From Android to Linux: a user's switch to SailfishOS on a Fairphone 4

A developer writing on the blog runarcn.no has described switching their daily phone from Android to Linux, after what they call a “death by a thousand papercuts” in the Android ecosystem. The post, published on August 2, lists the reasons: the dependency on Google Play Services and its tracking, the locking down of device trees that hinders custom ROM development, AI features being added to the system, and, most recently, the removal of the ability to install apps as the user sees fit. The Android Open Source Project is not dead, the author writes, but it feels like a question of time.

SailfishOS on a Fairphone 4

After weighing the state of mobile Linux, the author settled on SailfishOS, running on a Fairphone 4 — hardware that happens to be supported by the main alternatives, among them Ubuntu Touch and postmarketOS. What works, in the author's account: gesture-based navigation, an application framework described as beautiful, and a system that is “very Linux” — problems can be debugged over ssh from a PC, wirelessly or over USB. The problems are concrete too: Sailfish ships badly outdated versions of Python and glibc, and Waydroid and GPS are broken on the unofficial Fairphone port. Many community-built apps are partly or entirely rough, including the WhatsApp client the author depends on.

Ubuntu Touch considered

Ubuntu Touch was the other candidate. Waydroid runs there, a significant plus, but notifications and clipboard do not sync between the two, which makes applications such as Bitwarden hard to use — Sailfish has an unofficial Bitwarden port that the author calls almost flawless. The native apps on Ubuntu Touch are weaker than both Android's and Sailfish's, and the author could not work out how to block phone numbers, a feature needed with a Brazilian carrier. The post points readers to videos by The Linux Experiments for more detail.

Android remains a fallback

Android has not been abandoned completely. Without Waydroid, some apps are still required — online verification for banking and government services in Norway, and apps the author needs for personal security in Brazil, such as Uber. A Galaxy A17, kept as a backup phone for six months, handles those tasks, tethered to the Fairphone's Wi-Fi hotspot and otherwise kept off. The author plans to note what works and what does not before writing a longer account or making a video, and says a Jolla Phone 2 may be next.