Looking for a non Apple or Google Phone running a Linux OS
 

I do hope this is appropriate matter for the General forum. If not I apologize and delete it.

Apple today announced it will be looking at Everyone's Photo's uploaded to their iCloud accounts for any type of child abuse. I have nothing to hide but Apple has no right to look at my private photo's and with that being in conjunction with Police Departments.

Therefore it's time to sever the phone ties with Apple and seek alternatives.

Have any members installed a linux system onto an Android phone and how did it work out for you? Did the carrier give you a problem since it was not a recognized phone? How was the quality of the phone and such? Any info would help me since this is an unknown field.

I have had it with tech companies intrusion and becoming a police surveillance system with the products I purchase from them with hard earned money.

Again I do hope this is proper for this forum.

Well as per the "Linux - General" description "if it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place", so any Linux-related threads are appropriate.

However, running Linux-based OSes on mobile phones does have its own specific forum: "Linux - Mobile".

In particular, there's a "Linux for Cellphones" thread in that forum with a bunch of discussion on the options. (The starter of that thread also didn't see the mobile forum either.)

Thank you

I know this is marked "Solved" but this might be some food for thought.

I've seriously considered the Pine64 phone but want more hardware power than it currently provides. I don't care much about mobile apps and all I really want from a phone is connectivity to my PC and the ability to handle calls and SMS text. My ersatz land line is a Vonage VOIP phone which I really like a lot but it isn't mobile nor does my current setup handle SMS.

The new Valve "SteamDeck" runs a full system based on Arch and is capable of multibooting and quite powerful since it is designed specifically to handle the demands of gaming. Recall that supercomputer clusters have been built back in the day by clustering just a handful of PS2s and later, PS3s. I'm really considering getting a SteamDeck and using it also for SMS and mobile calls when near wifi. I don't get out much so mobile isn't huge and wifi is quite common so I want to find out if such a small handheld device can be suited to such dual purpose. I intend to find out.

There's actually several threads for alternative smartphone hard/software scattered on LQ.

I use SailfishOS on my daily driver.
It is not completely open, but it is a full & unfettered GNU/Linux operating system.
And for 50€ you get full Android app support.
Since your location is USA, there might be some restrictions, but I thought I'd mention it nevertheless.

Thank you, ondoho. I've been researching Vonage SMS and discovered there are some new restrictions on SMS, mostly from the likes of AT&T, but workarounds/compliance seem to be trivial and Vonage is seeing the potential wealth and service they could meet. Sailfish might very well make adapting SteamDeck nearly trivial. Since I don't see how one can connect an actual SIM card to anything but a phone, this combo may well do the trick. Pretty exciting really!

Moderator response
 

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <General> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I was replying to OP.

I believe SteamDeck is fairly 'big' though, and I'm sure the prices will be anything but reasonable in the modern scalper economy.

I'd second the suggestion look at Pinephone - performance is similar to a nicer (but not maxed out) Raspberry Pi, in a typical smartphone form factor. I believe Pine also makes some notebook/tablet devices that are a bit more robust, and at least a year or two ago there seemed to be some push for low-cost x86 tablets/convertibles that may be good candidates for this kind of use as well (what enorbet describes here with SteamDeck, not as a 'phone' per se).

i am surprised that no one mentioned Librem 5 phone

https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

it runs Pure OS

https://pureos.net/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PureOS

Follow the link in post #2 - there is extensive discussion of Librem+Purism there.

Maybe it is just because Librem5 started very early on before much in mobile Linux had "caught up" but there is a great video associated with "Linus Tech Tips" (different Linus) where Librem 5 are compared and thoiugh I hate to say it, the Librem5 isn't even a close 4th to Pine64. Maybe they can do better these days but Pine64, though nmot billed as a solid "daily driver" is actually quite usable. I'm just curious about the possibility of trading off smartphone function to get more power with a real Linux desktop OpSys like SteamDeck.

Are these phones actually usable for day to day use? Will one be able to do everything one would want to do and to use applications like Telegram, Whatsapp, Spotify and banking applications? Or is it just for calls and texts and some browsing apps?

I recently moved from my dumphone to Android and Android is very smooth and usable these days.

This question really requires a re-thinking of 'smartphone' - most people assume that 'apps' are just a latent feature, but the reality is they're proprietary software that is almost always built for Android or iOS exclusively. Think about it more like video game consoles. The Pinephone is absolutely fine as a day-to-day smartphone, but you aren't running proprietary Android/iOS-exclusive 'apps' on it, because it runs linux and not Android or iOS. Instead you get a portable linux-based computer (running ARM distros) and can do anything you can do on that - if you've ever played around with a raspberry pi or similar SBC its a similar experience to that. Whether or not that is suitable for your wants and needs is up to you.

You haven't actually answered the question. I'll quote it :

Will one be able to do everything one would want to do and to use applications like Telegram, Whatsapp, Spotify and banking applications? Or is it just for calls and texts and some browsing apps?

EDIT: Actually, I'll just take your answer as a "no" and a "yes". In that order.