Linux is one of the last strong defenses for the idea that people should control the computers they own. On desktops and servers, root access is normal, and attempts to take it away do not work because software freedom is well established. On phones, that never happened. There is no real, mainstream “Linux for mobile,” and the result is a world of locked-down platforms where things like “sideloading” are treated as scary security risks instead of basic user rights. This makes it much easier for lawmakers to argue for removing root access on mobile devices, even though the same idea would be unrealistic on desktop systems.

A great deal of gratitude is owed to all the people who volunteer their free time to create the stable desktop environment we have free access to on Linux in 2026.

What I don't understand is why it is so much effort to use linux on a phone. Surely these 8 core ARM monsters these days should be more than enough to handle a full kernel. Hopefully it's not a driver issue where manufacturers only contribute the necessary drivers to the android kernel, not the linux one.

If you're interested in this aspect of user agency, you might like the "trustworthy technology" site a few friends and I are working on: https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/

"There is no real, mainstream “Linux for mobile,”"

Probably need to clarify since Android is Linux. Assume you're referring to community run distros. Unfortunately the issue is usually proprietary hardware that has to be reverse engineered and nobody willing to pay engineers full time to do that.

Android is Linux. There could easily be a secure-boot desktop Linux too if companies cared to target that platform with things like banking apps.

>Linux is one of the last strong defenses for the idea that people should control the computers they own.

Please run Kate/Kwrite as root and then we will talk on the topic. Or pipe password to ssh