I used to own a Jolla phone, and there was something magical about it. At the time, their ideas and execution were a breath of fresh air, and the experience was amazing even despite some unavoidable teething problems. I happily used it as my daily driver for about 2 years, proudly showing it off to friends at every opportunity, and not wanting to switch to another phone.
Now, as such things go, many of the unique ideas dreamt up by Sailfish have been absorbed into the major OSs (which will no doubt claim they innovated them themselves), and Jolla had to close because competing at both the software and the hardware model simultaneously turned out to be unsustainable for them. And my own Jolla phone developed a hardware fault and that was that.
So I reluctantly switched back to Android. But none of the mainstream OSs managed to quite capture that magic, even despite having now copied most of its features. And when I tried the latest version of Sailfish on a Pinephone about a year ago, it too no longer felt like it had that sleekness I had come to love on the Jolla.
show comments
bsimpson
Did something happen that made Sailfish relevant again? Surprised to see it on the front page today.
It's unfortunate that they're taking a closed source model when others like System76 and Librem are using their hardware sales to fund open source development.
There's also webOS, which was originally funded by Palm and doesn't seem to have any open source development any longer, and the Maui project which is basically one guy trying to make his own Linux UI.
I'd love to see a team with decent UX sensibilities tackle a touch-first Linux UI. Nothing I've seen so far has impressed me. Seems like there are a lot of onesie-and-twosie sized projects that take forever to ship anything and never hit critical mass; meanwhile, nothing really holds a candle to the design of Android/iOS.
'world domination' not possible with "Sorry not available in your country".
I have worked Sailfish before, so I know what to expect. while a great OS, it is hard to compete with the established market. even the inclusion of libhybris won't change that... as in that case, why not just buy an Android device. unfortunately privacy is a niche to tailor to
show comments
sillystuff
Apparently Sailfish is using libhybris.
I looked at the libhybris page and a few other sources, but am unsure how much of Android is implied when using libhybris. Random person on Internet claimed it is a minimal, but complete, Android user space install, but my reading of the libhybris page doesn't seem to imply that. The libhybris page does imply some of Android user space. A (probably out of date) Android kernel with all the OOT binary blob drivers Android is famous for, seems like it would also be a requirement.
Am I misunderstanding how bad this is? Or, is Sailfish rather than being a real alternative to Android just helping to entrench the terrible situation with Android Linux kernels?
show comments
desdenova
I wish it was feasible to have alternative mobile systems, but it's not really.
You can't simply give up every popular app for a system nobody else uses or develops for.
Sailfish has Android emulation, but good luck running banking apps without Google SafetyNet. Even pure Android ROMs, like LineageOS, can't do that.
Also good luck with proprietary firmware for mobile networking and cameras. Another thing that usually holds back AOSP distributions, and will likely be even worse in a non-Android system.
show comments
triyambakam
So if I want to run it, what would the best supported device? I do see the list of supported devices, but they vary. Which one would provide the best experience?
By far the best mobile OS, way better than iOS or Android (simpler and more consistent).
The biggest obstacle to greater adoption is the lack of availability outside of the EU; of course, this is easy to work around...
It has a 'killer feature': Android App Support (https://jolla.com/appsupport), which enables a SFOS device to run Android apps in a sandbox.
I would also love to see a carefully engineered photo app...
show comments
ktosobcy
Eh...I wanted to love it, got first Jolla device (still have it in the drawer) but I simply couldn't made myself use it... Swipe navigation is just annoying and imprecise to use daily :|
nsonha
Does it have a Desktop mode like Samsung, tbh I don't even get the point of a Linux phone without a desktop mode.
Is this even a proper Linux phone? What distribution is it?
I used to own a Jolla phone, and there was something magical about it. At the time, their ideas and execution were a breath of fresh air, and the experience was amazing even despite some unavoidable teething problems. I happily used it as my daily driver for about 2 years, proudly showing it off to friends at every opportunity, and not wanting to switch to another phone.
Now, as such things go, many of the unique ideas dreamt up by Sailfish have been absorbed into the major OSs (which will no doubt claim they innovated them themselves), and Jolla had to close because competing at both the software and the hardware model simultaneously turned out to be unsustainable for them. And my own Jolla phone developed a hardware fault and that was that.
So I reluctantly switched back to Android. But none of the mainstream OSs managed to quite capture that magic, even despite having now copied most of its features. And when I tried the latest version of Sailfish on a Pinephone about a year ago, it too no longer felt like it had that sleekness I had come to love on the Jolla.
Did something happen that made Sailfish relevant again? Surprised to see it on the front page today.
It's unfortunate that they're taking a closed source model when others like System76 and Librem are using their hardware sales to fund open source development.
There's also webOS, which was originally funded by Palm and doesn't seem to have any open source development any longer, and the Maui project which is basically one guy trying to make his own Linux UI.
I'd love to see a team with decent UX sensibilities tackle a touch-first Linux UI. Nothing I've seen so far has impressed me. Seems like there are a lot of onesie-and-twosie sized projects that take forever to ship anything and never hit critical mass; meanwhile, nothing really holds a candle to the design of Android/iOS.
With DIY effort, Blackberry keyboard fans can attach a BB Q10 keyboard to modern phones, https://liliputing.com/fairberry-lets-you-attach-a-blackberr... & https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry
There's also the HackBerry cyberdeck with Pi Zero 2W and original BB keyboard, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41138701 & https://github.com/ZitaoTech/Hackberry-Pi_Zero
'world domination' not possible with "Sorry not available in your country".
I have worked Sailfish before, so I know what to expect. while a great OS, it is hard to compete with the established market. even the inclusion of libhybris won't change that... as in that case, why not just buy an Android device. unfortunately privacy is a niche to tailor to
Apparently Sailfish is using libhybris.
I looked at the libhybris page and a few other sources, but am unsure how much of Android is implied when using libhybris. Random person on Internet claimed it is a minimal, but complete, Android user space install, but my reading of the libhybris page doesn't seem to imply that. The libhybris page does imply some of Android user space. A (probably out of date) Android kernel with all the OOT binary blob drivers Android is famous for, seems like it would also be a requirement.
Am I misunderstanding how bad this is? Or, is Sailfish rather than being a real alternative to Android just helping to entrench the terrible situation with Android Linux kernels?
I wish it was feasible to have alternative mobile systems, but it's not really.
You can't simply give up every popular app for a system nobody else uses or develops for.
Sailfish has Android emulation, but good luck running banking apps without Google SafetyNet. Even pure Android ROMs, like LineageOS, can't do that.
Also good luck with proprietary firmware for mobile networking and cameras. Another thing that usually holds back AOSP distributions, and will likely be even worse in a non-Android system.
So if I want to run it, what would the best supported device? I do see the list of supported devices, but they vary. Which one would provide the best experience?
Does anyone use or have feedback on Sailfish?
See also from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41754074
By far the best mobile OS, way better than iOS or Android (simpler and more consistent).
The biggest obstacle to greater adoption is the lack of availability outside of the EU; of course, this is easy to work around...
It has a 'killer feature': Android App Support (https://jolla.com/appsupport), which enables a SFOS device to run Android apps in a sandbox.
I would also love to see a carefully engineered photo app...
Eh...I wanted to love it, got first Jolla device (still have it in the drawer) but I simply couldn't made myself use it... Swipe navigation is just annoying and imprecise to use daily :|
Does it have a Desktop mode like Samsung, tbh I don't even get the point of a Linux phone without a desktop mode.
Is this even a proper Linux phone? What distribution is it?
> Sailfish Mobile OS
> Available for supported Sony Xperia™ devices.
So not very useful for other devices. /s