[HN Gopher] Debian for Mobile
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Debian for Mobile
Author : wwarner
Score : 65 points
Date : 2021-07-26 21:01 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (mobian-project.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (mobian-project.org)
| macdice wrote:
| Might be a nice OS to run on
| https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...
| (a phone about to ship with a Psion Series 5 style slide-out
| keyboard).
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| Honestly, if I were to make an Android competitor, I'd try my
| best to compete by obviously using Linux but also including a
| solid package manager based on Debians, or snap and including
| buyable packages and a simple process for others to put their
| apps on said package manager / store. Maybe it can be a separate
| app that is optional. I'd also ensure full support for
| Progressive Web Apps.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| Yeah, PWAs will be critical to the survival of third to market
| OSes which can't get large developer investment from major
| brands. I live in constant frustration that Windows Mobile was
| shut down the release prior to Windows supporting PWAs.
| einpoklum wrote:
| This may be the better link - "What is Mobian" / Mobian FAQ:
|
| https://blog.mobian-project.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mob...
|
| And the basic answer is:
|
| "Mobian aims to integrate the standard Debian distribution with
| Phone-specific projects and modifications in a distribution that
| works on certain mobile phones and tablets, such as the
| Pinephone, the Pinetab and the Librem 5. The idea is to minimize
| the Mobian specific pieces by "upstreaming" changes to the
| original projects as much as possible."
| drannex wrote:
| They need to make that the homepage, atleast temporarily!
| kop316 wrote:
| This is also a pretty good link: https://wiki.mobian-
| project.org/doku.php
|
| Its a wiki for a lot of tips and tricks to get Mobian working
| on the Pinephone. It has a couple of other devices it will run
| on, but the Pinephone/Librem 5 are the most mature.
|
| (Disclaimer: I'm one of the devs for Mobian).
| justinlilly wrote:
| One of the key FAQs missing is: Is it ready? Should I use it?
| What should I expect my experience to be?
| Arnavion wrote:
| Compared to other distros on the pinephone, it's hampered
| by having Debian as a base system. The pinephone's singular
| camera program Megapixels is stuck on an older version on
| Mobian, because the newer versions require GTK 4, which
| Debian and thus Mobian does not package.
|
| (You can of course compile the GTK 4 stack yourself if you
| want. It's Linux after all.)
| [deleted]
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| By "upstreaming to the original projects", does this include
| upstreaming changes and packages to Debian, so that stock
| Debian will work as well as possible on these devices?
| zajio1am wrote:
| As a Pinephone user, i am grateful for such project as it is
| important to upstream changes instead of end with shattered
| ecosystem of per-device distributions.
|
| But the default UI based on Phosh is problematic. Minimal
| configuration, broken and convoluted approach to scaling makes it
| rather hard to use.
|
| Also, no project mailing list?
| k1rcher wrote:
| Semi-unrelated:
|
| I've been eyeing the Pinephone for quite some time now. Do you
| use yours as a daily driver? Or have you paired it with an a
| more-mainstream iPhone/Android?
|
| I'm currently using an iPhone as my social circle uses
| primarily uses iMessage and I've found it hard to migrate. As a
| secondary device for debugging, testing, and a "burpsuite
| playground" I'm using an extremely cheap Nokia I picked up a
| few years ago.
|
| I think a Pinephone would be cool to replace the Android I
| have.
| zajio1am wrote:
| Currently, i am using it mainly as a tablet/web-browsing
| device when i am not near my desktop computer. My primary SIM
| is in an older Android phone. It would need some more work to
| get Pinephone ready to replace all important tasks i use the
| Android phone for.
| vlunkr wrote:
| Semi-unrelated again:
|
| Apple loves to lock you into their ecosystem (need an iPhone
| to use Apple Watch, etc), but iMessage is incredibly
| effective and often overlooked. If you use it heavily and
| want to move away from Apple, your options are to simply not
| take part in those conversations, or to convince everyone
| else to switch to something else. It sucks.
| westoque wrote:
| It took me awhile to find screenshots of how this looks like, so
| for others curious: https://wiki.mobian-
| project.org/doku.php?id=intro
|
| This website looks like it got put together by a bunch of
| hackers, which is fine, but to attract even more contributors and
| other enthusiasts it might be good to at least put an intro and
| screenshots on the main page.
| kop316 wrote:
| Heh, neat to see this here! I'm one if the (junior) devs helping
| out on this project, so if there are any specific questions I'm
| happy to try and answer!
| livre wrote:
| Any plans on porting it to more mainstream phones? It seems to
| be aiming for "first-world phones" at the moment which is nice
| since they are more open and you don't have to worry (too much)
| about proprietary blobs and firmware but leaves a big chunk of
| the world out.
| Kenji wrote:
| The driver situation is super tough. Modern phones are full
| of proprietary shit and nobody is willing/able to reverse
| engineer all of this, and things like documentation and data
| sheets aren't really available.
| livre wrote:
| That's pretty much the answer I expected but I had to ask
| anyway. Thanks.
| jokoon wrote:
| Mmmh are there non free drivers in there?
| jeremycarter wrote:
| Similar to Maemo from the Nokia days?
| rektide wrote:
| maemo felt more like a specific initiative, with a core stack
| of libraries & cross-inregeative apps being built atop them.
|
| I get the impression Mobian is more like Debian itself. anyone
| is welcome, whatever tech you have.
| jeremycarter wrote:
| Sounds like a great idea then!
| mclightning wrote:
| came to look for this comment. Maemo -> Meego -> Mer ->
| Sailfish.... now this. I guess this one runs like a un-
| opinionated Debian but for mobile.
| zozbot234 wrote:
| Note that this is not an official Debian project, contrary to
| what the title implies. For the actual Debian for Mobile effort,
| see https://lists.debian.org/debian-mobile/ and
| https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile
| neilv wrote:
| Thanks.
|
| Privacy&security trustworthiness-wise, Mobian is an unknown
| quantity (at least, to me).
|
| That should be a big concern for something as sensitive as a
| smartphone/handheld, which tend to handle people's electronic
| communication, authentication for even more sensitive
| resources, etc.
|
| One path to trust would be to become an official Debian
| project, and to be scrutinized by broader Debian people.
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(page generated 2021-07-26 23:00 UTC)