So long, Sailfish OS! [not a question]

review

asked 2019-03-10 16:06:59 +0300

LordRooster
706 ●8 ●17 ●19

updated 2019-03-17 23:06:06 +0300

I've been using SailfishOS for quite some time now. I started with a Jolla phone years ago and switched to Sailfish X one year ago. I always used the device as daily driver and it served me well. I love the idea of a real open source operating system i can pay for to get the privacy i want. My Calendar and contacts are synced with an baikal dav server on a raspberry pi in my living room. I used threema as messenger and the internal mail client was ok, but...

Current SFOS (v3) is way to unstable and i had several crashes when using private mode of the web browser or putting the sms services app into a subfolder of the app menu (DON'T u do that EVER!!!!) or using media player or unplayer and many more. Reflashing did not help.
Bluetoth support is poor - i have to connect all devices manually. if connected automatically, there is no sound and i have to do it again by hand
The swipe-ui was destroyed bit by bit. in SFOS1 the app tiles allowed swipe gestures, now i have this anroid like behaviour and pull down menu.
Android support using a way to old version and Xperia xa2 seem not to work stable enough at the moment. i blame nobody for the old version. it was explained, that this will probably not be possible to update.
i was hoping for more developer news to be able to follow the current work at jolla oi, but that never happened Webbrowser and mail app have never been really updated since sfos1 and i started to use k9 and firefox
average picture quality and xa2 ain't no improvement
keybaord - not even my job/company iphone forces me to correct that many typos. its anoying and makes typing really slow. With my large fingers this is difficult to use. I'm not talking about autocorrect, but the typing itself.
due to crashes from 1. I missed some important calls and sometimes the phone needed hours to reboot or i had to wait until it fully discharged. It took me some crashes to find the key combination vol- and power with volume button pressed first and then power to do a reset/hardOff.
sometimes i go on vacation or leave the country for business trips and i have to keep a backup phone for that
i'm not sure, if the connection to russia is something i like more than google. This seems to be an unholy alliance. A country with a former secret service agent for president who never was able to leave his old job behind. A country testing ways to disconnect from the internet and fighting its own people...

.. to be continued

In the end sailfish os lost its coolness factor and became a speed bump for daily tasks. I'm really looking forward to the day where jolla releases a version that brings me back and makes sailfish os great again. I really want to buy that xa2-phone and come back. Until then an android phone running lineageOS without gapps has to do the job.

Hope to see u soon

Cheers

Daniel

PS: Xperia X in good condition with SFOS preinstalled 4 sale.

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The question has been closed for the following reason "not a real question" by nthn
close date 2019-03-10 17:47:06.306335

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So... you're back in Google's claws, or Apple's cage, or what?

Fuzzillogic ( 2019-03-10 16:37:27 +0300 )edit

I still have the hope that we will see a nice Sailfish3 this year and you come back to the community and have fun again. Until then have a nice time.

jolladiho ( 2019-03-10 21:37:15 +0300 )edit

I fully understand LordRooster. I own a X and a XA2 and try to use them on a daily basis. But it's no fun - in addition to the above mentioned problems I also can't really use my XA2 as a phone due to the proximity sensor-problem. And the X hangs itself on certain WLANs so badly that it doesn't even shut down properly anymore. But what annoys me the most is the very outdated browser. I can put up with the fact that there are not many apps for sailfish, and that some android-apps don't work. But the lack of apps stresses the importance of a good browser, which Sailfish does not have (anymore). There are plenty of websites that are not usable. [And the worst part of it: My kids, my wife and all of my friends are making fun of me because my phone fails in so many situations in real life... That is... h a r d.] Well, I will still stick to Sailfish for a while, hoping that things will change for the better. I'm still tempted by the idea of a more or less open mobile system without Apple or Google, but on the same time I have the feeling that my patience will come to an end some day.

nelbrog ( 2019-03-10 22:35:47 +0300 )edit

@Fuzzillogic: currently i'm using a phone with lineageOS without GAPPS, so the answer is no and yes at the same time.

LordRooster ( 2019-03-11 11:37:31 +0300 )edit

The answers below should be comments!

jolladiho ( 2019-03-11 11:57:25 +0300 )edit

2 Answers

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answered 2019-03-10 16:33:20 +0300

Yo
2799 ●40 ●56 ●69

updated 2019-03-11 17:02:42 +0300

Yeah, the world ain't perfect. But instead of whining about what's not working in a software from a company with few developers (compared to google/apple with tons of developers) I appreciate the things that work. I try and help where I can. I help my friends with the problems they sometimes have with their Jolla phones. I contribute to software. And I love that I don't have to give away my soul as I have to do with Android/iOS.

Now to your list:

works for me or very minor problem
works for me - at least not worse than with android devices
yeah, and iOS and Android are so much better™ - also this is very subjective
this has been released as beta software, is beta software and works very well for beta software
I hope the developers concentrate on finding bugs and implementing new features and that the limited resources Jolla has are put into development - not into marketing/communication. By the way, I never heard anything from iOS/Android developers. And if you are really interested go to the regular IRC meetings held at freenode. I don't know how it could get any nearer.
The camera on my XA2 works like a charm.
I hate auto correction behavior of my work Android phone and I love the way it works with Sailfish OS. And it predicts very well for me.

... to be continued.

Jolla / Sailfish OS is very cool, because they are still there. I love what they offer me. I would not know what phone to choose if Jolla didn't exist.

PS: Jolla 1 and XA2 with Sailfish OS absolutely NOT for sale.

Addition 2019-03-11

I forgot the browser and email topic. So here's my opinion:

A browser is not 'basic' but 'essential'. Browsers are very (!) complex and complicated from a multitude point of views. Security is a very big one, and the opponent is the tempo of new web technologies arising and how fast these are being used by web site designers. You can't create a rendering engine yourself with limited resources so you have to rely on things that are there, e.g. QtWebView. Now stability of the OS kicks in: If you upgrade core components (Qt) to be able to provide an up to date browser engine you have to be very careful not to break modem, network, telephony, et cetera. Adaptations done by Jolla have to be revised and probably reworked.

But you are right: Security and functionality of browser and email viewer are bad and have to be worked on. This is something that's ongoing and if you care to read the logs from previous community meetings you see that different options are being investigated. I'm very happy that I have the possibility to use Android browsers in the mean time and this is also a big deal made possible by this awesome OS.

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My Xperia X is my everyday phone for work and it works good, minor bug in my CalDAV sync so I use Fruxx ( works great ). I hate the fact i still rely on 2 Android apps Whatsapp and Spotify ( cant wait to get rid of Android support ) I am teaching myself how to make my own apps on Sailfish .

Veyah ( 2019-03-10 18:09:02 +0300 )edit

He @Yo, you didn't answer about the email and browser app? I love Sailfish but just can't understand why they still do not have updated the browser and email app which are the 2 main apps to be the as best as possible when developing a mobile environment. Knowing that having a very good browser could fix some problems of not having a lot of native apps. So, yes sailfish is good as you stated but has many bad stuff that have never been addressed since day 1 ...

mousse04 ( 2019-03-10 20:13:25 +0300 )edit

@mousse04 I also think from the community side browser and mail have the most urgent need for an update or even new development. We need to get away from Android apps. I guess for many of us it comes down to only a handful of apps they cannot replace by native SFOS yet. Number one is the browser. The issue on Jolla side is probably manpower. They have roughly 50 employees, 45 of which are developers (it was stated lately by the CEO). If you take the brave browser ("just" built up on the chromium engine), I also count about 50 developers. I have no idea how hard the adaption of a functioning browser to Sailfish is. But it takes manpower for sure, and these devs need to be specialists for browsers. It is not meant as an excuse, but as a reason.

Spark ( 2019-03-10 22:33:51 +0300 )edit

I guess creating a browser is somehow diferent from implementing one... Sure you need time and manpower for that but it is an essential task and should have a higher priority. As well as the whole modemsituation...

Raymaen ( 2019-03-11 09:03:49 +0300 )edit

@vejah Maybe you want to gi e hutspot a try instead of the original spotify app? I'm pretty happy with it.

Juna ( 2019-03-11 09:18:00 +0300 )edit

answered 2019-03-10 16:15:53 +0300

ExPLIT

4794 ●51 ●87 ●92

http://www.explit.de/

well, i use SF also since 2013 and i must say - for me its absolutely fine.

i have XA2 an Gemini PDA.

XA2 is my daily driver. it has some glitches - but mail, web, telegram - serving me well. camera is also fine...

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the plan is to wait for a stable release for xa2 and then check the topics around here. If that looks promising, this will be my next device with SFOS. If there are too many glitches, XA2 is fully supported by LineageOS and i can switch at any time

LordRooster ( 2019-03-11 11:39:13 +0300 )edit

@ LordRooster Can u just flash LineageOS over SFOS 3 or need to go back to standard Android first, is it easy to flash like SFOS ?

aQUICK1 ( 2019-03-12 21:31:08 +0300 )edit

Hi aQUICK,

SFOS and Android flashing is really easy. If u start a stock android, jolla provides a real good step by step manual. Most steps deal with bootloader unlocking. Flashing sfos is only a shellscript that is provided by jolla. Just make sure, u follow the manual exactly.

If u have SFOS and want to switch to android, just start Emma (sony flash tool and flash the latest version offered (1-2 mouse clicks). This takes some time, because emma downloads ~3GB.

Flashing LineageOS on Xperia X might be difficult as the device is not supported by lineage os. If u want to use a custom rom an xperia x, there are some roms on xda like a paranoid android pie beta, omirom and an unofficial Lineageos 15.1 rom: https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-x

LordRooster ( 2019-03-17 23:09:42 +0300 )edit

So long, Sailfish OS! [not a question]

The question has been closed for the following reason "not a real question" by nthn
close date 2019-03-10 17:47:06.306335

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So long, Sailfish OS! [not a question]

The question has been closed for the following reason "not a real question" by nthn close date 2019-03-10 17:47:06.306335

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The question has been closed for the following reason "not a real question" by nthn
close date 2019-03-10 17:47:06.306335