Paul, Thanks for your account of your experience so far with the Pinephone & the various operating systems available for it. I will probably buy a Pinephone some day when the hardware & software for it have matured more. I love to read about this subject. Currently, I'm wrestling with LineageOS on my One Plus One phone & running into lots of things that don't work the way they are supposed to! I did discover that Aurora Store has lots of potential as an alternative to Google Play Store. However, I'm having lots of trouble updating certain apps using the Aurora Store. Cheers, Elcaset
On Sat, Aug 8, 2020 at 11:42 PM Paul Tichy <p...@spottedhorse.com> wrote: > I was lucky enough to get one of the UBPorts editions of the PinePhone > back in June. I am using it as my "daily driver", but realize that my > use case is probably not the norm. > > Here's a quick rundown of my impressions. > > The phone itself is surprisingly solid and seems thoughtfully engineered > towards access and more a open approach. I wouldn't hesitate to endorse > Pine generally. > > The phone came preloaded with ubuntu touch (as most of you know, this > was Canonical's attempt to break into the phone market). As I learn > more and more about it, the underpinning appear to currently be a hybrid > of some android elements mixed with more mainstream linux (I'm not an > expert on this, but more on this further down). I find the UT (ubuntu > touch) interface very polished, and the fundamental elements (ubuntu > launchbar, app drawer, screen rotation, etc.) seem solid. > Unfortunately, other parts of the OS (namely apps and some of the > telephone/messaging elements) are a work in progress. Outgoing phone > calls only using 3G currently, data works with 4G or 3G, SMS (plain > text) messaging works fine, MMS (text messages with images or other > attachments) doesn't work. There is a Telegram app that works > reasonably well. Recent OS updates have improved battery life, > unfortunately one of the side effects of these changes is that the clock > gets out of whack, even when set on "automatic update". > > The biggest downside for me was the extent of apps that simply don't > work for me. The only email client (Dekko) has a number of user > interface bugs, and can't handle POP accounts well (IMAP works > reasonably well). The music player doesn't work. The camera doesn't > work. I wasn't able to get the "libertine" container system to work > despite closely following a three different sets of step-by-step > instructions (which in theory allows execution of more mainstream linux > applications). The web browsers (Morph and Onion/Tor) both work > reasonably well, but no option currently exists to run Firefox on UT. > > Battery life with UT is approaching a full day of real world use, thanks > to the CRUST (power management) improvements (if they could only fix the > time issue...). > > Thanks to the open design of the PinePhone, it is easy to boot from an > image burned to an SD card. I've tried about 5 or 6 of the images, and > found that Mobian (Debian + the Phosh Gnome desktop) is currently the > best alternative for me. > > The Phosh interface is OK but I found it some what dull in comparison to > UT. UT is so intuitive and easy to use that when I needed to use my old > Android phone, I was trying to use the UT gestures and initially > wondered why things weren't working properly. Back to Mobian/Phosh... > > Mobian seems to have much more of the fundamental functionality > working. It too has the problem with MMS messages (apparently it's a > firmware issue -- the modem drivers don't have hooks for MMS messages). > However, Mobian offers a huge advantage for me in that you can install > mainstream linux applications (it comes with Firefox preinstalled, geary > for email, and the standard gnome software center). Furthermore, the > camera works (slowly, but at least it works), the calendar and contacts > will sync with online accounts if desired, and you can even install > gnome terminal and install via the command line. It really feels like a > "real" linux phone with Mobian. > > The biggest downside to Mobian is the mobile interface elements (screen > rotation, pinch and zoom, automatic resizing etc.) are clunky, or not > fully working. The official telegram client works, albeit a bit slow to > launch, but I have yet to see any application that is truly "broken". I > was able to install Thunderbird, but as is sometimes the case with the > Phosh interface, the right-side of the screen was out of view, and there > was no easy way to get it to resize. The other issue is that battery > life doesn't seem to do as well as UT, but at least the time works, even > after sleep. > > In an ideal world, there would be a mash-up of the Ubuntu Touch > interface coupled with Debian under the hood. I recall seeing one of > the Ubuntu Touch Q&As (I think it was a couple of weeks ago) where they > had successfully coupled Ubuntu Touch with a Manjaro back end as a > random side project. I'm not sure if they plan to focus on making UT a > desktop environment that can be matched with various back ends, or if > they are planning to keep it vertically integrated with their current core. > > At this point, I'm leaning towards sticking with Mobian and checking in > from time to time to watch the progress on UT. > > I did look at Postmarket OS (Phosh + Alpine Linux) PureOS (Purisim is > credited for the development of Phosh). They all look and work in a > very similar manner to Mobian. Since I prefer the Debian branch > generally, Mobian is the best fit. I also tried KDE Neon, but was beset > with errors at first boot, and after several similar attempts using > different images, ultimately gave up. > > I am hopeful that this project will ultimately yield several viable > options for daily drivers. Pine has done a respectable job at being > transparent with their customers, explaining delays and minor hardware > issues in a clear and forthright manner. They are actually shipping > hardware, and the various software projects appear to be making steady > progress to fix those things that need attention. > > I hope this first-hand account is useful. > > Paul > > -- > > Paul Tichy > Appaloosa Business Services, Incorporated > Post Office Box 2702 > Clackamas, Oregon 97015 > > 503.336.1388 > www.spottedhorse.com > www.clickngobilling.com > > _______________________________________________ > PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org > PLUG mailing list > PLUG@pdxlinux.org > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG: https://pdxlinux.org PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
