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Sailfish OS Comes to the Nokia N9

Posted by Unknown on from the what-might-have-been dept.

Via El Reg: "The only Meego phone Nokia ever released, the now two-year-old N9, has been given a new lease on life today. Owners can now install the new Meego descendent Sailfish alongside the original OS." There's a guide to installing. It looks pretty experimental, but you don't have to overwrite Meego to install it.

15 comments

  1. Market share by gmuslera · · Score: 1

    Port it to a cellphone that sold several millons and still can be found in a lot of markets and your user base can grow a lot in short time.

    Of course, that installation is not for the common user, but the ones that will do it probably will be the kind that will ask or program apps for it... not sure if Android apps support is included and will run in the N9, but native and ported ones from meego, BB10 and others probably will.

    1. Re:Market share by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. I think Sailfish is going to be big. They seem to be hitting a positive note in the geek-o-sphere lately. I for one don't have much love or brand loyalty for the Android software that's factor-installed on my Galaxy S3 - would be rad to get a 'new' phone by installing a new OS.

    2. Re:Market share by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      i've looked at the install and basically the tricky bit is installing a multi-boot loader. Once you have done that , you simply drop the new OS (eg. Sailfish) in a directory and reboot.

      The key thing is this is Linux, so once it works, it will keep on working. Even when the manufacturer withdraws support... (I'm looking at you Nokia and the Jan 2014 insult posted recently).

      The most exciting thing about Sailfish is the possibility to circumvent the horrible android security. Each application will run in its own sandbox.

        Running a proper Linux phone with Android on-demand is as close to perfect as you can get...

    3. Re:Market share by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Source: TomiAhonen Consulting Estimate from company data, April 2012

      In other words, Tomi just made shit up, as ever, to promote his own agenda (and then cited his own imagination as a source!)

      Sure the N9 sold plenty, but your citation gives your post less credibility than if you had not given any.

      For this reason: downmodded

    4. Re:Market share by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I should provide a citation for Tomi's imaginative counting practices. here you go

    5. Re:Market share by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      What about Sailfish makes it a 'proper Linux'? What even IS a 'proper' Linux?

      I ask because since the Sharp Zaurus days I have wanted a phone which runs 'proper' Linux, a Linux kernel with glibc, X-windows, GTK, QT, etc... I wanted something that I could easily 'port' desktop apps over just by recompiling. Better yet, applications could be written with two different view modes in the same executable like many Android apps do now when switched between phone and tablet modes only this would be desktop vs mobile.

      Admitedly I wish for this less and less each day since Android has been getting apps that do the things I want to do however there are still gaps.

      My very limited understanding of Sailfish is that it is just a Linux kernel with webkit dropped on top of it to run HTML5 apps not unlike Google Chrome. Was I mistaken?

    6. Re:Market share by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      First off, what's with this you stuff? If you aren't a geek yourself then what are you doing on Slashdot?

      Second, I understand that there is a huge market out there with a different set of priorities than geeks. I have two questions about that though;

      1. Why, can't software cater to us both? If the masses don't want a feature that the geeks want just hide it in an advanced menu somewhere but don't remove it!
      2. If #1 is unworkable, if the geeks and masses can't coexist then why can't we have a company or two that caters to us? Sure there is a larger market for the masses but there is a lot of competition for it too! Also, somebody floated a decent sized PC market for nearly 20 years before the internet made them mainstream. Surely there is still money in the geek market to be had!

    7. Re:Market share by preflex · · Score: 2

      I ask because since the Sharp Zaurus days I have wanted a phone which runs 'proper' Linux, a Linux kernel with glibc, X-windows, GTK, QT, etc... I wanted something that I could easily 'port' desktop apps over just by recompiling.

      Sounds like you have wanted the N900. X11, Qt, GTK, SDL, Java, and even Mono are all available in the extras repo and easily installable through apt-get.

      Sailfish uses Wayland and QT. I'm not sure if GTK is available in the Mer repos. You could probably get XWayland rocking on it.

      My very limited understanding of Sailfish is that it is just a Linux kernel with webkit dropped on top of it to run HTML5 apps not unlike Google Chrome. Was I mistaken?

      Yes. You were very mistaken. This is a good description of WebOS, not Sailfish.

      Sailfish uses Wayland and QT. I believe Python is preinstalled. I'm not sure if GTK is available in the Mer repos. You could probably get XWayland rocking on it. Sailfish is the closest thing to 'proper' Linux available for phones right now, even closer than Ubuntu Phone.

  2. so what does not work ? by richlv · · Score: 2

    It has been confirmed that GPS, A-GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi and ‘Calling Functions’ are working!

    ok, what does not work then ? ;)

    --
    Rich
    1. Re:so what does not work ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Camera. Accelerometer.

    2. Re:so what does not work ? by richlv · · Score: 1

      ah, thanks. is there any hope that everything would be working eventually, or is there some problem with closed blobs or whatnot ?

      --
      Rich