Comment by fractallyte
1 year ago
We already have it, and it's called Sailfish OS (https://sailfishos.org/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS)
The paid version even comes with Android App Support - the 'killer feature' that allows a Sailfish device to run full Android apps in a sandbox (https://jolla.com/appsupport).
Some people will inevitably moan that it's proprietary, but that's just the UI layer; the rest is wide open, familiar Linux. I can SSH into my device without any fancy workarounds, and it works almost identically to a desktop machine.
(Besides, how else is a company meant to survive in the super-competitive mobile device market? The OS is cheap. Android App Support is awesome. Pay up and be grateful!)
The UX is simple and consistent, WAY superior to iOS and Android.
Most importantly, it has an ecosystem: the Jolla app store, a comprehensive SDK, and an alternative open source app repository (https://openrepos.net/).
It looks like it doesn't support android safetynet hardware attestation so banking apps etc won't work.
> Pay up and be grateful!)
Website says it's only sold in EU. How is that verified?
"We currently sell in European Union, UK, Norway and Switzerland.
Please be welcome to use our software anywhere in the world, however due to our limited resources we can only support the noted regions." https://shop.jolla.com/
It isn't. You can just use a VPN.