> I just acquired my very first Android phone and I am looking for some > apps to set up as much of my usual Linux environment as possible without > actually rooting the device (that may come later).
Android Terminal Emulator plus Busybox would be a start. Rooting it may become inevitable if you'd like to use the full ability of the phone. I've messed around with Botbrew Basil that uses apt to setup a bootstrap Debian environment. I eventually settled on Debian Kit running Ubuntu and VNC to access certain familiar apps (e.g., LibreOffice, Audacity). Other distros are supported with the kit and the file system is mounted side-by-side with the Android system. None of this can be done without root; installing precompiled binaries of commandline apps would require access to /data, something that would also require root. :/ > I am looking both for the standard PIM apps (Calendar, Contacts, Memos) > as well as some more specialized Linux apps (ssh client and server, bash > shell, terminal emulator, ftp, tar, zip, etc.). Are there any > reasonable PIM apps that do not require a G**gle account? Are there any > basic Linux apps that do not require rooting the device? If so, any > recommendations? There are ssh server apps available which do not require root; there are several good ssh clients (e.g., Connectbot). I'm not sure what's available from the commandline in this area without root. Installing busybox will give access to tar, simplified bash, zip, etc iirc. I played around with some PIM apps before finally being frustrated with them and accepting Google apps as my defaults for calendar and contacts since my wife already uses the calendar for all of our events and syncing is not available without using Google's services.. I'd install F-Droid, a free/open source repository of around 680 apps including caldav clients and contact importers without the need for Google. > Is Google Play safe to use, or is there a safe way to use it? It seems > to be the only place to go for downloading apps. It appears to be very > commercially oriented, at least as compared to the N810 Maemo store, and > I find it rather difficult to find what I am looking for when browsing > it. I am mostly used to using Open Source software and open software > repositories, and find the highly commercial orientation of Google Play > to be very distracting. Any tips? Perhaps creating a dummy account to install apps from Google Play may help. Free/open source apps are occasionally post the install packages (apks) on their sites. Other app stores, such as Amazon Apps, exist but raise similar privacy concerns. > On all of my current Linux (and Windows) devices, I am, e.g., running > Firefox as a browser and have it configured with plugins to block > annoying ads, limit javascript, block flash, etc., and have a much more > pleasant browsing experience as a result. I am also running the "Iron" > browser (based on Chromium) on one of my systems, but find it much less > configurable to my liking than Firefox and not as usable for my > purposes. The Android browser seems to have no configurability at all. > Are there any useful alternatives? I'm running Firefox Aurora on my Android devices, available for direct download without Google Play. While somewhat limited, many of the basic desktop features can be enabled and some familiar extensions (e.g., Adblock) can be installed. Flash can be disabled with a simple click in the settings. Hope this helps a bit, Adam
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