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Please help me understand Sailfish OS community ports in terms of stability, officialness, security updates! Not as clear as LineageOS

asked 2017-05-29 14:41:21 +0300

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updated 2017-06-07 12:34:41 +0300

Side gravatar image

On the LineageOS site, it's crystal clear

1. Which devices do the community officially support (theoretically, by hardware) 2. Which of the (theoretically, by hardware) supported devices are actively maintained, receive regular, OTA updates this day

I didn't have to ask anyone to be sure. The design makes it clear. What's the situation related to this with Sailfish OS?

3.With Sailfish OS? It's a little bit more complicated. I even have to ask about it, to be clear. As of writing, the https://together.jolla.com/question/128326/community-port-requests/?sort=votes&page=1 community wiki page lists the following:

Port Now Available - See Wiki for Details

  • Motorola Moto G 1st Edition 2013
  • Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Tablet
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1" Wi-Fi
  • Motorola Moto E 2015 edition
  • Mozilla Flame (alpha)
  • Nexus 4

It also links to https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Adaptations/libhybris with a lot more devices listed. [confused]

4.I even got into this conversation: https://together.jolla.com/question/128326/community-port-requests/?comment=162364#comment-162364 I still don't 100% understand this situation.

5. The bottom line is: with LineageOS, I can be pretty sure which devices are supported (theoretically, by hardware), and which of the supported devices receive OTA updates these day with the official seal of approval of the LineageOS team. Sure, anyone can make an unofficial port over there at XDA of any OS, but that's a different story.

I need a little more explanation to understand which Sailfish OS community ports can be considered as stable or at least as official, not the least as up to date with security fixes as LineageOS ports in the parallel universe. To complicate things a little, Jolla also sells devices with Sailfish OS here and there. How does the Sailfish OS shipped with Jolla devices compare to the Sailfish OS hacked by the community to Android hardware, in terms of stability, frequency of security updates and bug fixes, long term support?

I can even think of a scenario where the Android port receive updates longer or receives bug fixes more frequently by the community than a Jolla device by the company. After Jolla stopped supporting a device, the community may pick up supporting it, or not. I don't know how hackable these devices are. Or, will Jolla support the devices they sold as long as the hardware permits? No planned obsolescence whatsoever? Or I could get it all wrong.

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1

I accidentally ticked the "community wiki" box. I want to cancel it. What to do? This is just a normal question.

Side ( 2017-05-29 14:42:37 +0300 )edit
3

You simply cannot change back to normal question. Sorry, if this causes any pain. Welcome to TJC, again. ;)

lakutalo ( 2017-05-29 15:34:44 +0300 )edit

2 Answers

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7

answered 2017-05-29 15:24:53 +0300

r0kk3rz gravatar image

updated 2017-06-08 11:00:30 +0300

Indeed the port situation is a bit of a mess, something which I have made some progress to try and clean up. Many of the ports listed on the Mer Wiki are abandoned, outdated, and mostly broken anyway, and as you say its not entirely obvious which ones are good or not.

No community ports are considered 'official' as such, and support is based upon the original community member who ported the device in the first place, sometimes new people take on an abandoned port but it doesn't happen so often. We are working on getting more devices to support OTA updates, so at the very least you can get OS updates without having to reflash a whole new image.

On the official first-party sailfishos device side, its also a little bit complicated. The ones sold by jolla are all still supported, and Jolla has never removed support for a device they have sold themselves. Other devices such as the Intex Aqua Fish and Turing Phone, I believe have already lost support from their manufacturers.

EDIT: Ok apparently my answer wasnt good enough, even though I see no comments asking for further information below it.

What exactly do you want to know about 'security'? its a broad topic, and I've re-read your questions here and I still don't understand what you want to know.

Jolla themselves regularly release updates to official devices every few months, Ported devices are at the mercy of the community members working on those ports.

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But at least with the Intex Aqua Fish you have the chance to transfer it to a Jolla C. Then you will get the official updates again. This all shows clearly a missing default hardware supported by Jolla and still available in shops

PatsJolla ( 2017-05-29 16:45:28 +0300 )edit

AFAIK all recent updates were made available by Intex for the Aqua Fish. I don't know anything about the Turing Phone, that's still a myth to me.

ossi1967 ( 2017-05-29 17:16:09 +0300 )edit

oh did they finally release 2.1.0 for aqua fish? i stand corrected

r0kk3rz ( 2017-05-29 18:02:50 +0300 )edit

I am trying a port for LeMax2, but:

  • no cm 12 means no hybrid
  • I still haven't found a port with a good repository to copy/get inspired. All ports are based on compiled images(?)
  • Still no hadk from Jolla So in the end I am struck and helpless.
magullo ( 2017-05-29 18:12:54 +0300 )edit
1

@r0kk3rz I believe I read it in one of the comments on the Jolla blog recently. Not 100% sure, but I'm not in the mood right now of browsing through all the whining by one certain fellow and his sock puppets there. :)

ossi1967 ( 2017-05-29 18:20:28 +0300 )edit
2

answered 2017-06-07 14:51:50 +0300

lakutalo gravatar image

updated 2017-06-09 10:59:57 +0300

@Side, you might also want to have a look at https://sailfishos.org/, as in my opinion it contains a lot of answers you are searching for, especially the section Developers.

See section Developing/Hardware Development. Also section Reference/Security could be of great interest to you, as you particularly asked for it.

I am not sure if you know about this. Maybe a bit longish for starters, but surely comprehensive.

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Asked: 2017-05-29 14:41:21 +0300

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Last updated: Jun 09 '17