How many of you run a Linux phone (Pine64, Librem etc) as your daily driver?

MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 166 points –

I was going through Pine64's page again after I found the latest KDE announcement. With that said, I seem to see a lot of issues with firmware on the Pine, whilst the Librem is just plain out of budget for me. Was interested in how many people here run a Linux mobile as a daily driver, and how has your experience been?

I'm considering purchasing the Pine but I'd like a better screen, more RAM and a better CPU. Don't know if I should wait for a new model to be released (are they even planning to do that? Is the company active?). I will only really use it to browse the Web, and might even look to desolder a couple of parts that I know I won't use.

Thanks.

Edit: I am willing to watch content and use banking apps from the browser. Do you think it'll be fit for me?

Edit 2: overall, I am much saddened about the state of affairs regarding private computing on the go. I desperately hope that Linux on mobile takes off, even though its incubation looks disheartening at the moment. Thank you everyone for your comments.

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Would really love to but have yet to see basic phone functionality covered in a way that isn’t a painful compromise. Stock Android is a privacy nightmare, which is why I left it. I had some fun with Cyanogenmod back in the day, maybe there’s another de-googled Android distribution around today but since I last checked I couldn’t find one that runs on modern mainstream hardware without really jumping through some crazy hoops to establish root.

Cyanogenmod became LineageOS. It can be run fully de-googled or with Gapps.

GrapheneOS is also worth looking at.

Both run on modern hardware and are super simple to install.

I would have to dispute your claims on this one. The only really modern mobiles running Lineage OS (by modern I mean released in this year and the previous year) are perhaps some European Xiaomi/Realme devices, maybe a couple of Samsungs, the last-gen OnePlus and some Motorola devices, and the Pixels.

As I have been complaining for a long while now, the entire custom ROM market is moving towards the Pixels, which is a dreadful move in my opinion, but what I can do

It's mostly up to which manufacturers allow boot loader unlocking.

The pixels are somewhat a continuation of the nexus line which were more developer centric.

Motorola edge 30 runs just fine and has done practically since it launched, typing this on it now

In Europe? AFAIK Motorola's latest devices don't have builds on the Lineage OS website (from 2023) but I might be wrong.

Will definitely give these a look, thank you for the updates.

Can you speak to your experience with any of these? Would love to hear a first hand account!

I ran Lineage on my OnePlus 5 for a few years until I replaced it with a Pixel 8 last month. The first thing I did with it was install GrapheneOS. I have not had any issues so far.

I'm not that person but I've been using GrapheneOS for about 8 months now. Setting up an esim was probably the worst thing I had to do but it was still relatively easy. Lmk if you got any questions

Would really love to but have yet to see basic phone functionality covered in a way that isn’t a painful compromise. Stock Android is a privacy nightmare, which is why I left it.

I've been using GrapheneOS for about a year now and it's a giant leap in privacy and security (much better than iOS), with very little compromise in functionality.

iOS being secure is a farce which the population has just gobbled up without reason