What's the state of affairs with new phones? [duplicate]
asked 2016-09-27 23:10:36 +0200
So, my wife's phone is giving it up. Would be a nice opportunity to buy her a new one with a decent operating system. I would like to. But there still seem to be no options, at least from what I gather from a short online research. Both Intex Aqua Fish and Oysters SF don't seem to be available, at least not where I live. The state of Fairphone 2 is not really clear to me: apparently they sell it only with Android pre-installed - so I would need to install Sailfish manually? (buying an expansive phone and having to install the operating system manually does not seem to be such a good deal) What more options? Time to give up and buy a horrible Samsung galaxy?
i would like buying new Jolla phone as well.
alloj ( 2016-09-28 09:20:01 +0200 )edit@stephan I kind of do understand your worry, but think of it this way;
When you buy an expensive computer or laptop you have to anyway install the OS manually to it since all the stuff on the market comes preinstalled with crap like windoze or iOS.
So why should it be different with phones?
juiceme ( 2016-09-28 10:31:05 +0200 )edit@juiceme: The problem is not only the installation sequence itself. Much more important (for me) is the availabibity on non-free components (such as Exchange Activesync and Alien Dalvik). Those are not available if you install Sailfish on hardware that is not officially supported by Jolla. To stress your example: when installing Linux on a PC, you may install non-free components, such as closed-source WiFi firmware. The same way, Activesync and Dalvik should be available for Sailfish installations on custom hardware.
ziellos ( 2016-09-28 11:53:09 +0200 )editAlso I think you won't get OTA updates, will you? Meaning you have to repeat the procedure for each update (ok wasn't a problem in 2016, but it seems to be changing!)
Sthocs ( 2016-09-28 14:00:49 +0200 )edit@ziellos, granted. If you need commercial/licensed packages on your device (as I don't need) then it is a problem at the moment. It would be cool to have those as separate package that could be bought as an add-on to a ported device. At least Activesync could easily be implemented so, AD not so easy as it depends quite heavily on the underlaying stuff. Of course sfdroid can be used instead of Alien Dalvik if it is available for a port.
@Sthocs, that depends on the device and how it is set up; it is possible to get OTA updates on ported devices too but that's from MER-OBS, not from the Jolla Store.
juiceme ( 2016-09-28 14:32:31 +0200 )edit