Comment by 999900000999
8 hours ago
I just installed CachyOS on one of my laptops. I like Open Suse a bit more, but my vpn and a few other applications work better on Arch.
Android is turning into the iOS/OSX/Win11 model. It’s not your device, you’re just renting it.
You need permission to install applications, or do anything else outside of consuming subscription services.
Where are the Linux phones ?
Linux phones exist but work on a limited number of devices (see PostMarketOS) or Linux primary devices like Purism or Pinephone (which I've heard are expensive). That's the primary issue, you either need to buy an expensive and potentially underpowered phone OR have one that is supported most of the way with PostMarketOS (Wifi, SIM card, GPU, etc. sometimes may not work even though the phone can boot PostMarketOS).
I personally don't have a problem with a mediocre-performance phone but it should not be expensive. Not to mention app ecosystems - there aren't a lot of Linux apps for Linux phones.
I've paid 200€ for my PinePhone. It is underpowered, but at least it doesn't have to waste its resources on rendering ads.
Where Android/iPhone users have "apps", I mostly end up writing small shell scripts around existing linux tools. My alarm clock "app" is realized via cron jobs; my TOTP "app" is a one-liner around `oathtool`.
Messenger apps are a bit tricky; I'll probably end up hosting my own matrix homeserver and then have bridges running for Signal and the likes.
There are plenty of apps for Linux phones because you get all of the Linux software automatically. What there isn’t plenty of is commercial pop culture apps from social media companies, banks, and other businesses but for some of those you can run an android emulator or use their website.