considering that i can get a fairly new & good quality android phone for a hundred - if i go the alternative route, i want to know that the so-called full control device i am buying for many hundreds, is really worth it.

i am keenly listening.

personally, i wouldn't mind installing myself, but it really has to be NOT android (ubuntu phone fails there).
recently, someone talked about sailfishos - unfortunately i cannot find any device list anywhere :-(
i once even had my hands on a used jolla, but decided for the slightly better-specced android phone... sh*t.

edit:
and yes, i am aware of the baseband firmware issues, but consider that beyond my control.
well, if alternative hardware exists, i'm all ears.

Perhaps due to my own lack of knowledge I also should clarify something. I am not actually interested in the baseband, or messing with any of the 'modem' features itself - I just want a clean phone. Overall I am not deterred in sticking with a smartphone - but I do not plan to get one through my carrier. I know that I can at least get a smartphone with factory stock rom from the manufacturer themselves. I should at least be able to do that.

I still do not plan on getting anything from Google themselves - the so-called 'Pixel' - due to the outright exclusion of a microSD slot.

i will have to look closer into that.
i understand that the devs are the successors to maemo/meego, the operating systems for the N900/N9, the only real linux smartphones from nokia (and probably the whole mainstream market).
there seems to be an effort to revive the n900 (new hardware, own os). it looks very interesting, but according to this i would have to get on the train with 480€, which is about 40% of the end price, which means more than 1000€ in the end.
that is about as much as i spent on all my devices in the last decade or so...


the whole thing got me searching around a little.
i found openmoko which seems to be dead nowadays, but looked very interesting. here's the most recent seller of openmoko and other linux handheld devices. all sold out and outdated, but interesting to look at.

looking at the various projects, meego redirects to tizen - now that looks interesting. real gnu/linux? again, i could not, on first glance, see what devices this is supposed to work with.

that was me from down the rabbit hole, coming up again...

Thanks for the mention of this -- it looks interesting and I see that they're planning a 3G device which may even replace a phone entirely. If they start shipping normally rather than pre-order or develop a good reputation I may consider saving for one. The whole game-console hybrid thing seems a bit sily but a full keyboard and Linux seems good.

I have Nexus (5,6P) - "google" phones are the easiest to mod, and usually the first available.
I don't notice the lack of SD. Get enough memory in it for your needs. Mine happen to be modest - a quick photo or video; for serious (planned) uses I use DSLR and/or gopro.

As I posted earlier, I refuse to upload my music to Google Drive. I have no issues with 'running out of space'; because I know how to manage it already, the Pixel and other 'cloud only' storage based phones seem in my opinion to be targeted for those who have no concept of removing content from their devices at one point or another - pretty much do not know how to manage their own device's storage. I guess I am just a little more old fashioned.

My music collection is extensive, and yes I like having it on the go, but I am not going to take the time to start uploading hundreds upon hundreds of GB of lossless files. A microSD card is part of my needs and meets it quite well, Google Drive does not.

--edit

I have basic motorola E 2nd Gen, Android 6.0 using a 32GB micro sd card for storing thousand of pictures of Music Albums, SD card write access is enabled without limitation (not sure if it's Motorola feature only)

Mine

Comes with all of that. But you would have some reason on why not to get it.
That's Life.

All my music files fit on my 128Gig micro sd card. Movies,Comics, and Books and manuals also.

I won't bother with make or model since you would not want it anyways.
According to thread title and previous posts.

Jeebizz, for music I use a seperate device entirely -- a FiiO X1 which is about $100, plays FLAC as well as many other formats, plays from SD cards (only, no onboard storage) and sounds fairly decent. Also means I can listen to music without using the battery from my communication device.

Cool, I can get semi-decent battery life on my smartphone, I keep the brightness to the darkest possible - without having trouble reading the screen - unlike the wife who has it at max, plus runs so many apps - then wonders why even her new S6 dies so quickly .

I do not really see the need for another device just to play my music, carrying one device instead of multiple is preferable.

Well, yes, it's another device but I take my X1 and my Kindle most places I go and I'm glad they're not part of my communication strategy. If I thought of it in the direction you are I'd just buy a Macbook Air with a 4G dongle and a small pack to carry it. I suppose these things depend upon how one is willing to compromise.

Well I do have a notebook (Toshiba - NOT a Macbook) - Running UbuntuMATE and everything works out-of-the-box. I don't care for tablets; I would rather just have a notebook; and of course I can load up whatever the hell I want too for the OS - same with a Macbook, but Apple is overrated and over-priced.

Again, with my S4, I can simply connect it to my Slackware desktop - and I immediately at least have access to the non-restricted partition, plus the sd card, suddenly I got an external storage device. Can't do that with an iPhone, you need iTunes just to transfer your own music. Remind me again, why exactly is the iPhone so 'good'? (yes, I just had to shit on Apple). One final jab - I had family visit a few weeks ago. Of course they had an iPhone, and was having some trouble transferring some music - so I being the complete asshole that I am, showed them my S4 - and I transferred some files back-and-forth instantly, It is ironic that even if you have a Mac , you cannot simply connect the Iphone - you still need iTunes.... (BTW family member didn't have a Macbook, just a Win7 notebook) family member just stood there and said nothing - but I am sure in the back of her mind she probably was questioning as well, just WHY she even had an iPhone in the first place.

I already know the answer to that - 'status' - pretty much style over any actual substance.

Anyways, enough of that.

Someone earlier posted something about Tizen - I ran into articles about that a while back - seems interesting. Also I know about Meego; too bad Nokia is pretty much a shell of it's former self (just like Blackberrry (I never had a Blackberry)).

There is only one phone type you can control - stationary.

mind, they still sell premium quality rubberboots just like 50 years ago ;-)

but as far as electronics are concerned, i don't think the company exists at all anymore.

sold to microsoft many years ago, they still sold "nokia lumia" phones as nokia phones (with windows mobile) for a while, but soon changed that to "microsoft lumia".
so, nokia doesn't even exist as a brand anymore.

I guess I finally solved my issue somewhat. Was finally able to find the correct cf root-file, and I just now successfully rooted my phone; and quickly uninstalled the majority of crap I never wanted, yahoo software, knox, samsung music sharing, video , Google Chrome , Google+, Hangouts, ... Just to name a few. Now I can browse the entire phone (root file explorer) , still kinda a pain in the ass, was hoping I could get full access now connected to my computer - just not too fond of the touchscreen - compared to at least a point-and-click interface , I do have a terminal now - but its still a pain... Oh well. Still also ironic that I had to use a windows machine (ODIN software) because ADB and utilities on Linux just suck... *shakes head*

I guess now I just have to figure out how to avoid OTA updates from my carrier - don't really want to hunt for the next root exploit. Still, I am not totally satisfied only because I have to go through this much trouble for a device that I own. Sorry again, but if I am spending $600 on a device, I *AM* entitled to full control.