Today 10 years ago I went to Poland to buy a Phone with pre installed #Firefox OS on. The Phone was a Alcatel One, so very shitty. Two years later I installed Firefox OS on my Nexus 5 instead.

It was a very good concept, but sadly rolled out on too shitty hardware so it never caught on.

  • @[email protected]English
    23•3 years ago

    today there are comparable projects with like postmarketos and ubuntu touch for specific phones, among other linux mobile projects

      • @[email protected]English
        5•3 years ago

        Ahh, my appraisal might be the opposite, PMOS seemed to have better software and support for things like the Pinephone and I thought it ran on more devices, but I am happy to see both projects and it’s nice to see both designs

    • Rikudou_SageEnglish
      7•3 years ago

      Also Sailfish OS (though it’s not fully open source), which I use.

      • @[email protected]English
        4•3 years ago

        I sincerely hoped Jolla would at least continue to make one technology demonstrator hardware model available for purchase by enthusiasts. The current situation where I have to buy a phone and then buy OS separately is not feasible for me.

        • Rikudou_SageEnglish
          2•3 years ago

          I mean, the license cost me $50 (maybe €50, not sure). It’s not that much, just pretend the phone cost $50/€50 more.

          • @[email protected]English
            2•3 years ago

            Jolla can also be purchased and used in very few countries. 4 according to their list. I don’t mind paying for an OS and a phone, but their phone support is also only for very expensive Sony Xperia phones. So I can see why it is not feasible for a lot of people

            • Rikudou_SageEnglish
              2•3 years ago

              If you mean the OS, it can be purchased in all of European Union plus some other countries. With VPN you can purchase it everywhere. Though I read that the Xperia phones don’t have the necessary bands for USA.

      • matlagEnglish
        3•3 years ago

        I really wish they had opened all of the system.

        I mean: what is it they can still lose? I’m pretty sure a few licenses are not making them break even. Do they fear some third parties would copy the OS and release phones with it? Would that not be a sign that other companies trust in the OS and help them land bigger contracts?

        /e/ managed to get a business off with a full opensource stack, without building the phones themselves. What prevents Jolla to try the same approach?

        They could have been the main developers of the true Linux opensource phone OS. Instead, they’re going to get passed by Plasma Mobile, and then they’ll have nothing left to offer.

        • Rikudou_SageEnglish
          3•3 years ago

          I think they can’t open the Android part because of aome 3rd party licensing, but yeah, the rest should be open source.