Linux phones aren’t quite there yet, and one of the big problems from what I understand is simply that the hardware is locked down. Firmware and drivers aren’t readily available, and so supporting handsets is just really hard.
I would say that completely FOSS Linux OS won’t ever be as smooth experience as business solution. Jolla has developed SailfishOS which is mostly open decade now and it is quite stable. Also has android emulator where you can use most android apps, but not all. In my opinion we should support that as much as possible to have true alternative. Also EU should start supporting ita development
I don’t know if they’d even be up for it but at this point I think the best option would be Framework getting into it as theyre already trusted by the community.
But even if we get the hardware down there’s another issue - we need an open source, government approved, bank approved Wallet app. There’s only Google or Apple wallet to store important documents on Mobile at the moment. Frustratingly, some governments are using only those two as a source for national verification which is obviously a problem.
Yes, but that it can be temperamental and finicky. If you have a rooted phone currently you need to trick a different service called play protect into thinking that your device is kosher, so to speak; different updates from Google can and have broken the processes that have worked in the past.
Needless to say a solution needs to be robust, the possibility to not access your gov id because a private company changed a process and decides you don’t get to use the same loophole you’ve used till now isn’t great from a technical or security standpoint. I would imagine it’s even more frustrating for non-US citizens as their government is relying on a foreign company with a notably bad track record of keeping services available.
It’s not that such a technology is hard to make, it’s more about adoption. Even better than a particular product we could gather around would be a set of standards that the community could build various products around (so long as they meet those standards). That however feels unlikely from the current US administration and based on the EU’s recent GitHub proclamation on their age verification act.
Linux phones aren’t quite there yet, and one of the big problems from what I understand is simply that the hardware is locked down. Firmware and drivers aren’t readily available, and so supporting handsets is just really hard.
How much money would be needed to build an open source linux phone from the ground up?
I would say that completely FOSS Linux OS won’t ever be as smooth experience as business solution. Jolla has developed SailfishOS which is mostly open decade now and it is quite stable. Also has android emulator where you can use most android apps, but not all. In my opinion we should support that as much as possible to have true alternative. Also EU should start supporting ita development
I don’t know if they’d even be up for it but at this point I think the best option would be Framework getting into it as theyre already trusted by the community.
But even if we get the hardware down there’s another issue - we need an open source, government approved, bank approved Wallet app. There’s only Google or Apple wallet to store important documents on Mobile at the moment. Frustratingly, some governments are using only those two as a source for national verification which is obviously a problem.
would it not be theoretically possible to run a virtual OS to use an app like that on a linux phone?
Yes, but that it can be temperamental and finicky. If you have a rooted phone currently you need to trick a different service called play protect into thinking that your device is kosher, so to speak; different updates from Google can and have broken the processes that have worked in the past.
Needless to say a solution needs to be robust, the possibility to not access your gov id because a private company changed a process and decides you don’t get to use the same loophole you’ve used till now isn’t great from a technical or security standpoint. I would imagine it’s even more frustrating for non-US citizens as their government is relying on a foreign company with a notably bad track record of keeping services available.
It’s not that such a technology is hard to make, it’s more about adoption. Even better than a particular product we could gather around would be a set of standards that the community could build various products around (so long as they meet those standards). That however feels unlikely from the current US administration and based on the EU’s recent GitHub proclamation on their age verification act.
I’m pretty sure there’s still products like that. I bought a PinePhone once upon a time.