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exabrialyesterday at 7:08 AM8 repliesview on HN

We need a third alternative, based on freedom with your device. No root access, remote control by apple and google, all wrong.


Replies

pjmlpyesterday at 10:10 AM

Every attempt since OpenMoko proves the market doesn't care.

And in what concerns the mainstream desktop/laptop market, macOS Linux VMs, WSL, ChromeOS, versus GNU/Linux OEM devices, proves most people doesn't care either what they can get at regular computer stores, otherwise GNU/Linux configurations would not be online only at very specific shops.

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hommelixyesterday at 7:30 AM

> We need a third alternative, based on freedom with your device. No root access, remote control by apple and google, all wrong.

There is https://postmarketos.org/

Maybe 2026 will be the year of Linux on mobile phone.

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cookiengineeryesterday at 12:54 PM

Check out Hackberry Pi devices. Then check out how far Plasma Mobile got, it made insane progress over the last years.

I'm currently working on an OS image for the Hackberry devices, maybe it'll get some traction. [1]

[1] https://github.com/rogueberry

[2] https://github.com/ZitaoTech/HackberryPiCM5

ofrzetayesterday at 7:21 AM

There are some, right? I think I lost track a bit, but one is Sailfish OS. I guess it is super hard for alternative devices/OSs to enter the market.

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rock_artistyesterday at 8:47 AM

It’s a circle that needs to be broken. It has multiple parties even without device manufacturers.

Users - there is a broad scope of users. For sustainable eco-system you need also user interest and support of such.

Developers - that sounds funny. I know. But you need enough leverage to get apps or services to be open.

Companies/Software - a modern mobile device takes place in almost any interaction. Commuting, payment, banking, grocery shopping, social messaging, doom scrolling.

Biggest hope for the future is ensuring PWA becomes standardized enough. That way the OS lock-in could be reduced.

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Zigurdyesterday at 1:18 PM

Open Harmony? I can't find what I would call authoritative information on how open it is. There's some hedging language about modules being closed source. But it's unclear if that refers to commercial versions of Harmony OS or Open Harmony, or if Open Harmony is open but somehow crippled.

baqyesterday at 9:34 AM

We need a hardware attestation vendor who isn’t also selling ads on the same device. Something like, I dunno, an identity module which you could maybe insert into the phone?

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dainiusseyesterday at 7:28 AM

It is Linux, isn't it. Jolla phone, etc...