Google, Facebook, Android

[Paullmas]

Why no market for alternative user-centric "mini" computer, aka phone?

I personally would pay 100 - 200% more for a non-Googlish open source phone.:smallconfused:

[Anymage]

Given that Google makes Android available to developers, why not just tinker it to suit your own tastes or else grab an image from somebody else who has?

If you're looking for software, people have ported other OSs to work with handheld devices. Googling "Linux for phones" should provide an easy jumping off point. But making hardware is pricy, and most most manufacturers don't want to maintain and code a whole OS on top of that. So given that there are ways to change the software/firmware you're running, that's plenty for most people who do want something other than Apple or Google.

[137beth]

The Purism Librem Phone (https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/) is due to be released in early 2019 and will contain no proprietary software. Is that what you are looking for?

[Lvl 2 Expert]

There are Windows Phones. Or have they stopped doing that completely? And the President of the US still has a Blackberry as his work phone right? Or did the new one get a different brand?

I'm guessing the answer is: because there were non-Android non-iOS systems, and nobody was buying them (https://www.statista.com/statistics/266136/global-market-share-held-by-smartphone-operating-systems/).

[LordEntrails]

I'm guessing the answer is: because there were non-Android non-iOS systems, and nobody was buying them (https://www.statista.com/statistics/266136/global-market-share-held-by-smartphone-operating-systems/).
^^^ That.

Besides, do you want a phone that can't run any apps? You create a totally new phone, you have to have software designers spend time making their apps work on that phone. that's expensive, time consuming, and if you don't have a large enough part of the market share, not worth the effort.

Sure, someone could make a totally new phone platform and even go and make a web browsers for it and an email app. But without the possibility of the hundreds of other apps that most people want access too, you're not going to sell many.

[Darkseal]

Why no market for alternative user-centric "mini" computer, aka phone?

I personally would pay 100 - 200% more for a non-Googlish open source phone.:smallconfused:

Well, there are at least 4-5 open-source mobile OS you can use on a mobile phone if you don't want messing with Android: Tizen, Plasma Mobile (by KDE guys), postmarketOS, lineageOS and so on.

If you want a "open source phone", check out Librem, which could be close to what you're looking for.

[Bohandas]

The Purism Librem Phone (https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/) is due to be released in early 2019 and will contain no proprietary software. Is that what you are looking for?

I've been looking at this. Does anybody know if it comes with root level access out of the box?

[Bohandas]

There are Windows Phones. Or have they stopped doing that completely?

They may have, because I've had trouble finding a recent one. Because a Windows 10 phone is what I really want. Something I can install real programs on and not ****** ******* stripped-down minimal-functionality ad-filled apps from the Play store or the Apple store

[137beth]

I've been looking at this. Does anybody know if it comes with root level access out of the box?
Yes, it will when it is released.


They may have, because I've had trouble finding a recent one. Because a Windows 10 phone is what I really want. Something I can install real programs on and not ****** ******* stripped-down minimal-functionality ad-filled apps from the Play store or the Apple store

Unfortunately, Windows phone and Windows 10 Mobile never supported real desktop applications: that's one of the main reasons it was a commercial failure. Most existing Windows software is heavily tied to Intel's x86 CPU architecture, and won't run on ARM-based smartphones even if they are running Windows. Windows phones can only run the same sort of stripped-down repackages websites that iOS and Android have, except that there are even fewer apps available for it than for the more popular smartphone operating systems.

That's actually another area where the Librem phone will excel. Unlike in the case of Windows, most open source Debian packages can run on both x86 and ARM processors. Since PurismOS is based on Debian, it should be possible to run real desktop applications on the Librem phone right out of the box.

On the flip side, most Debian/Linux applications have user interfaces which are designed for desktop usage, assuming you have a mouse, a keyboard, and a large monitor. So a lot of existing Debian applications may be difficult to use on a Librem phone, even if they can be installed and launched.

[Bohandas]

Excellent. I'm gonna have to order one of those.