the one thing linux really hasnt been made on par with winblows yet is the dreadful amount of options for android simulation -the most popular choice seems to be Waydroid, but its such an unneeded hassle to set up at all -genymotion is just slow -and than you have things like android x86 which entirely defeat the point of an emulator
Change the model. The sameness of Android phones is one the worst thing about them, and the software changes with each unique one are almost exclusively battery hogging and poorly written. If phone companies were forced to open their hardware platforms maybe we’d see more risk again. Perhaps differentiated with ACTUAL VARIETY of hardware. Phones with physical keyboards… phones with e-paper… These things are actually actively selected AGAINST in the current model because the limitations of system updates means even if you get used to a better workflow with unique hardware, there’s no guarantee that you will get ANY updates or that there will EVER be a better version of the hardware released, but if the platforms were open, the lives of these things could be extended almost indefinitely. And besides,there’s absolutely no reason developers couldn’t have special software features still installed into their phones and still give me the option to dump a vanilla android image on there. Most PC users don’t buy a PC and then wipe the OS and customize their installation, so there’s no reason to believe open platforms would change anything for end users, and forcing companies to get more creative in innovating isn’t a bad thing in this nightmare market of samey overpriced clones.
It DOES fail directly installed from the APK, but I don’t want to get bogged down in this.
I’ve thought about that and I might do that if Pine ever contracts a less scammy shipping partner. Regardless, this special hardware is antithetical to developing a mobile Linux ecosystem anyway. Linux thrives because it runs on ANYTHING. That gives the widest possible user base who then contribute back to the system and makes the entire ecosystem BETTER. You can buy ANY PC and just install what you want, and that’s not less profitable for PC manufacturers. Smartphone manufacturers are greedily wanting to ENFORCE that environment to be Google’s specific flavor of Android modified the way THEY want, and the fact it’s based on that very same Linux kernel, locking down and limiting and forbidding users from using that hardware in better ways, is morally appalling and disgusting. I don’t disagree that this is an option, but this is a workaround to a system that shouldn’t function this way.
Both exist and are still sold, though. Take the F(x) phone, or the Boox Palma. The problem is that there’s not enough demand for such phones to make that many of them, which in turn drives up the price.
Sorry to hear that, that’s very strange. Reverse engineering APKs isn’t that hard, maybe you can find a community that can propose a fix for you if you post the crash logs?
Linux thrives because companies like Intel, AMD, and all the other manufacturers submit patches and drivers. Back in the day, the hardware came out first, and Linux ran on backwards compatibility modes and drivers written by volunteers. Nvidia has only recently opened up their driver (sort of), and if try to run a game or even any other kind of GPU accelerated application under Nouveau, you’ll know that “Linux runs on anything” only applies to things that someone made drivers for.
Samsung and other manufacturers are shipping their own browsers, their own stores, their own calendars, exactly because they don’t want to be held by Google’s grasp.
What you seem to want is the Windows Phone model, which had a lot less trouble doing updates back in the day: Microsoft provided the OS, companies provided the hardware it ran on. Of course Microsoft’s version was closed source and had tons of other issues (like breaking compatibility every major release), but the OS design followed this path.
Manufacturers hated it. They wanted their custom branding on the phone, but Microsoft wouldn’t let them. Carriers hated iOS for the same reason, because before they could slap their themes and crapware on phones, but Apple wouldn’t let them either. The only reasons these companies ever sold any phones was that the carriers and manufacturers were smaller than Microsoft and Apple’s influence, and that Apple controlled their own production line.
In a perfect world, I agree with you. I want Android to just
apt-upgrademy phone from Android 13 to Android 14. I know its’ technically possible because Ubuntu does it. In practice, this idea relies on thousands of volunteers working together with hundreds of manufacturers who all contribute code and effort into the ecosystem. Linux may be free for the end user, but it certainly isn’t free for the companies putting hundreds of man hours into drivers they’ll never see any profits on.If you manage to find a world where your ideals work out, please take me with you. It sounds amazing. Sadly, I think the current world is moving away from the computer freedom that started in the 80’s and died in the mid-2000’s.
I agree with you that it’s unlikely we’re ever going to see that world come back (although I think given where we are now with Android’s dominance even if Android DID adopt the better, open model most manufacturers would suck it up and deal)
But that’s not going to stop me from old man ranting about it every chance I get. And like an old veteran who fought in a lost war, I’ll continue ranting about how it should’ve gone until I’m rotting in the ground, and shaking my fist at the whippersnappers who dare to move on with life.
Thanks for humoring me this long.