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Linux phones are not automatically secure

A common point in the Linux community is that escaping the walled garden of ecosystems like Android or iOS is already a means to higher security. Having no contact with Google or Apple servers ever again, nor cloud providers ever snooping on your private files or contacts again is a

Purism Librem 5 receives major camera update, video recording capabilities

As we tend to mention often, cameras are one of the areas where Linux phones are often seen as lacking behind their Android alternatives. This is partly due to extreme fragmentation of sensor drivers, with most mainlined devices not having any kind of Linux camera support, and just partly due

Three new Linux tablets

In their December update, Pine64 announced the PineTab2, which is the successor to their PineTab from 2018. As a major change, the PineTab2 upgrades the slow A53-based A64 SoC with an A55-based Rockchip RK3566, the same chip that was used for the Quartz64, and that helped to mainline this chip

GNOME Shell is one step closer to Linux phones

Our first post ever on this website was about the GNOME Project "getting ready" to adapt their environment to the growing demand of responsive, mobile-friendly Linux devices. That was back in 2019, before libhandy (Gtk mobile library) was considered stable, and when Librem 5s and PinePhones were less than a

The rvPhone is a hybrid RISC-V + ARM phone experiment

Around one year ago, Sipeed announced initial support for Android on their RISC-V development boards, hinting that a first functional prototype of RISC-V phone could be coming within one or two years. Although Android is now supported by several development kits based on this architecture, as can be seen in

Vanilla OS offers an innovative, modernized "post-Debian" experience

Ubuntu has been traditionally considered the most popular and user-friendly distro, and its core principles inspired a stream of derivate distributions in the past years. Although many users are happy with the general architecture, Ubuntu owner Canonical has sometimes been criticized for some technical choices, such as pushing most parts

An unexpected revival of Firefox OS

The dream of an HTML-based operating system is nothing new, and in fact, something we have seen since the early 2000s. With the Internet exploding in popularity and complexity, it has always been tempting to think of browsers as convenient graphical renderers, and CSS as the ultimate markup language for

Linux machines that just work

In some sense, 2022 has been resembling the long-memed Year of the Linux Desktop. Although this sounds like some cult's prophetic rubbish, by looking at the success of the Linux desktop in very empirical terms an improvement of the last couple of years becomes clearly noticeable. The Steam Deck alone

The Pine Formula

I should start by notifying readers that is a slightly old post, initially written in reaction to first Fairphone, then Pine64 announcing their "true wireless headphones" in April. In spite of this draft staying on my laptop since then, the situation has not particularly changed. Some days ago, I was

Google Pixel 3A achieves 100% Ubuntu Touch support score

The Pixel 3A was released in 2019 by Google as a cheaper alternative to the Pixel 4, and is powered by a Snapdragon 670 processor coupled with 4GB RAM, an OLED display, and a 3000mAh battery.  Being somewhat popular among the developer community, it was two years ago that this

The PocketReform is a made-in-Berlin Linux handheld

Update 27/06/2022: The PocketReform has been officially announced! More information can be found at this page. In the last year, we have seen an unexpected revival of handheld computers (or PDAs) with hardware keyboard, all of which based on Linux: the PinePhone with its keyboard case, the GPD

First camera samples from the PinePhone Pro revealed

So far, cameras on Linux phones have been known for their extremely basic results. Lacking good sensors, premium optics, and most importantly good post-processing capabilities, the PinePhone's, extremely basic sensor cannot often offer the shots one would expect. Even on the Librem 5, which uses a somewhat better Samsung sensor,

Using a Linux phone as a secondary monitor

As a software developer on the go, one of the very first use cases that I started investigating after installing Linux on my first tablet was that of using a portable device as a secondary display for another Linux machine. Ideally, this would happen wirelessly (or wired, if that involved

AVMultiPhone is a peculiar MATE-on-phone desktop spin

After SXMO [https://sxmo.org/], the DWM-on-phone mod that became popular for its practical minimalism with the PinePhone, and the lesser known ExpidusOS [https://expidusos.com/] XFCE-based shell, many of the traditional lightweight Linux desktops are receiving touch-friendly adaptions. A relatively new project, AVMultiPhone [https://archivista.ch/cms/de/aktuell-blog/

Purism Librem 14 review (part 2): The ethical flagship

The second part of our in-depth review of Purism's latest ultraportable: How does the king of libre hardware compete with the premium laptop market?

Purism Librem 14 review (part 1): The ethical flagship

Our in-depth review is all about Purism's latest ultraportable: How does the king of libre hardware compete with the premium laptop market?

Two new Linux handhelds with nostalgic vibes

Our long-time followers will know how much we love PDAs, be them Linux evergreens [https://tuxphones.com/tag/pinephone/], radical RISC-V experiments [https://tuxphones.com/bunnie-studios-precursor-open-hardware-risc-v-linux-pda-phone/] or somewhat esoteric Android/Linux hybrids [https://tuxphones.com/best-linux-phones-buying-guide-2022/#4-%E2%80%94-fxtec-pro1-x]. Not one, but two new homebrew PDAs were presented in

What the new PowerVR driver means for mobile

Much to the suprise of many people, Imagination created a merge request for an open source PowerVR vulkan driver to Mesa.

Booting ARM Linux the standard way

A deeper look in the new Tow-Boot firmware project for ARM devices.

A new wave of Linux applications

With the start of the new year, we can see a new trend delineating Linux software. Phosh with its newborn libadwaita, KDE's Kirigami and Maui Shell show that – like it or not – the era of convergent Linux applications has just started. After all, even laptop screens are not too big

CutiePi Tablet review: The open-hardware Linux tablet

Introduction Over the last years, we have seen many Linux-powered tablets, all of which developed with different approaches to "openness". For instance, the PineTab trades performance and a somewhat conservative design for a very low selling price and full Linux support, which made its demand high to the point of

You can now live-boot postmarketOS on Android phones

To spread awareness of the Linux ecosystem, the very first "Live CDs" played a crucial role: by taking away most of the fear of overwriting their hard drives, they allowed more people to test and effectively use any spin of the Operating System, and by keeping the filesystem in RAM,

Automating the little things

As the mainline porting workflow becomes more streamlined, we found ourselves able to automate and simplify a lot of things that previously required a lot of manual work. A great example of this is the mdss-panel-driver-generator [https://github.com/msm8916-mainline/linux-mdss-dsi-panel-driver-generator] which is able to convert vendor devicetree panel control

PinePhone modem gets easy OTA update support via fwupd

As most readers will know, the PinePhone is essentially considered to be the reference mobile Linux hacker's playground. And while this achievement may be for the most part thanks to its flexible software, its hardware structure, and the Quectel EG25-G baseband in particular, are no exception. The modem firmware can

A SHIFT in perspective, is this the next step for Linux phones?

You have most likely heard of Fairphone [https://www.fairphone.com/en/], who iFixit claim to be "the world's most repairable phone" [https://twitter.com/Fairphone/status/1465700205534212099], and certainly lives up to it. But now, there's a new kid on the block, and they have a different approach. SHIFT

Short guide to Linux phone desktops

If choosing a graphical environment for traditional Linux computers is already confusing for some users, deciding one for Linux phones is twice as hard. Most mobile interfaces still lack the maturity and usability of their traditional counterparts, also because integrating all kinds of desktop applications without keyboard can be tricky,

The best Linux phones you can buy right now

⚠️  Hi Hacker News! The devices linked in this article are not yet suitable for daily use. If you are not familiar with terminals, kernel panics, disappointing battery life, or a lack of mobile-friendly applications in general, do not take one of these devices as anything like your "daily driver" phone.

A look at Popcorn Computer's new Pocket P.C.

The Pocket P.C., short for Pocket Popcorn Computer, is a handheld created by the independent hardware manufacturer Popcorn Computer [https://pocket.popcorncomputer.com/], and originally announced in the fall of 2019. This PDA comes with an integrated keyboard, and runs a pure Linux OS based on the Allwinner A64

The world's first RISC-V phone might be just around the corner

The RISC-V ISA is commonly divided into two architectures, namely RV32 and RV64, covering 32-bit and 64-bit register sizes respectively. And although the RV64 standard is not yet fully RV32-compatible [https://groups.google.com/a/groups.riscv.org/g/isa-dev/c/eOQ6xN9pzrs/m/63-QG6xcAgAJ] , the two are, except from some

Freedom and phone advice

A closer look at the smartphone advice from the Free Software Foundation

Doubling the PinePhone storage perf with a soldering iron and a steady hand

There have been some recent waves in the Pine64 community thanks to a new mod which can drastically improve eMMC speed!

Another Xiaomi device platform is getting Linux support

By now, most readers will be aware of the quick progress of Qualcomm phones in the mobile Linux ecosystem. This became especially true with the SDM845 platform, powering the near-stable Linux ports of devices like the Oneplus 6/6T and Poco F1 which we often mentioned in the past. However,

postmarketOS + mainline for the OnePlus 5/5T!

The OnePlus 5 is a popular high-end phone from 2017, featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and Adreno 540. It has a 1080p display and up to 8GB of RAM. Mainline support for the device has been around for a while, since early 2020 in fact. Unfortunately, the Snapdragon 835

Kupfer is a postmarketOS-like Arch Linux spin for phones

In the last years, the number of Linux distributions aimed at smartphones and tablets [https://tuxphones.com/all-linux-distributions-for-smartphones/] has grown considerably. What was initially a land of projects like UBPorts, Armbian and postmarketOS has grown to interest projects like Manjaro, and several Debian and Arch spins. However, the newborn Kupfer

More support for UNISOC and Spreadtrum chips lands in the Linux kernel

UNISOC (and formerly Spreadtrum) chips have always been a very popular choice for Android device manufacturers. However, they were not commonly known for having wide mainline compatibility. Similarly to Rockchip and AllWinner, these chips became popular for their fast performance and relatively low prices, to the point of being used

PinePhone Pro released: specs, pricing and very first impressions

It was not three years ago that the PinePhone was announced. With entry-level, but relatively modern specifications, video output through Type-C, and full openness to custom software and mainline Linux, the device grew to be possibly even more popular than expected. Name it, and most Linux enthusiast will either know

Cadmium is a Linux distribution to liberate ARM Chromebooks

In spite of being, technically, based on the Linux kernel, Chromebooks were traditionally seen as very difficult devices for the free operating system, since proprietary drivers for even basic components like keyboards were often designed to discourage any kind of modification of the OS. This, however, is mostly a story

The "10 Year Smartphone" initiative aims for a sustainable mobile ecosystem

Prolonging the lifecycle of electronic devices is the driving force of most projects that work on mobile Linux - one of which, in fact, is particularly famous for having a "10-year life" for its devices as its slogan - and the Linux kernel has proved to be the de facto

Purism Librem 5 sees another (steep) price increase for 2022

The Purism Librem 5, one of the most popular premium Linux phones around, just saw another increase in its retail price for both 2021 and 2022 orders. This was stated in a recent e-mail to backers, which was recently also released on Purism forums: > As previously announced, we will be

Linux kernel needs more phones and tablets, says developer

Running the penguin kernel without numerous Google patches, proprietary drivers and heavy, restricting manufacturer modifications on Android phones used to be still considered, at most, an intriguing niche topic up to recently by most people. But the continuous efforts of mainlining ARM devices has been finally noticed by some kernel

Luxury Linux smartphones

The market share of "pure Linux" phones is still so small, that we may define its target as a small niche of enthusiasts and highly privacy-oriented market. No consumer chain sells Linux phones on the larger market, yet exclusive, luxury phone markers are turning to Linux as an allegedly more

The PineNote is an e-ink notebook that runs Linux

While our short holiday interrupted us for some weeks, we have become used to Pine64 launching some of the boldest mobile Linux devices ever seen. Still when, in their August update [https://www.pine64.org/2021/08/15/introducing-the-pinenote/], PINE64 announced a new device, we remained particularly surprised. The PineNote,

JingPad A1 (DVT) review, part 2

> This is the second part of our JingPad A1 DVT review. For the first part, click here [https://tuxphones.com/jingos-linux-tablet-review-part-1/]. After our first review [https://tuxphones.com/jingos-linux-tablet-review-part-1/] of the JingPad A1 DVT (developer alpha prototype), we will focus on the usability of single apps and various categories, to

JingPad A1 (DVT) review, part 1

> This is the first part of our JingPad A1 DVT review. For the second part, click here [https://tuxphones.com/jingpad-a1-linux-tablet-review-part-2/]. This is an interesting year for the mobile Linux world. There is a new trend of companies starting to target the consumer market with Linux devices, alongside the usual

WayDroid brings lag-free Android app integration to the OnePlus 6/6T Linux port

The OnePlus 6 and 6T are quickly becoming among the most popular Linux phones around, thanks to near-full, stable mainline Linux support, active community and fast-evolving features. The latest improvement to be deployed by its main maintainer, Caleb Connolly, is full support, including graphical acceleration, for the popular Android compatibility

Some Kobo e-readers can now run Linux, becoming inexpensive e-ink tablets

Attempts to run Linux distributions on e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and Rakuten Kobo series date to many years ago, when hackers initially discovered the surprising flexibility of these devices, which are usually based on mostly open hardware and lack the advanced bootloader locks found in most phones. However, proprietary

Linux tablet maker JingLing secures $10M funding, starts JingPad crowdfunding campaign

> Update 08/2021: We wrote an in-depth review of the first prototype of this Linux tablet. For our JingPad A1 DVT review, click here [https://tuxphones.com/jingos-linux-tablet-review-part-1/]. One of the projects that we often followed on our Twitter throughout the last months was Jingling's upcoming tablet and desktop environment.

postmarketOS in 2021: over 300 devices, growing technical basis and extensive "mainline" support

About one month after targeting smartwatches [https://tuxphones.com/postmarketos-linux-targets-smartwatches-wearables-watch-friendly-asteroid-os-ui/] and weeks after its fourth birthday [https://postmarketos.org/blog/2021/05/26/four-years/], postmarketOS has met another crucial milestone for its vision of an entirely sustainable, 10+ year lifecycle for portable devices: the distribution can now boot, to varying

New, rugged Volla Phone X runs Android and Ubuntu

A relatively small German phone start-up, Volla, became famous in the mobile Linux community after introducing the first Volla Phone [https://tuxphones.com/made-in-germany-linux-ready-volla-phone-kickstarter/] in early 2020. After one year, a concluded Kickstarter campaign and a partnership with UBPorts Foundation for complete Ubuntu Touch support, Volla has teased a new

postmarketOS is finally coming to wearables

Almost four years after its first release, postmarketOS has just started targeting the valuable niche of smartwatches. As the upper end of these devices tends to offer near-identical hardware configurations to ARM phones, many models come either with Google's own Wear OS, or with proprietary themed and minified Android or

The RUHAcam is an open-source, 3D-printed Linux camera based on Raspberry Pi

In spite of its very different appearence, this project actually shares a lot with our usually covered mobile Linux devices. Firstly, because it is a fully open-source (and open hardware-ish) portable ARM device, running on the well-renowed "Raspberry Pi HQ Camera" module, based on the Sony IMX477 sensor (12.3MP,

Tens of Nvidia Tegra devices now run mainline Linux thanks to the "grate" project

Nvidia chips and the Linux community have not always been known for a friendly attitude between each other. In a famous talk [https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTEyMTc] by Linus Torvalds, which may appear slightly too offensive to be reported directly, the Linux creator defined

The JingPad A1 is a Linux tablet with 2K display, pen input, 5G and much more

> Update 08/2021: We wrote an in-depth review of the first prototype of this Linux tablet. For our JingPad A1 DVT review, click here [https://tuxphones.com/jingos-linux-tablet-review-part-1/]. Some months after the initial announcement, the first JingOS device has been officially announced. The device has been announced as a "consumer

MIPS Technologies joins RISC-V, moves to open-source ISA standard

The MIPS silicon manufacturer is one of the oldest RISC chip manufacturers, used in several systems since the late 80s. Characterized by clean and efficient designs, allowing adaption in varied applications, this company has been considered one of the most innovative in the market during its golden age - to

Manjaro ships Plasma Mobile 5.21, adds initial setup for PinePhone

The popular Arch-based Manjaro distribution has been one of the earliest projects to express interest [https://tuxphones.com/manjaro-phone-plasma-mobile-smartphone-distro-arch/] in the niche of Linux phones, and has been widely adopted by PinePhone users since its initial release. However, the team never stopped being innovative, integrating crust from an early stage

Google just made sideloading Android Wear apps harder

Android Wear smartwatches are an extremely common breed of wearables. Being full of features and comparatively cheap, it is increasingly common to spot them on people's wrists. While the OS is far from flawless, partly due to the heavy Java-based software stack, bringing to usually lower the standby time than

Anonymity versus privacy

Let's imagine that today you visited several places in a heavily video-surveilled city, while wearing a mask. Nobody knew your name or your real identity, but everyone knew what you did, in all its details. Given the unusual period, not a medical mask, but more of a full, old-school mask

New project aims to bring Linux mobile devices back to the mainstream market

A project that has recently got the attention of many FOSS journalists is the JingOS Linux distribution, coming from China and offering an explicitly "iPadOS-style" user interface according to its website [https://www.jingos.com/] . However, this is just the beginning of the project. The fil rouge connecting the varied

GNOME "Text Editor" app is a mobile-friendly, GTK4 alternative to Gedit

> Edit 03/2021: GNOME Text Editor has been officially announced [https://blogs.gnome.org/chergert/2021/03/06/a-gtk-4-based-text-editor/] by its author, and re-ported to the GTK4 toolkit as initially planned. It can be installed via the Flatpak gnome-nightly repository. Given the recent progress, it seems like the GNOME foundation

Linux on your smartphone: everything you need to know in 2021

One of the main issues with modern smartphones is the extremely short lifespan of this category of devices, which makes even high-end ones painfully slow within years. In fact, studies have shown that it takes the average European, American or Asian user less than two years [https://it.businessinsider.com/

Can the Apple M1 run Linux?

> UPDATE: It looks like a developer set up a Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/marcan] for bringing Linux to the Apple M1. Although this is unlikely to be a one-man job, supporting his work may help in getting Linux to Macs faster. As most of us will know, Linux and

⚡ Plasma Mobile gets major UI improvements, several bugfixes

From being one of the earliest desktops to embrace the mobile Linux world, Plasma Mobile has already become one of the stablest and most complete mobile desktop environments thanks to continuous work by its team. What looked like a pre-alpha experiment years ago is now one of the most usable

Building responsive Linux mobile apps with libhandy 1.0 and Gtk3

> November 2020: This tutorial is being updated to reflect the minor API and configuration changes in libhandy 1.0, which is the upcoming version. Thanks to Martin Chang (@marty188586 [https://twitter.com/marty188586]) for the tips > For those interested in using C instead of Python as programming language, developer Nilanshu

Precursor is a RISC-V, FPGA-assisted open hardware PDA aimed at developers and hackers

A week or so after the launch of the extremely ambitious FXTec Pro-1 Android/Linux phone [https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro1/], sporting a hardware QWERTY keyboard and the highest-end specifications seen on a Linux phone yet, "Bunnie Studios", pseudonym for Singapore hardware hacker and digital right activist Sutajio Kosagi,

⚡ Ubuntu Touch is coming to the Google Pixel 3a

After Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 adding official support for a series of Oneplus (3/3T) and Sony Xperia (X*, XZ) devices, the most popular Linux distribution for phones is expanding further, with Ubuntu Touch developer Alfred Neumayer announcing upcoming support for the 2019 mid-range Google Pixel 3a smartphone. > I really can't

⚡ Official PinePhone back cover will add hardware keyboard, wireless charging, NFC and more

Just days after announcing the PineCom PDA, the PINE team has released another blog post (link below) announcing their progress for October 2020. This includes several plans, such as the PineTime budget smartwatch finally starting shipping with the Infinitime firmware, more details on the Pinecil RISC-V soldering iron (?), and more

PINE64 to launch PineCom, a cheaper, modem-free PinePhone-like PDA

The first PinePhone, initially launched (more or less) as a cheaper alternative to the Librem 5, gained enormous success thanks to continuous efforts by both software developers and the team, releasing several variants, upgrading specifications and making this $150 Linux phone probably much better than most people would have expected,

⚡ The status of camera on the PinePhone: drivers, autofocus, color curves and more

After many months of work, omnipresent postmarketOS developer and photography enthusiast Martijn Braam has worked on turning the PinePhone camera not only into something working, but pushing the boundaries of the entry-level OV5640 sensor and its basic lens. > Image quality improvements for the #PinePhone [https://twitter.com/hashtag/PinePhone?src=

⚡ Official "Fedora Mobility" project targets PinePhone (and more)

After several years of inactivity, the official Fedora Mobility SIG team has been revived to work on bringing the popular Linux distro to the PinePhone in the immediate future, but also aims for expansion to other devices in the future. This interest may be originated from the work of @jhanikhil

⚡ WhatsApp and Anbox: the most popular messaging app now runs on Linux phones

As seen in several previous [https://tuxphones.com/purism-librem-5-run-android-apps-anbox-linux-fdroid/] articles [https://tuxphones.com/postmarketos-linux-gets-anbox-android-app-support/], almost all tuxphone-oriented distributions are actively working on supporting the Anbox abstraction layer in order to integrate Android apps quasi-natively with Linux ones. With Ubuntu Touch, postmarketOS, PureOS and Mobian supporting it, the project is getting

Using a Google Nexus 5 as a Linux phone, in 2020

One of the main objectives of Linux is to give new life to older devices, and many projects are proving this by running (somewhat) modern UIs even on ancient smartphones like the Nokia N900. However, specifications increased very quickly in the subsequent years (2011-2013), bringing to much faster portable devices

Purism announces Android app support for the Librem 5

While the Purism Librem 5 may not be getting the same level of attention it was during its early crowdfunding phase, its developers seem to be working harder than ever to bring all needed functionality to make this phone ready for semi-casual users as well. With their blog [https://puri.

Exploting pogo pins: PinePhone gets modular

Modular phones have been hypothesized for years, with Phonebloks and Project Ara being the most popular concepts and just some shy experiments, like Fairphone 2, LG G5, Motorola Moto Z and Librem 5 inheriting part of the modular smartphone paradigm through replaceable boards, PCIe and other simple expansion mechanisms. However,

PinePhone adds postmarketOS CE and higher-spec'd "convergence" variants to their line-up

After the PinePhone "BraveHeart" (hardware 1.1) and the first Community Edition (1.2), Pine64 has released a new revision of their popular Linux phone, as announced in their July Update, their "biggest update in months". The new "postmarketOS Community Edition" variant ("1.2A") doubles on storage as an option,

New CutiePi Shell "Sidekick" mode brings Linux convergence to the next level

Back in 2013 or so, "convergence" was one of the most trending topics in mobile software development, taking inspiration from responsive web development and the gap between desktop and mobile CPUs quickly narrowing. However, between 2015 and 2018 this trend seemed to disappear entirely, partly due to the failure of

The $99 "PineTab" Linux tablet is now available for preorder

Almost one year [https://tuxphones.com/pine64-pinetab-pinephone-linux-tablet-postmarketos/] after being announced, PINE64 has finally opened preorders for the AllWinner A64-based PineTab Linux tablet. The PineTab will cost $99 to the public, or $119 with its official keyboard + touchpad module. While this goes slightly above the predicted price of $79, justified by

New "SXMO" PinePhone desktop brings a full, lightweight tiling-based experience to Linux phones

In this period, PinePhone projects seem to appear faster than anything else in the Linux community, like the multi-boot PineLoader [https://twitter.com/tuxphones/status/1259953156689100802] bootloader, the JumpDrive [https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Jumpdrive] recovery system and USB flash storage emulation [https://twitter.com/tuxphones/status/1258776841260871683] apps to boot

postmarketOS now boots on over 200 phones and tablets

In its first three years of life, postmarketOS has gotten considerable popularity over time, partly thanks to the rising interest in the field after the huge press coverage of projects like the Librem 5 and the PinePhone, partly thanks to its wide range of supported devices and extremely easy porting

iPhone 7 boots postmarketOS and Ubuntu, becoming the first Linux-running Apple smartphone [updated]

> Update 01/2021: A video showing an iPhone 7 running Ubuntu 20.04 with GNOME desktop has been released [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO8vt34kTh0], bringing further ground to consider this the first Linux running iPhone Let us face it: six months ago, nobody would realistically have expected a

Linux on iPhones gets nearer as iOS devices gain dual-boot support

One month after the first signs of Linux support on several iPhones appeared, with the Linux 4.4 kernel (and Android [https://tuxphones.com/corellium-project-sandcastle-linux-android-10-on-iphone-7/]!) finally booting on the iPhone 7 and some other models, well-known "jailbreakers" and developers @Ralph0045 [https://twitter.com/Ralph0045] and @mcg29_ [https://twitter.com/mcg29_

GNOME Shell is moving towards a convergent, mobile-friendly UI

About a year after the first official GNOME apps received convergent user interfaces with Purism's libhandy, the most popular Linux desktop seems to be ready to take the next step: migrating to a fully convergent (and thus mobile-friendly) desktop environment by redesigning the Shell to become more scalable (resolution-wise) and

Large Maemo Leste update brings camera and TV output to 11-year old Nokia N900, PowerVR GPU support for Motorola Droid 4

In pre-Lumia (read Microsoft) times, Nokia phones used to be extremely widespread and praised for their very durable and innovative designs. Their relatively simple interfaces included some of the most advanced features one could expect on a phone, and the company even developed some essentially full-Linux smartphones with the Maemo

KDE introduces "Plasma Bigscreen", a Linux desktop aimed at smart TVs

In a period of quick evolution of Linux environments towards broader concepts of UI, KDE has just introduced Plasma Bigscreen [https://dot.kde.org/2020/03/26/plasma-tv-presenting-plasma-bigscreen], a brand new desktop environment aimed at smart TVs. This is far, however, from being a simple "Kodi clone": not only Plasma

postmarketOS gets Anbox integration, will run native Android apps

Supporting Android apps to some degree has always been one of the priorities of the postmarketOS project, with Anbox [https://anbox.io/] support being one of the oldest issues [https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/issues/17] in the project's bug tracker. The news is, this issue has been very recently

"Project Sandcastle" brings Android 10 to the iPhone 7

Earlier this year, we wrote about the first successful attempt to boot the Linux kernel on the iPhone 7 [https://tuxphones.com/linux-kernel-boots-on-t8010-a10-iphone-7-via-pongoos/]. However, the situation evolved unexpectedly fast, with LCD drivers added within days, and today the very first Android 10 ("Q") port approaching the beta stage thanks to

Linux-ready, made-in-Germany "Volla Phone" succeeds on Kickstarter

Some months after a failed Kickstarter campaign [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/volla/volla-phone-freedom-through-simplicity-and-security] with an ambitious €350k goal, German startup Volla has managed to raise more than €20k in a new campaign [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/volla/volla-phone-designed-with-simplicity-and-security-in-mind] (still open for the next few hours) for their first

Developer gets Linux kernel booting on iPhone 7 and A10-equipped iPads

Many years after the OpeniBoot/iDroid utopia [https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/IDroid] that brought early Android versions to some iDevices back in 2010, a new attempt at running a Linux kernel ("mainline" 5.4.14 in screenshots) on iDevices has been made by Twitter user @qwertyoruiopz [https://twitter.com/

"CutiePi Shell" is a new, open-source UI for mobile devices

Mobile-oriented Linux UIs and window managers are still rare, and a fair share of them happens to be based on old technologies or look understaffed, or even abandoned. However, we might soon have a new contender in this niche: the primarily tablet and Raspberry Pi-oriented CutiePi Shell [https://github.com/

Xiaomi Redmi 4X receives unofficial Ubuntu Touch release

Despite all the work on "pure" Linux distributions for smartphones in 2020, Ubuntu Touch is likely still the safest choice [https://tuxphones.com/2020-everything-running-linux-smartphone-guide/] for most devices, and the only one ready for complete daily usage on some Android handhelds [https://many.tuxphones.com/]. The relatively popular Linux distro, initially

Yet Another Librem 5 and PinePhone comparison

Let's start off with mentioning that both these new phones are great steps forward for Linux. While they will probably not beat Android and iOS in popularity, they will at least give Linux power users a device that can be called a Linux phone instead of the usual "technically it's

First Purism Librem 5 "Birch" user reviews report good build quality and display, software still WiP

Some days after the first Purism Librem 5 smartphones from the second, still developer-oriented "Birch" batch release, user reviews and videos have started appearing on the Internet. The most popular and dense "review" of the current Librem 5 Birch has been published (u/kop316) on the r/Purism Reddit community

PinePhone "Brave Heart" early bird developer edition now available for $150

About two months after the first Purism Librem 5 batch [https://tuxphones.com/purism-librem-5-linux-smartphone-shipped-initial-aspen-batch-list/] was shipped, Pine64 has finally made the very first batch of PinePhones openly available for sale. We discussed the differences between these two pocket-sized Linux phones in an article some months ago [https://tuxphones.com/purism-librem-5-vs-pine64-pinephone-linux-smartphone-comparison/

Announcing "Can My Phone Run Linux?": listing over 200 Linux-supported smartphones

It took a while, but Can My Phone Run Linux? is finally available at many.tuxphones.com [https://many.tuxphones.com] in its earliest release. This web app lets you know if you are one of the (likely many) lucky owners of a smartphone that supports some kind of Linux

Further Plasma Mobile improvements bring better stability, music streaming, Gtk app integration and much more

In case you tried Plasma Mobile some months ago, and found it somewhat limited and unstable, chances are you will have a completely different experience by trying it now. As the project is rapidly moving into the spotlight for its crucial importance in projects like the PINE64 PinePhone [https://tuxphones.

Improved KDE Plasma Mobile introduces "Plasma Nano" minimal shell for embedded devices

KDE's Plasma Mobile project was ahead of its time when its "preview release" was announced back in 2016, about three years later than Ubuntu Touch, and had to follow a similar fate: underlooked and understaffed at first, it started getting mainstream interest in 2018 after getting a Nexus 5 port,

Video shows PinePhone prototype detailed assembly and boot to Plasma Mobile

Just some days after Purism released its first Librem 5 walk-through video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvnt78mK-Ac], with the final device running its "GNOME" Phosh shell with impressive smoothness, postmarketOS developer Martijn Braam uploaded a video [https://fosstodon.org/web/statuses/102894704117260275] of himself assemblying by hand the

PINE64 reveals PineTime technical specifications, pricing and release date

Two weeks ago, the PineTime was teased on Twitter [https://tuxphones.com/meet-pinetime-the-official-25-pinephone-companion-smartwatch/] as an extremely inexpensive (~$25) open source PinePhone companion smartwatch, running FreeRTOS on a low-power ARM Cortex-M4 core. More detailed information has been released just hours ago on the official PINE64 wiki page for the PineTime [Built-in

First Purism Librem 5 "Aspen" batch shipped

Purism's Librem 5, arguably the first modern privacy-oriented Linux smartphone, has just started shipping its early Aspen batch to their earliest users. This very early batch of Librem 5 devices is still almost prototype-grade, featuring the very first mechanical and hardware design, with hand-crafted switch caps, initial apps and basic

Meet PineTime, the official $25 PinePhone companion smartwatch

UPDATE: more details on the PineTime have been released [https://tuxphones.com/pine64-pinetime-open-source-smartwatch-specs-price-release-date-pictures/] Over the last few months, the PINE64 has become one of the most discussed brands within the Linux community. Providing ultra-low cost Linux ARM machines (such as the PinePhone, PineTab and all the PineBooks), this brand has

Librem 5 vs. PinePhone: comparison of two Linux smartphones

Shortly after Purism crowd-funded the Librem 5 $650 privacy-oriented Linux smartphone, Pine64 announced the PinePhone, a $150 entry level alternative with similar design, aim and specifications. So which one should you choose - and why is the Librem 5 much higher cost still worth the investment? > #Purism [https://twitter.com/

New Fairphone 3 modular, ethical smartphone is "built to last" (with a lower price tag)

As we know, consumer electronics is something that could almost never be considered "ethical" nowadays. No matter what brand you choose, there are high chances that the construction of your smartphone involved some (relevant) degree of human right violations. From the mining of columbite-tantalum [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan_

All we know about the PinePhone: pictures, specs and release date

Over the last months, PINE64/Pine Microsystems has been working hard [https://tuxphones.com/pine64-pinephone-prototype-linux-smartphone-mockup-progress-design/] on the PinePhone, an affordable ($150) privacy-oriented Linux smartphone. As currently available information is relatively fragmented among the PINE64 blog, wiki, chat rooms and social media profiles, this post aims to be a real-time (-

$79 PineTab Linux tablet supports SATA and LTE expansions, boots postmarketOS

While PINE64 has often been in the news in the last months for their PinePhone [https://tuxphones.com/tag/pinephone/], the $150 Linux smartphone (and low-cost Purism Librem 5 alternative), the same can't be said about its big brother, the PineTab [https://www.pine64.org/pinetab/]. At the modest price

Purism showcases Librem 5: thin bezels, GNOME apps and boot in under 15 seconds

If there is a Linux smartphone that does not need any introduction, that is probably Purism's Librem 5. After a successful crowdfunding campaign [https://web.archive.org/web/20171118081346/https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/] launched back in 2017, which helped Purism raise about $2M, there have been several official updates

postmarketOS Linux makes 🎂️ 2 years 🎂️: bringing over one hundred smartphones back to life

It's a fact: smartphones tend to have a dramatically short lifespan, no matter the price range. While features remain more or less the same, even high-end smartphones tend to become slow within two or three years, forcing their users to an upgrade. And while it's widely known, even among non-technical

Official, Plasma-based "Manjaro Phone" teased on Twitter

Over the last year, there has been a peak in smartphone oriented Linux distributions [https://tuxphones.com/all-linux-distributions-for-smartphones/], probably due to the huge interest in projects like Purism's Librem5 and, more recently, the entry-level PinePhone [https://tuxphones.com/pine64-pinephone-prototype-linux-smartphone-mockup-progress-design/] . Another exciting development for this new segment of Linux devices is

First prototype for PINE64 "PinePhone" Linux smartphone sports thin bezels and modern design

After being announced several months ago, Pine64's inexpensive "PinePhone" Linux smartphone looks like a cheaper, entry-level alternative to the relatively popular Librem5 [https://tuxphones.com/purism-librem5-smartphone-gemalto-pls8-4g-lte-modem-bands-regions-speeds-gps/] Linux smartphone by Purism, which promises total privacy and a full mobile Linux experience. In fact, most of the work on Linux for smartphones

Xiaomi Redmi 4X might get an unofficial Ubuntu Touch porting soon

Launched in 2013, Ubuntu Touch used to be one of the most ambitious projects by Canonical. This OS, based on Ubuntu LTS and the Unity 8 user interface, was probably ahead of its time, promising convergence between desktop and mobile applications. However, after a failed Indiegogo campaign [https://www.indiegogo.

Inexpensive, compact, powerful: the revolution of "smart feature phones" runs Linux

Since the first iPhone in 2007, the whole mobile industry has moved to the "smartphone" form factor: minimal hardware keys, touch screen navigation, desktop-like Internet capabilities. However, while the revolution was more than welcome for most aspects, things like battery life and overall device dimensions are still missed by most

Purism Librem5 modem revealed, will provide LTE and GPS support

The choice of a modem was arguably the most discussed topics during the Librem5 development. After evaluating many choices and shipping development kits with SimCom SIM7100 [https://techship.com/products/simcom-sim7100-lte-mpcie-us/] (Qualcomm MDM9215) modules, Purism's FAQ page [https://puri.sm/faq/] has been updated with information regarding the supported LTE

Designing apps for Linux smartphones: a "quick start guide" by GNOME developer Tobias Bernard

No matter how cool your smartphone (or its OS) is, you aren't going much further than with a feature phones unless there's a wide, good quality app ecosystem to back it up. As we've seen in our previous post [https://tuxphones.com/gnome-desktop-phosh-ready-for-purism-necunos-linux-smartphones/], both Purism and GNOME are actively workin

GNOME is getting ready for next-generation Linux smartphones

The GNOME Desktop Environment is, alongside KDE Plasma, probably the most supported and widely used platform for desktop Linux users. Its extremely modern and touch-supported user interface is nowadays the default out-of-the-box environment on most distros, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the official choice of Purism for their Librem5 Linux smartphone. Here