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mattl

The things I do daily on a smartphone are:

- Web browsing

- iMessage

- WhatsApp

- Social media

- Photography

- Music

- Email

- Maps

- Medical stuff

When I see articles like this, it’s a stark reminder of just how wide the gap between iOS and any of these community Linux phones is. I’m also sure it’s a similar gap between a modern Android phone and the same community projects.

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It's not as wide as you'd been made to believe. Ubuntu Touch does around 50% of what you're listing.

Web browsing works fine, though the older Chromium is showing its age and may not be running with full hardware acceleration. iMessage is a non-starter, unless someone wants to implement a client for AirMessage, which would itself be fairly simple. WhatsApp works through a web-app with some rudimentary push (if I remember correctly), but a native app is not outside possibility. Social media could be done through the browser, several Reddit clients and one for HN exist, and I personally have written a YouTube client (needs to be adjusted for API changes). Photography is possible, though maybe not on Google Camera level. Email clients exist. A navigator app with OpenStreetMap data too exists. As for medical stuff, unless it runs in the browser, it likely won't even run in Waydroid (Android compatibility) because SafetyNet.

The UI itself is very snappy even on older devices and the battery lasts enough of the day, through not as much as on Android. While it may feel a bit locked down with its immutable FS (you can unlock it, but OEM updates will reset root) compared to other mobile Linux distros, you can still do a lot, from running desktop apps through DosBox and Wine, to editing the shell's QML for custom UI, to automating system actions with the shell. If you have a Pixel laying, I highly recommend you at least try it. Things aren't perfect, there's a bit of legacy code that needs people, but it's a good daily driver.

Is there a phone I can pick up to try Ubuntu Touch, Graphene, the Librem OS (PureOS?) and CalyxOS?

I’d like to see the state of these things for myself.

PostMarketOS actually has a list :) The one I see most often touted and used on the Mobile Linux corner of the Fediverse is the Oneplus 6 or 6T, but I'm happier with my Pinephone Pro (even if just for the swappable batteries and easy repair)

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices

UBTouch has a list of supported devices, too: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/

The best supported Ubuntu Touch phone is Pixel 3a. One of the core devs owns one and is actively invested in getting all the features to work, get decent battery, hardware acceleration, etc. Other phones may have various compatibility issues, like lacking GPU support, unreliable GPS, no USSD codes, etc.

Be weary of 16.04 devices, they have old manufacturer kernels and can't be made to work with newer releases. Basically anything than ran Android ~4.0 at release is off the table.

I'm on iOS but I only use my phone for a few things: iMessage/SMS, maps/navigation, and the occasional phone call. I have very few apps installed that did not come with the phone. Web is awful on mobile. Email not much better. The rest of it I don't use.

Most of my personal web usage is mobile at this point. As is a large part of my job.

Email on mobile isn’t amazing but if you’re okay top-posting it can be bearable.

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