Obviously this situation can't go on.

If neither of the two major players can make an open, secure, _simple_, easy-to-understand, bloat-free OS, then we somehow need another player.

Presently (and I confess, my bias to seek non-state solutions may show here), it seems that a non-trivial part of the duopoly stems from regulatory capture insofar as the duopoly isn't merely software, but extends all the way to TSMC and Qualcomm, whose operations seem to be completely subject to state dictates, both economic/regulatory and of the darker surveillance/statecraft variety (and of those, presumably some are classified).

I'm reminded of the server market 20ish years ago, where, although there were more than two players, the array of simple, flexible linux distros that are dominant today were somewhere between poorly documented and unavailable. I remember my university still running windows servers in ~2008 or so.

What do we need to do to achieve the same evolution that the last 2-3 decades of server OS's have seen? Is there presently a mobile linux OS that's worth jumping on? Is there simple hardware to go with it?

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Klonoar 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

One comment mentioned Jolla. Another currently available option is [FuriLabs](http://furilabs.com). It runs atop Hallium/etc but you are effectively still able to daily drive a mobile Linux shell and contribute to the ecosystem if you want to see it grow.

Now with that said: so much work has gone in to Android (and by extension, Graphene) to improve on power usage/security/etc that I'm not sure I'd bother to actually run a mobile Linux device. The juice just doesn't feel worth the squeeze.

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akyuu 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Take a look at Jolla and Sailfish OS.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162368

https://sailfishos.org

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nextos 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

FWIW, Jolla just announced a new phone: https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder

	▲	aaravchen a minute ago \| parent [-]
		It was discussed here when it was announced. I believe it was determined the hardware is an ultra-low-budget Aliexpress design that normally retails for ~$100 that they had custom built with a mic cutoff switch added to it (probably the cause of a large portion of the hardware price increase). I dont remember the specifics, but even thr most optimistic were pretty sure it won't get hardware vendor support for even a full year based on the specific processor it contains.

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frogperson 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

https://liberux.net/ looks promising as well.

	▲	aaravchen 7 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		WARNING: This is a Kickstarter device still, and needed funding to even create a proof of concept device last time it was discussed (extensively). It's a Flagship phone device and price, but with only the oldest of pans on how it's actually going to deliver some on of the promises.