this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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This is great. This gives me hope for Linux mobile 🙏🏽
They really shot themselves in the foot by going straight to phones.
The better way would have been to work on tablets first and working out all the bugs on larger devices with a limited feature set before moving into phones with the attendant issues of regional cell bands and restrictions.
tablets (especially ones that could be flashed with Linux, i.e. not iPads) are way less common than smartphones, so you get fewer devices to choose from for testing, fewer users who can run it, report bugs, and support the project, and less interest in general.
The hardware isn't so much of a problem as there are companies who can make or source compatible tablets like the PineTab2 and the PineNote.
It's making the software compatible with a lower power mobile device and learning what needs to fixed.
It would have been much easier to deal with getting a tablet up and running before dealing with getting a mobile device functional.
Making the small steps from laptop to tablet then to phone would have saved them a lot of grief and software mistakes.
What are the chances of everyone interested in this project already having a tablet? I don't own any, and I certainly wouldn't be going out to buy one just to test running Linux on it. I do have multiple old phones I could turn into development test devices however. Anything is better than nothing.