Linux Phones

5004 readers

6 users here now

Community about running GNU/Linux on phones. Projects like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, PostmarketOS, Mobian etc. Either on former Android phones or hardware like the PinePhone.

See also:

Related chats:

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

can an average person use a linux phone? (mindly.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

can an average person use a linux phone?

@linuxphones

I've been reading some articles about mobile Linux and many of them state one must be an "advanced user" or that the software isn't secure. How true is this?

I already use Linux on my laptop, but I'm not a software developer or anything like that. Would I be able to slap a new OS onto an old Android phone and be on my way, or would I run into problems?

#MobileLinux #Linux #LinuxPhone #FOSS

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Open-source doesn’t necessarily mean private or secure.

Agreed, especially if you get your software directly from the developer. But if you get your software from a distribution that you trust, with dedicated maintainers, then the chances of such backdoors are greatly reduced.

They are the basics of modern secure OS’s

Also agreed that this is the way things are going in linux desktops as well as commercial platforms, thanks to the increasing complexity of software. These approaches are very useful if I want to run curl | bash from some random git repository, run nonfree software, or have something very important to hide on my computer.

But these approaches also come at the cost of simplicity, ease of configuration and "tinkerability". So I think it can be valid for some people to choose not to use the approaches you mentioned, given their individual priorities.