After a couple weeks of daily-driving Sailfish OS on the new Jolla Phone 2 (2026), here's my take on the European, privacy-first alternative to the Android and iOS duopoly. Design, hardware, camera...
    • erebion@news.erebion.euEnglish
      21·
      16 hours ago

      Also, no mainline kernel support. Pretty sure it’d be easy to do for Jolla (even I manage to do some mainlining work and I don’t sell phones).

      This means it’ll be a security nightmare at some point, just like any other phone.

      Plus the specific app format. You cannot install the many nice GNOME apps, KDE apps and others that already exist.

      I do have a SailfishOS phone for testing, but to make it even a bit useful I’d have to use AppSupport, which is Android in a container with a proprietary wrapper. There are barely any apps, they should leverage the power of the many mobile Linux apps that exist. I’d rather have some apps with a UI that looks different to the rest than not having what I need.

      • Default Username@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        8·
        16 hours ago

        This is what really makes it a non-starter for me. Also, if there was a mainline kernel, I could just install any other distro I want instead.

        I’m still waiting for a somewhat modern phone with a fully functional mainline kernel.

      • Lojcs@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        12 hours ago

        The app format lock in sounds crazy to me. How does it stop you from running other apps? Does it not have a terminal? Does it not give you sudo? Does it refuse to run any executables, or is it about the ui toolkit?

        Sorry for the barrage, that sounded outrageous

        • erebion@news.erebion.euEnglish
          2·
          12 hours ago

          They just have their own format using their owm SailfishOS-specific UI libraries. Their apps don’t work elsewhere without patching, there’s no Flatpak and they only have SailfishOS apps in the repo.

          Sure, you can write your own apps, but I prefer using what’s already there.

    • erebion@news.erebion.euEnglish
      25·
      17 hours ago

      Pretty expensive for a Linux phone that does not allow running most Linux apps.

      A Fairphone costs 549 € (100 euros less), for that you get 256 GB of storage, better specs, repairability and a wider range of mobile Linux distros to choose from.

      • sakphul@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        5·
        13 hours ago

        Thema advertising it as a Linux Phone is misleading imho. They should focus on advertising it as an alternative to Android/iOS with optional Android App support.

        But from a Hardware point of view you are right. It is not a flagship device. In regards to repairability at least the battery can be replaced.

        • erebion@news.erebion.euEnglish
          2·
          13 hours ago

          Replaceable Battery is just the legal minimum for the EU.

          I prefer repairability, we’ve got too much trash already and the planet isn’t in a good state.

          • sakphul@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            2·
            12 hours ago

            Not necessarily for Smartphones and Tablets. There is an exception:

            manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives may provide the battery or batteries referred to in point (i)(a) only to professional repairers if manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives ensure that the following requirements are met:

            (a) after 500 full charge cycles the battery has, in a fully charged state, a remaining capacity of at least 83 % of the rated capacity;

            (b) the battery endurance in cycles achieves a minimum of 1 000 full charge cycles and after 1 000 full charge cycles the battery has, in a fully charged state, a remaining capacity of at least 80 % of the rated capacity;

            See: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R1670

            So If this requirements are met it does not need to be easily replacable by the End-User. Don’t know If they can achieve that.