this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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Linux Phones
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The Discussion on Linux-based Phones.
Benefits:
- Hardware freedom.
- Perfect operating-system competition.
- Full utilization of specs.
- Phone lifespan raises to 10+ years.
- Less e-waste.
Linux Mobile Distros:
- Postmarket OS
- Ubuntu Touch
- Mobian
- Sailfish
- Manjaro Arm
- Pure OS
- Plasma Mobile
- LuneOS
- FuriOS
- Nemomobile
- Droidian
- Mobile NixOS
- ExpidusOS
- Maemo Leste
- Tizen
- WebOS
Linux Mobile Hardware:
- Fairphone 5
- Volla Phone
- Librem 5
- PinePhone
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So who is the strongest contender here? I hear stuff about pinephone, then nothing. Fairphone, more silence. Purism, so much silence.
I will happily pay someone now for a half decent phone so that by the time android is fully enshittified we all have a place to go.
As far as I know, the most useable pure Linux phone right now is the Furilabs FLX1. They're currently out of stock, and doing preorders for their second batch. By "pure Linux" I mean "a distro pretty close to what you can use on your laptop."
There's also several phones that can run Sailfish OS, including an official device. Sailfish OS isn't quite vanilla Linux, but it might the most useable and supported non-mainstream option. I can't find a clear answer about if you can run regular Linux applications on it, though.
I used Sailfish OS on a Sony Xperia smartphone for about a year until my carrier switched to VoLTE, and Sailfish OS at the time didn't support VoLTE. It does now, though, so I plan on trying it again soon.
Furilabs has my attention simply because you can "seamlessly" run android apps on FuriOS in a container called Andromeda. Might be next after my Pixel 9 /w GrapheneOS is used up.
There's also a grapheneos phone coming out soon which gives a bit of hope
This. Really hope it ia good.
Hu? They joy of s linux phone is, that Hardware is not locked to specific software, isn’t it?
I mean if you can install a Linux distro, you can install any Linux distro, not?
So we just need hardware that is strong enough as well as power efficient enough
Maybe a good screen and big battery
It’s one thing to have the hardware allow you to install anything. It’s an entirely different thing to get a set of software capable of managing a phone running on there. Phone hardware is super proprietary most of the time. Even if they release the drivers, someone still has to incorporate them and any hardware features into their OS.
I would not be satisfied with not using mainline kernel…
I'm not sure FLX1 counts as a full 100% Linux phone. It uses the android driver stack in order to then boot to Linux. But I guess this might get them stuck with old insecure drivers? Not sure this is the best long term approach.
I thought it was basically Debian with Waydroid preinstalled.
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Weird. I checked the website & forum again, and what I can see still says it's a Debian fork that uses Waydroid. Where did you read that it uses Hallium? Not that it's important, but I've been planning to get one, so I want to be sure I know what I'm getting.
I got it from https://blog.luigi311.com/furilabs-flx1/. Furi labs specifically links to this article on their website, so I would assume it's factually correct.
I see where it says the phone is a Halium-based device, but then under Android support, it says they use their own Waydroid fork. So, I guess those aren't mutually exclusive. Good to know, thanks.
Yeah, Waydroid is just an application and will run on normal amd64 and arm64 linux devices just fine. Having it setup from the factory is just a nice quality of life feature.
I'm not really clear on what you were disagreeing with, then.
Briefly looked into it, and Sailfish OS looks like it's getting closer to reasonable for an average user. The Aptoide store seems to have major apps (WhatsApp), but it still requires some tinkering, like going into several settings screens manually to do things that pop-up automatically in Android. Not too bad, but definitely only for someone who's okay with a bit of tinkering.
WhatsApp is a "must" for most users globally as it's the defacto messaging protocol standard used most places. Probably more important than SMS/MMS for most users. At least until everyone starts to switch over and something better (Signal, probably) starts to get a big enough install base that people use it.
In Canada, I frequently tell people they can Signal, text, or Whatsapp me, but the only people who ever use Signal with me are family I installed it for.
Games are probably a big deal, too. tbh, it's not a "must", but I'd be annoyed if I couldn't play Minion Masters on my phone. (But I could probably set up Sunshine/Moonlight streaming, if needed.) I'm guessing a lot of people have games that they wouldn't accept not being able to use.
Here are the big Linux phone contenders that I've found:
https://volla.online/en/volla-phone-x23/
https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1/
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/#tech-specs
https://pine64.org/devices/pinephone/
I think the only promising one these days is the Furilabs FLX1, but it's definitely good to keep an eye out for how things progress from here.
I had not heard of furi labs until now. I do have some concerns that they operate out of hong Kong, have no published corporate structure or stated ownership and that they are able to produce something so far ahead of any competitors.
It smells like its got a lot of money and resources into it and I'd really like to know who is funding it.
They show one employee on LinkedIn and no job postings. Company size is 2-10 people.
When something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Purism sells their phones for 2x the cost, theyre huge and half-done. I would wager that they are a more realistic representation of where the market really is.
One of the developers used to work (maybe a lead?) on Droidian(/maybe Waydroid; I don't remember, unfortunately) so part of the advancement probably has to do with already having familiarity of the problem-space.
Also, Purism is trying to serve up entirely libre hardware whereas FuriLabs is using Halium to simplify how well things work in the hardware.
So of course Purism is having a much harder time with things.
It may be fast and performant, but it's not cheap.
If I had $550.00 to spend on a new device I would spend it on a good and powerful computer, for video editing and 3D modeling, not on a phone.
For comparison an used business laptop, costs about $120, an israeli spyware loaded phone costs about $150.
Going from that to $550 is a big jump, and not affordable for most internet users.
I'm an electrical engineer, so I grew up learning about electronics and how you can buy a lot of stuff from Mauser, Vishay, etc.
Usually those companies offer better prices if you buy more and more bulk goods.
For those companies making Linux machines, they might not have the same economies of scale to reach cheaper numbers than Samsung or Google. Then again, Linux phone makers don't have to add the same amount of profit margin as Samsung or Google, although they still have to make some profit to sustain their business.
$550 seems cheaper to me than a carrier phone, which may be a lot of these manufacturers' markets.
What kind of phone do you get for 150 used.
One that the hardware perfectly fits my needs.
Browsing some web pages can be a tiny bit sluggish sometimes, but if I'm doing anything serious I will use the computer anyway.
For what I use the phone for, which is, playing music, watching video, instant messaging, reading, light browsing and Lemmy I couldn't ask for more.
I also don't care about the camera, if I want to take photos I will use my DSLR.
The only single problem I have with my phone is the software which is non-free and loaded with spyware. Not the hardware.
And literally none of them are available for sale in (or shipping to) my country...
You might be able to work with a reshipper/parcel forwarding service, but I can understand the apprehensive sentiment if these products aren't officially sold in your country.
The last time I checked, the website wouldn't even accept payments from my country...
just found out about jolla https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-community-phone
Interesting! Thanks for sharing! Looks promising. I wonder how the Jolla C2 compares to the others I listed
Jolla Sailfish OS. Can buy a phone from them preinstalled, or flash certain Sony Xperia devices with the OS. Runs smooth as butter and has 2+ day long battery life according to owners. Its based on the old MeeGo project from Nokia back in the day and is based on Debian.
If you want something more Linux-like then the FLX1 is it. It runs very close to stock Debian Stable with Posh as the UI, but it runs some Android code underneath for device drivers, so its not a "pure" Linux system, but it's a very good experience and still not controlled by Google.
I wouldnt recommend Fairphone if you want to do Linux stuff with it, it's a perfect AOSP or LineageOS device though.
If you're in the EU... they don't ship to North America sadly
You can install Ubuntu Touch on the Fairphone 4 & 5. It is pretty well supported.