Hacker News Reader

I have been using Sailfish OS since its launch in 2013 and it works fine, even for regular users (if you install it for them).

I have recently installed it on the Xperia 10 II you mention as well use a couple Xperia X devices in the family. Use the Jolla 1 & Jolla C before back when Jolla still manufactured their own devices.

Frankly, before some of the PinePhone distro mature, this is the only really usable Linux distro based independent mobile OS. And it has been available for years, yet people don't seem to be aware of it or seem to ignore it for some reason.

And if you have any questions about Sailfish OS, fire away! :)

View on HN

> Frankly, before some of the PinePhone distro mature, this is the only really usable Linux distro based independent mobile OS.

Did you take PureOS into account ? It is the Linux OS installed on the Librem 5 phone. https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

I know about it, but it still seems much less mature & available only on limited hardware. Still hopefully this will get addressed over time.

I've been aware of it but the fact that there's proprietary parts makes it a non-starter for me. Why leave one closed-source ecosystem to go join another? I'll get a phone I can flash with postmarketOS/Plasma Mobile/Ubuntu Touch instead.

Because Sailfish OS works now and is mikes better in both openness and privacy violations than both iOS and Android ?

And while I agree that the closed source parts are stupid I still think Sailfish OS is a good stepping stone to full open distros and hardware once they reach sufficient maturity.

How's the Anbox support on it? I'd like to keep using the large F-Droid app ecosystem until native alternatives are as good.

Also have they resolved the kernel updating issue? All phones which ship with Android 11 or lower are unable to have their kernel updated because each device uses a modified kernel[1]. Phones which ship with Android 12 like the Pixel 6 all use the same Android Common Kernel, so it's enabled Google to guarantee the Pixel 6 will have at least 5 years of kernel and OS updates for the first time in Android's history.

[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/830979/

The 50€ for a Sailfish OS license also pays for a (proprietary) Android emulation layer (called Alien Dalvik, originally by the Miriad Group) that works really well. More here:

https://jolla.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201440787-What-A...

You can even install microg or full blown Google apps if you really want & are fine with the implications (still less problematic having Google stuff in the emulator than on a native device IMHO).

There have been actually also some attempts to get Anbox running on Sailfish OS as the community ports dont get the Android emulation layer, only officially supported devices.

As for major version kernel update issues - they did not, but I am not really sure it's that problematic in the end.

So basically they base their port on the best kernel version + blob bundle from the Sony open device program at the time, then stick with it. Apparently the way updates of these low level things work on devices originally shipping with Android are too stupid and fragile to make supportable over the air updates possible for Sailfish OS.

They could port the adaptation to newer bundle from the open device program and either mandate re-flashing or support two versions based on different kernels on a single device. Both not very good options imho.

Still, not updating the major kernel version does not mean the Don support the devices or newer rebuild the kernel. All the Xperia devices in the program are still getting OS updates, including security fixes for the kernel. They actually only recently dropped support for their Jolla 1 handset released in 2013.

It's just when you really need the latest kernel features or the most advanced Android emulation layer you might need to get the most recently supported device.

Thanks for the info! The limited supported hardware and kernel updates has me hesitant still but I'll give it another look, it's been years since I did last.

While not as fast (+ I think keeping parts of it closed is stupid and never gave them any benefit) as I would like there is definitely continuous progress being made in Sailfish OS, not to mention a very nice community of users, app developers, translators, device porters and contributors to the open parts of Sailfish OS.

Thats what kept me there for all those years. :)

One of the reasons I want the Xperia 10 II is because of the TOF sensor and the camera array. Does the Sailfish OS offer software which utilises those?

For some reason the default camera only uses the "normal" camera but the Advanced Camera application from the community repos (Open Repos) can use all three without issues.

No idea about the ToF sensor - I woukd guess it could be used unless it nerds some weird Android blobs to function.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com