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Samsung {...} Sony, and everyone else have their stuff made by Foxconn too.

Not every single company manufactures its stuff exclusively in China.
For example, Sony still manufactures in Japan.
(And Samsung obviously manufactures a lot in South Korea)

Those non-China-made products include their smartphones (and other high-tech, hi-priced gadgets), they'll prefer outsourcing less sensitive accessories (wall wart charger).

disclaimer: both of my latest two smartphones are Japan-made Sony Xperias. Though I still flashed an entirely different OS (not Android) on them.
So it's not *China*'s spyware you're going to find installed in there.

I owned a Jolla 2 Sailfish phone and kept it for as long as I could, until the phone was no more (which was fairly soon after purchase).

The Sailfish OS was an absolute joy to use, despite the odd niggle here and there. And the ability to run android apps on it meant that I could retain my favourite android apps if I wanted to. Alo, as a linux user, it was a pleasure to have a linux terminal I could ssh into from my desktop and vice versa and copy files and run batch-commands without any of that mtp crap. I have now gone back to android and really miss my Sailfish phone

However, in fairness, as amazing as the OS was, the company was incompetent and systematically ignored its userbase and their needs. Take this post for instance which has actively been flagging broken Notes functionality in Contacts (a critical feature for a mobile OS) for the last five years and through 3 milestone versions of the OS. The devs always focused on 'sparkly' stuff they could use to promote the OS to investors first, and ignored their users when it came to broken functionality. Combine that with the fact they made some awful business decisions leading to returned products, and physical phones prone to breakage and lack of appropriate warranty procedure or replacement, and you get an idea why they've had to look for the kind of solution they did just now (i.e. "China": every Startup company's dream-turned-nightmare).

I am now holding out to see how that other up-and-coming linux phone will fare, (the Librem phone, the one Bryan Lunduke seems to keep advertising). But that seems like an altogether different solution. Too bad, Sailfish was nice while it lasted.

I wish there was an easy way to install Linux to any android device so I could ditch Android... {...} Ubuntu touch is dead and I'm not sure what else exists.

Jolla has developped Sailfish.
as they've developped libhybris (the same thing that Ubuntu Touch used), it's possible for the community to develop ports to lots of android devices (a couple of Sony Xperias, upcoming Gemini, etc.)

Jolla has also released it for a couple of select devices as an officially supported commercial project.

Also there's Purism's Librem 5 project to build a phone with an entire opensource Linux stack.

You don't need Sailfish device, you can buy the os and install it on an Sony Xperia X yourself: https://shop.jolla.com/

Jolla/Sailfish OS user here. I can SSH into my phone from the PC and send an SMS, for bonus nerd points: https://together.jolla.com/que...

2) if you want to run some of their apps, those apps expect to run in an environment that passed the Android certification

The problem is that a lot of 3rd party apps end up calling API from the Google Services,
so you end up needing Google's code even if you don't want to run Google's App.

(i.e.: I don't want to run Youtube or Gmail apps, but an app I rely on needs the map displaying library from Google Services).

No, it's still available.

Sailfish by Jolla, on either the Sony Xperia or any of a number of other phones as aftermarket.

Sailfish by Jolla, on either the Sony Xperia or any of a number of other phones as aftermarket.

the best option is to completely abandon the manufacturer, unlock the bootloader and install a different operating system in the hopes it will remain better supported.

Example of a different operating system with commercial support : Sailfish X (for Sony Xperia X) by Jolla, the former Nokia engineer who were working on Maemo/Meego for the N700/N800/N900/N9 series before Elop and Microsoft happened to them.

That's another alternative possibility to the usual suspects (like LineageOS, etc.)

(Note: NOT Android based at all - except for the platform drivers, it's still GNU/Linux under the hood like back when at Nokia).

Regarding phones fromOnePlus, Jolla doesn't currently have an official line of products, but there's a vibrant community so a community port might show up in talk.maemo.org

For my next phone I'm gonna pony up and buy one with a pure full GNU Linux distro.

The problem is that there aren't many thing on the market yet.

Best contenders are :

• Jolla they are the former Nokia engineers that used to work the Maemo/Meego system for Nokia'sr N800 / N900 / N9 series of phones until the whole Elop/Microsoft disaster shit-show happened.
  Now they are making Sailfish OS which is a continuation of the same development (but have now renamed the core from Meego to mer).
  They used to have some inhouse hardware (Jolla 1 Phone) then some manufacturer failure (Jolla Tablet), then some third party partner ship (Jolla C / Intex Aquasih). Their latest product is Sailfish X, done in partnership with Sony Open Devices, to Install Sailfish X on Sony Xperia X (single SIM version [the dual sim version isn't officially supported, but according to forum it works too), *not SIM-locked only* [SIM-locked phone cannot have their bootloader unlocked]). It's still an early beta, but if you're patient and willing to through the first few months of bugs, it might be worth giving it a try
  it's a full blown GNU/Linux under the hood, using modern features like Wayland, Systemd, etc. using RPM repositories for software distribution and significative developper community.
  Darbacks for your specific target is that to make deployment on smartphone easier, it does rely on same (closed source) drivers that the chipset manufacturer provide for smartphone (using an adaptation layer called libhybris), so you still have manufacturer blobs, and some bits of the infeface still aren't under a copy-left license yet (but Jolla plans to, and in the main time the source is visible any way, as the interface is mostly QML and Javascript anyway. With lots of patches available in the communities too)
• Purism has successfully crowdfunded their librem 5 smartphone.
  Good news is that they plan to develop a 100% pure Linux opensource phone with no blobs (partly by selecting chip with 100% opensource support, and partly by isolating problematic chips like baseband modem into separate chips that only communicate with the main chipset over a standard protocole - there's no "baseband modem actually serving as the chipset's northbridge" as in Qualcomm)
  the drawbacks are that it's still in development (obviously), and that it uses a chipset that is either completely antique (currently their test are done on Freescale i.MX6, because that the only one with 100% opensource drivers supported by upstream kernel) or might be less exciting than other phone (they hope to be able to shift to FreeScale i.MX 8 as opensource support improves).
  they plan pure linux interfaces, mostly gnome and KDE Plasma Active (yet another QML-based interface).
• Samsung is doing Tizen, which is a distant cousin of the Meego/Maemo family. But I don't know how much there is an active community

And I think that's about all currently active project of GNU/Linux phones, now that Ubuntu Touch has dropped the ball.

(Also, not interesting for you, but Sailfish OS, on their official commercial product support a proprietary compatibility layer - Alien-Dalvik by Myriad - that enables Android Apps (though currently only at 4.4 KitKat level).
Purism has promised to consider some container based solution (andbox -based, perhaps ?) to bring compatibility to Android Apps.
Tizen can download from their application store OpenMobile's Application Compatibility Layer.

So none of these will suffer from "not part of a big app ecosystem" networking effect)

For my next phone I'm gonna pony up and buy one with a pure full GNU Linux distro.

The problem is that there aren't many thing on the market yet.

Best contenders are :

• Jolla they are the former Nokia engineers that used to work the Maemo/Meego system for Nokia'sr N800 / N900 / N9 series of phones until the whole Elop/Microsoft disaster shit-show happened.
  Now they are making Sailfish OS which is a continuation of the same development (but have now renamed the core from Meego to mer).
  They used to have some inhouse hardware (Jolla 1 Phone) then some manufacturer failure (Jolla Tablet), then some third party partner ship (Jolla C / Intex Aquasih). Their latest product is Sailfish X, done in partnership with Sony Open Devices, to Install Sailfish X on Sony Xperia X (single SIM version [the dual sim version isn't officially supported, but according to forum it works too), *not SIM-locked only* [SIM-locked phone cannot have their bootloader unlocked]). It's still an early beta, but if you're patient and willing to through the first few months of bugs, it might be worth giving it a try
  it's a full blown GNU/Linux under the hood, using modern features like Wayland, Systemd, etc. using RPM repositories for software distribution and significative developper community.
  Darbacks for your specific target is that to make deployment on smartphone easier, it does rely on same (closed source) drivers that the chipset manufacturer provide for smartphone (using an adaptation layer called libhybris), so you still have manufacturer blobs, and some bits of the infeface still aren't under a copy-left license yet (but Jolla plans to, and in the main time the source is visible any way, as the interface is mostly QML and Javascript anyway. With lots of patches available in the communities too)
• Purism has successfully crowdfunded their librem 5 smartphone.
  Good news is that they plan to develop a 100% pure Linux opensource phone with no blobs (partly by selecting chip with 100% opensource support, and partly by isolating problematic chips like baseband modem into separate chips that only communicate with the main chipset over a standard protocole - there's no "baseband modem actually serving as the chipset's northbridge" as in Qualcomm)
  the drawbacks are that it's still in development (obviously), and that it uses a chipset that is either completely antique (currently their test are done on Freescale i.MX6, because that the only one with 100% opensource drivers supported by upstream kernel) or might be less exciting than other phone (they hope to be able to shift to FreeScale i.MX 8 as opensource support improves).
  they plan pure linux interfaces, mostly gnome and KDE Plasma Active (yet another QML-based interface).
• Samsung is doing Tizen, which is a distant cousin of the Meego/Maemo family. But I don't know how much there is an active community

And I think that's about all currently active project of GNU/Linux phones, now that Ubuntu Touch has dropped the ball.

(Also, not interesting for you, but Sailfish OS, on their official commercial product support a proprietary compatibility layer - Alien-Dalvik by Myriad - that enables Android Apps (though currently only at 4.4 KitKat level).
Purism has promised to consider some container based solution (andbox -based, perhaps ?) to bring compatibility to Android Apps.
Tizen can download from their application store OpenMobile's Application Compatibility Layer.

So none of these will suffer from "not part of a big app ecosystem" networking effect)

I do not have nor is it even remotely likely I'll ever have a smartphone.

So "I don't have a smartphone" has become the new "I don't have a TV" thing to be proud of !~~~

Jokes aside....

They're a security nightmare, completely incapable of being secured against intrusion in even the most basic ways, due to a complete lockdown of the OS and the software loaded onto the phone. Worse, many of them have been found to be completely compromised right out of the factory.

On the other hand, there are viable alternative :

- Sailfish OS by jolla is an example of a system that is not locked down, vast parts of it are opensource (under copyleft licesne), most of the remaining not yet copylefted parts are "source available" in practice due to being written in QML + Javascript, and only a few bits are actually closed source (the alien-dalvik android compatibility layer, predictive text and microsoft exchange client).
Currently they are launching a new official version for the Xperia X smartphone, in partnership with Sony's Open Devices program.

There are even ways to run android app using opensource component (currently SFDroid, with Andbox aimed by the community somewhere in the future).

That covers your problem of "The OS that came with my phone contains crap and I'm not even allowed to remove it, because I'm shut off admin access on my own hardware".

And if you are not comfortable with blobs (like the platform driver) running on your phone (nearly all current chipsets). Or even worse - the remote-blob running baseband modem working as a the chipset's northbridge and being in charge of sensitive component like RAM (like on most Qualcomm chipset) ; there are alternatives too :

- Purism has managed to finance their Librem "sort of crowdfunding" campaign and will build a smartphone based around opensource.
Yup, indeed, it's an awfully old and under-powered chipset (currently prototyping with i.MX 6, with hopes to more to i.MX 8 if that one gets similar upstream vanilla kernel support). But this chipset will run 100% copyleft opensource code, and the problematic parts (like modem) will be isolated in separate chips that don't have access to any sensitive part (can't see the main system RAM, unlike Qualcomm's modems) and will be restricted to only talk over a standard protocol with the main system.

That covers you problem of "NSA can remotely turn on my phone and start spying on me". Just flip the hardware switch and disconnect the modem, the rest of your phone will continue to work as *you* intended.

They also boot dramatically faster than any other Android handset on the market, in as little as 10 seconds.

And my Xperia running Sailfish X (by the former Nokia engineer who were developing Maemo/Meego before the whole Elop/Microsoft blunder happened), boots even faster, in a couple of seconds.
Yay for GNU/Linux OSes ! (in this case, using systemd as a init system).

The whole "boot loader unlocked" warning that Sony displays is actually longer than the OS boot procedure.

I've been running SailfishOS on a Jolla for several years. Never had a problem. Frequently updated with good, reliable updates. I have full root access to the device. I can add my own scripts and apps. Many packages have been ported. Yup, there are a few missing pieces (like whatsapp but which /.er needs needs them when you can run bash?). Soon to be running on Sony hardware. I think that the Russians and the Chinese think that there is a need for a genuine free OS (as in free from the US snooping) so I hope it won't die anytime soon. Sad that the Jolla tablet didn't work out - that is a truly lovely piece of hardware to use.

https://jolla.com/

This Jolla Blog entry about Sailfish for Sony Xperia X and this Comparison of Mobile Operating Systems combine to tell the story. Reminds me of Linux on the desktop from some years back.

I'm told it's not available where I am but they are rolling out version X!!!
https://blog.jolla.com/sailfishx_sales/

• -- Linux, Open source (mostly), easy to use, Android compatibility, ARM chipsets, not Apple or Google. Also, its not American-centric, if that matters to you.

Read more here, wikipedia here, the Toolkits here, and the Sony handsets here. And if you are enough of a hardware hacker, there are numerous other handsets to try it on.

Is it 100% complete? Almost, just missing a few sensors and bluetooth, but its sure better than starting from scratch.

There are a few of you around that are anti-Sony or got burned on the Jolla tablet and won't consider this. So have fun with your spy gizmo from Apple or Google.

You mean the small "country" of Europe, where it was readily available via Jolla's online store? Or India, where Intex sold a Sailfish device named Aqua Fish? Or whatever country Amazon.com covers, since a quick googling says the latter is available there (might be trolls) ?

Look, I get it, you're sad you missed out on getting one, or perhaps live in a country too hostile for Jolla to release their product in, but if it was released, with 3 different devices running SailfishOS, 2 of which were generally available (Jolla C was limited), calling it vaporware is a biiiit of a stretch.

If you know any nerds, perhaps get a Sony Experia phone, and install SailfishOS on it? Dunno how far along it is, but apparently it's a thing : https://jolla.com/wp-content/u...

This was my most recent comment on Android and 'apps': https://slashdot.org/comments..... With this, I see no reason to change my mind. There's some reason we close all the ports we can and create solid firewall rules, isn't there?

I'm going to try this next: https://jolla.com/about/ but I'm not at all convinced that it's better.

No, you don't want "Android", you want an open source Linux-based O/S, not a corporate-controlled, telecom-hacked unsupported, and malware-impregnated shite.
You know, like Sailfish. It runs Android apps.
Go get yourself a Jolla phone, be part of the future ....
https://jolla.com/jolla

and Maemo (then Meego)

You've got it backwards, it was called Maemo initially, then renamed to Meego. Jolla, a Finnish company started by ex Nokia engineers, developed Meego further into their own Sailfish OS, which uses a gesture based UI and can run Android apps.
Now they've partnered with Indian electronics company Intex to launch the Intex Aqua Fish, running Sailfish OS 2.0. I bought it recently for the local equivalent of about $75, and it's a pretty slick device.

There's always an alternative.

https://jolla.com/jolla/

Don't worry - you can have a non-Google, non-Android phone that runs Android apps.
And you can have a linux-based tablet running the same O/S, running all your normal FLOSS applications, with no danger of MS ever getting their grubby fingers on it ...
https://jolla.com/jolla/
https://jolla.com/tablet/

Those ex-Nokia folk will NEVER let MS anywhere near their beautiful little babies.

You're welcome.

Don't worry - you can have a non-Google, non-Android phone that runs Android apps.
And you can have a linux-based tablet running the same O/S, running all your normal FLOSS applications, with no danger of MS ever getting their grubby fingers on it ...
https://jolla.com/jolla/
https://jolla.com/tablet/

Those ex-Nokia folk will NEVER let MS anywhere near their beautiful little babies.

You're welcome.

Btrfs is the default filesystem on my phone, and it's worked just fine up to now, for me and for most other users. The only issue I had is that it needs rebalancing every now and then, and the cron job is set up to do it only if the phone is connected to a charger when it starts (but that is an issue with the phone developers, not with btrfs).

Even if it is as complicated as putting together 6-part Duplo duck.

That's the whole point of the module. That even the dumbest end-users could be able to sevice the phone.
The previous one used screws and required a tiny bit more dexterity to fix.

Ethical sources part only confirms diagnosis

...was conflict-free minerals all the way back at the time of their first phone. That's what FairPhone was founded for.

The news is that the 2nd one is modular to make it even easier to fix. (Whereas with the previous, they just made sure that the ODM used screws instead, and then partnered with iFixit to release fixing guide).

it is targeted at holier-than-thou vegan hipsters, rather than on hacking/modding community.

The modularity (now even easier to repair or refurbish instead of throwing away !) and the material source, indeed are.

On the other end, the pogo pins that you see on page 2 are certainly targeting the hacking/modding comunity, just as the Jolla's "The Other Half" did for the Jolla hacking community.

(BTW: Jolla's Sailfish OS seems to be coming to the FairPhone 2 too)

If you want something that stands out of the crowd, then you might want to take a look at the Jolla Tablet http://jolla.com/tablet/. It won the Best tablet award at this years Mobile World Congress. I've been using a Jolla smartphone and really like it. It doesn't spy on me, I can get root from the settings, it has a command line shell + SSH built in and it runs Linux.

Jolla's Sailfish OS is based on the Maemo/Meego line. They've built a really nice user interface on top of it and it's partly open source. The UI is based on swiping gestures, so it takes a few minutes to learn to use it, but after that it's really swift and nice. They also have an Android VM, so you can run Andoroid apps on it if you want. No Google Play store though, but I believe you can enable it yourself if you want. If you want apps outside the official store, you can add additional repositories to the phone.

Jolla also listens to its users. You can log in at http://together.jolla.com/ to leave bug reports, feature ideas and ask advice from the community and Jolla sailors. The OS gets regular updates which add features and squish bugs, so my phone is actually a lot better now than when I bought it. The specs are more modest than the current Android flagship models, but the OS is much lighter so doesn't need that much processing power to run well. The price tag is pretty nice too.

Have a look, try it out. They're just about to start shipping.

If you want something that stands out of the crowd, then you might want to take a look at the Jolla Tablet http://jolla.com/tablet/. It won the Best tablet award at this years Mobile World Congress. I've been using a Jolla smartphone and really like it. It doesn't spy on me, I can get root from the settings, it has a command line shell + SSH built in and it runs Linux.

Jolla's Sailfish OS is based on the Maemo/Meego line. They've built a really nice user interface on top of it and it's partly open source. The UI is based on swiping gestures, so it takes a few minutes to learn to use it, but after that it's really swift and nice. They also have an Android VM, so you can run Andoroid apps on it if you want. No Google Play store though, but I believe you can enable it yourself if you want. If you want apps outside the official store, you can add additional repositories to the phone.

Jolla also listens to its users. You can log in at http://together.jolla.com/ to leave bug reports, feature ideas and ask advice from the community and Jolla sailors. The OS gets regular updates which add features and squish bugs, so my phone is actually a lot better now than when I bought it. The specs are more modest than the current Android flagship models, but the OS is much lighter so doesn't need that much processing power to run well. The price tag is pretty nice too.

Have a look, try it out. They're just about to start shipping.

I must be missing something obvious, but why don't you just buy the Jolla?

Have you seen Jolla?

How about a Jolla with a slide out keyboard...

It's my plan to finally replace my beloved N900. :)

Not all of it is open, but you can find links to a lot of it at https://together.jolla.com/que...

Tizen has the OS layer replaced. What you are looking for is Sailfish: https://jolla.com/

> Differentiation is difficult in the smartphone market these days.

> all are nice upgrades but are only iterative

Please give us one huge upgrade - simple QWERTY. Last QWERTY phone is N900 from 2009. The next will be Jolla+TOHKBD in 2015 just thanks to a community funding effort (but still with weak hardware from 2013). Everybody in forums wants QWERTY but no single manufacturer makes one.

Huh? I can immediately name two examples of a modern QWERTY phone here or here.

> Differentiation is difficult in the smartphone market these days.

> all are nice upgrades but are only iterative

Please give us one huge upgrade - simple QWERTY. Last QWERTY phone is N900 from 2009. The next will be Jolla+TOHKBD in 2015 just thanks to a community funding effort (but still with weak hardware from 2013). Everybody in forums wants QWERTY but no single manufacturer makes one.

Interesting both QWERTY phones also run Linux OS (that is not Android) despite both features are technically completely unrelated. And there are very few non-QWERTY Linux OS phones.

You can order Jolla from its website, there are usually some EUR100 discount coupons around. For TOHKBD you can contact its author. Unfortunately given the low-end hardware it has it is all a bit pricy compared to Android phones from Asia.

For N900 replacement look for Jolla+TOHKBD.

http://jolla.com/

If you need open, Linux-based and hackable, try getting a Jolla. http://jolla.com/

It is not available in US yet, and it's a bit pricy, but it's being developed at a good pace, and I hope it will get there. I'll get one when I retire my current phone, just because Google is closing up Android more and more with each release.

I wonder how Jolla would cope with low-end hardware like in this 35$ phone. It's supposedly faster than recent Androids on same hardware, not sure how low can you go though.

--Coder

Stefantalpalaru writes:

That's a different project. This one is written in C++ and it uses Qt for the GUI

Which is why John is doing work for Jolla.

Am looking forward to Richochet appearing on my favourite, very open and secure, full featured smart phone.

> wish there was another choice. the whole mobile data thing really unnerves me with how bad the scene really is.

http://jolla.com/ ?

The Jolla from Finnish ex-Nokia people has already released a phone with the GNU/Linux-based Sailfish OS, which _also_ (after installing a proprietary Dalvik engine from Myriad) can run Android applications really well.

So there's already a contender out there.

Jolla announced something similar quite awhile back called 'the other half', but haven't delivered anything substantial yet. Still, I'd argue they are a player in this space too, have been doing it for awhile also, and most of those folks are former Nokians, so they know hardware and also how to integrate it at the OS level.

http://www.jollatides.com/2014...

While I said Jolla hasn't delivered anything substantial yet, that is actually a very arguable judgement call I'd rather not get into. Still, I would like to point out that Jolla has articulated a developer strategy with the developer's SDK, made it available already, and have released some hardware modules for purchase already, (which is substantial really, relative to today's news of GOOG's projected plans for the future, as GOOG does their typical skillful technology marketing hype, this time of their recent hiring of some former DARPA folks).

OK, it is eye-candy, but if you care to look at some of the current demos of the Jolla 'other half' working in-sync with their OS Sailfish, you can see how pairing one with the other can influence of the current OS color scheme, for example. Sure Jolla also is also speaking of the future with their technology in their promos just like GOOG, but at least they actually offer something today you can buy.

http://jolla.com/the-other-hal...

But is it evil? I'm not sure. Anyway, BB is not even on sale in my country I think, or at least I've never seen one. Then there's Jolla of course, but I think it's definitely not evil, so not in the running for evil things to choose from.

http://www.jolla.com/ - for example - is one example of a vendor selling a phone that can run android apps - on top of 'normal' linux - without preinstalling the normal google play market. (because they can't - as what they are doing in making the linux side more open means it's not vanilla android anymore)

Jolla is made by ex. Nokia engineers and runs Sailfish, a Linux based OS.
It is however missing 4G/LTE and some other details (some are in software and will be fixed soon).
It is available in EU, Switzerland and Norway thru Jolla's webshop.

I got one from preordering and I really like it a lot. If the thing you like in n900 is the community and the hackability, you will like Jolla too. Most importantly, I'm able to use it as my work phone already, so it's not just a plaything. So far there has been a steady stream of updates and apps. If you are in US, getting one is probably not very easy, but maybe you can get one from ebay or something? (Check the frequencies etc. first.)

http://jolla.com/

MeeGo was an unknown with almost no apps and almost no community

But it had many carriers happy to support it. Unlike Windows Phone.

remember that Windows Embedded ran the first real smart phones

No, that'd be the Nokia 9000 Communicator, which ran GEOS.

there was a full stable of applications already available

That was true of Windows Mobile, which Microsoft abandoned in favor of the fully incompatible Windows Phone.

I just looked at the project's home page and it hasn't been updated since 2011

You don't say, Captain Obvious? Elop killed the damn thing! But, being open-source, MeeGo left an heir: Mer, the basis of Sailfish, which runs on the Jolla - made by a crew of former Nokia engineers.

and Tizen's major selling point seems to be that it supports HTML5.

Its major selling point, to manufacturers and carriers, is that it's not under the control of a single company. I guess they learned that from the MeeGo disaster: do not rely on something that can be obtained from only one company, since they may hire an imbecile or a saboteur to run themselves into the fucking ground!

You probably will have better luck with Jolla's Other half approach, where you can change the cover for more/different functionality, and between the proposed alternatives, there is one with hardware keyboard.