Well I mean it is what it is in the world of mobile phones. I get what you're saying though. A fully customizable Linux OS on a mobile would be great but, I don't see it in the near future. I'm a programmer but I wouldn't have any idea as to where to begin to convert Linux to a truly customizable mobile format.

Is android based on linux?

I think it might use the kernel that was in use just before the most recent one, but I could be wrong. I see Windows Phones and iPhones, but no strictly Linux phones.. Why? I wouldn't mind seeing something with the body of the Samsung Note( I think it's made by Samsung) With a full touch screen like the HTC EVO or Droid Razer, running Gentoo or something, but have it be like a desktop distro but have the full customization options of the desktop distro as well as the basic mobile features, and to top it all off put a little Tux on the back, like Apple has their logo on the iPhone.

As far as I know Android is "open source" Linux. But a few things like locked bootloaders, no root access and the source code coming out late in the day mean it's not really like the GNU/Linux we use on our PCs.
I wanted one of the Meego (or Memo, or whatever they were called at that point) Nokia phones and was waiting for one with a qwerty keyboard when I stopped being in the market for a new phone. I get the impression they are more like desktop Linux than Android.
Of course another problem with phones is that they are generally subsidised through networks and a "proper" Linux phone would likely cost around $800 and only a few people would buy one so it doesn't make much economic sense.

well root access would be a nice feature and yeah maybe it would be about $800 but for root access and no lock outs on anything would be worth around $300 or $500 would seem more reasonable to me, it is open source after all. But who would a good carrier be? I think we should start something here and get an idea going for a fully accessible Linux mobile. Just throw out ideas and discuss different features and options we think it should have, ya know?

Well, I'm a little odd and I like my qwerty and don't go for touch screen much, though it can come in handy. I would have bought a Nokia N900 had I been able at the time.
As far as hardware design goes my favourite phone is probably between this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Universal and the Blackberry type layout. For Linux I'd go with the fold-up as it means no accidental key or screen presses and nowadays you could have a more rectangular design with a corner-to-corner OLED screen. As for the distro, I'd go for Debian .

Yeah I thought about it after you said that and the blackberry layout would be a nice touch. But a linux phone should only cost as much as the hardware used to make it plus the actual mobile plan.

But the hardware of a modern "smart phone" able to run Linux costs about $500 unsubsidised. Added to that the fact these would only be bought by a few people and the tooling price etc. puts them up more. Then there's development costs and the cost of coding applications for them. Android is actually losing developers because it is too hard to build for all the different architectures -- imagine trying to get people to code for a one-off phone.

well if it was truly open source we should find a way to use the software manager from whichever distro is used, and encourage amateur developers to try their hand at app building, I don't know it's an idea.

Android does have open source versions. The reasons developers are leaving is because a lot are using OpenGL and the like which is not supported on all devices so they end up making a lot of versions depending on hardware - -think open-source video drivers...

Well that's why I'm surprised Palm still has developers because they only have a few phones and their own app store which is shit. Nothing on it works like it should with the exception of a fair few apps. I would like to see if it would be at all possible to make an entirely free (meaning user has root access) Linux mobile device.

People has tested installing Android ICS in Nokia N9, will be made available soon.

@FlexBuffChest92
Different versions of Android are based on different kernels (D'oh!). There was a bit of a disagreement between the Linux Kernel devs and the Android kernel Devs that lead to Android changes not being fed back in to the mainline Linux kernel for a while, but that's now sort-of all patched up again and everything is sweetness and light.

Well, just because its based on Linux, doesn't mean that it will end up anything like using a Linux distro on the desktop. 'Based on Linux' means that it has a (modified) version of the Linux kernel, it doesn't mean anything about whether it has the GNU (or other) userland tool set and it doesn't mean that the GUI has any relationship whatsoever to the kind of GUI or app installation options (or any other options) that you'd expect in a typical Linux desktop install.

If you look at embedded Linux more generally, you'd probably expect a BSP with a Linux kernel and Busybox, GCC and not much else (unless you build it/write it yourself). If you think how this compares to Ubuntu, or whatever, there is hardly any resemblance, although both can legitimately described as Linux.

A pre-built, minimalistic, LFS would be a closer analogue for the starting point, than any desktop distro that you can think of. So, expecting a 'software manager' from some particular distro is way out of line. While it has to be said that, after building LFS, one of the first things that I'd want (after Busybox) would something equivalent to apt-get or zypper, imagining that you get the full Synaptic or (parts of) Yast straight from a distro is wishful thinking.

@273
How come, then, that you can buy an unsubsidised Android phone from the likes of ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel for more like $100? You don't get a top end phone, and you don't get a name like Samsung, HTC or Sony(-Ericsson), you can often get iffy build quality, but you do get a workable Android 'phone that may not be that bad, although a bit short of memory and hardly one of the latest quad core CPUs to be seen. Someone must be making a massive loss, mustn't they, if the hardware costs $500? Why are they doing that, on that large a scale?

I didn't say the hardware itself cost $500 I said the unsubsidised phone would cost that, so that's allowing for manufacturer and retailer profits which they are unlikely to give up for a Linux phone or any other. There's also any development costs to amortise, of which I suspect there would be more trying to get desktop-style GNU/Linux onto a phone as oposed to going with Android. I based my guess of price on the Nokia Linux phones as they're the only ones to come close to somethong like desktop Linux on a phone.
If you're talking about a phone running Android or a similar arangement where the userland is very sparse compared to the desktop then, yes, it could be cheap -- I'm aiming my comments at a desktop-style GNU/Linux experience on a phone because that's what I inferred we were discussing.

Yes it is wishful thinking, I'll admit that. As for the whole kernel thing I admitted I didn't know exactly so thank you for clearing that up. The software manager idea I was saying could basically be the software manager of the distro that is used on the phone, they could add another tab called "Mobile" and you could download apps there then plug your phone into the USB port and move the apps you've downloaded to your phone. Again, this is all wishful thinking. But you have to admit a phone with root access would be nice