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Comment by nottaylorswift | Hacker News Reader

Then buy any of the 3 billion Android handsets. Most average $100 and were out of beta in 08'.

Android handsets aren't really linux boxes. I can't ssh into them, I can't write little python scripts, etc. An actual, general purpose, real foss portable phone factor computer will be amazing as it matures.

There's nothing new here. I remember having those features in the Nokia N900 in 09. I think this product is grossly overpriced for a cheap generic Android phone loaded with a beta Linux distro. In Shenzhen they'll sell you a case of 50 for $400. Save your money or buy a Quest 2.

Except this one is going to run a close to mainline kernel pretty soon and those android phones will be stuck in the last decade, forever.

How soon is other software on it is usable? Kernel really doesn't matter too much if rest is unusable...

It took Google tens of thousands of paid top tier developer hours to make Android useable. I'm betting never. In a year or two there's going to be some nasty passive aggressive apology blaming the woes of the world for why it couldn't happen and these guys will go home with their big sack of money. Seriously you want a shit Android ARM phone loaded with a beta Linux distro? Let's order a lot from Shenzhen and everyone can pay the $50 it's worth.

"It took Google tens of thousands of paid top tier developer hours to make Android useable."

Is that a guess, or a fact?

Then Shenzhen manufactures should open source device drivers.

> I can't ssh into them

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.xnano.andr...

> I can't write little python scripts

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.iiec.pydroi...

And those don't even require an unlocked bootloader. If you do unlock, sky's the limit - it really is a general purpose portable computer then.

You can install termux and from there do all the normal SSH, python, linuxy stuff you like.

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