I feel like it was in the sweet spot for me as I was looking for a “true”(i.e. non-android) linux phone, and I happened to have a FP4, which I bought years ago. I don’t see many other options for this device, other than ubuntu touch. I tried it like a year+ ago, and it was nice, but it lacked userspace drivers for wireguard and while it was officially listed as issue somewhere in github/gitlab/wherever the development was, the development seemed really slow, almost stagnant. And I rely heavily on wireguard in my homelab setup, so that was a deal breaker for me.
You do whatever you want, but out of curiosity: how is that helping with this issue in anyway?
pmOS does not have Google Play nor the Apple equivalent. GOS has the option of having a sandboxed Google Play.
Fairphone 4. It’s working out decently enough for me. To be clear, some features are still broken (most crucially phonecall audio, which only works via headset), speakers altogether started working just a couple of months ago in edge branch. Camera kinda works, but it takes just horrible pictures. Broken if you ask me. I like the “feel” i have with it, it no more feels like I’m carrying a spying device in my pocket, but a computer instead. There are drawbacks, like I have to do my banking old school, visiting the bank site via browser, but they are worth it for me. My phone screen time has definitely shortened. It’s more quiet now.
edit: and you can do cool stuff with it, with root access by default! I have signal-cli running as a systemd service, which connects to my matrix signal bridge :)
edit2: funny story about the mentioned signal-cli. I had to put the phone in the fridge, because otherwise while compiling it (had to be compiled, no packages available) hit the critical temp threshold and shut down. :D Felt kinda funny. 2026, phones compiling in the fridge.
Fairphone 4. It’s working out decently enough for me. To be clear, some features are still broken (most crucially phonecall audio, which only works via headset), speakers altogether started working just a couple of months ago in edge branch. Camera kinda works, but it takes just horrible pictures. Broken if you ask me. I like the “feel” i have with it, it no more feels like I’m carrying a spying device in my pocket, but a computer instead. There are drawbacks, like I have to do my banking old school, visiting the bank site via browser, but they are worth it for me. My phone screen time has definitely shortened. It’s more quiet now.
edit: and you can do cool stuff with it, with root access by default! I have signal-cli running as a systemd service, which connects to my matrix signal bridge :)
edit2: funny story about the mentioned signal-cli. I had to put the phone in the fridge, because otherwise while compiling it (had to be compiled, no packages available) hit the critical temp threshold and shut down. :D Felt kinda funny. 2026, phones compiling in the fridge.
phew, feels like I jumped the ship just in time. Installed PostmarketOS on my Fairphone a couple of months ago, and I’m not looking back.
Is there a specific reason you chose PostmarketOS? I’m currently also thinking about ditching Google android.
I feel like it was in the sweet spot for me as I was looking for a “true”(i.e. non-android) linux phone, and I happened to have a FP4, which I bought years ago. I don’t see many other options for this device, other than ubuntu touch. I tried it like a year+ ago, and it was nice, but it lacked userspace drivers for wireguard and while it was officially listed as issue somewhere in github/gitlab/wherever the development was, the development seemed really slow, almost stagnant. And I rely heavily on wireguard in my homelab setup, so that was a deal breaker for me.
You do whatever you want, but out of curiosity: how is that helping with this issue in anyway?
pmOS does not have Google Play nor the Apple equivalent. GOS has the option of having a sandboxed Google Play.
Sounds like that’s the point.
How is it working for you so far? Thought about doing that as well.
I’ll paste my other response:
Fairphone 4. It’s working out decently enough for me. To be clear, some features are still broken (most crucially phonecall audio, which only works via headset), speakers altogether started working just a couple of months ago in edge branch. Camera kinda works, but it takes just horrible pictures. Broken if you ask me. I like the “feel” i have with it, it no more feels like I’m carrying a spying device in my pocket, but a computer instead. There are drawbacks, like I have to do my banking old school, visiting the bank site via browser, but they are worth it for me. My phone screen time has definitely shortened. It’s more quiet now.
edit: and you can do cool stuff with it, with root access by default! I have signal-cli running as a systemd service, which connects to my matrix signal bridge :)
edit2: funny story about the mentioned signal-cli. I had to put the phone in the fridge, because otherwise while compiling it (had to be compiled, no packages available) hit the critical temp threshold and shut down. :D Felt kinda funny. 2026, phones compiling in the fridge.
Which Fairphone, and how’s it working for you?
I have the FP6 with e/os right now. It works pretty well, but I am against some decisions from Murena (like using OpenAI for voice recognition)
I’m looking forward to switching ROMs when there is more support for the FP6
Fairphone 4. It’s working out decently enough for me. To be clear, some features are still broken (most crucially phonecall audio, which only works via headset), speakers altogether started working just a couple of months ago in edge branch. Camera kinda works, but it takes just horrible pictures. Broken if you ask me. I like the “feel” i have with it, it no more feels like I’m carrying a spying device in my pocket, but a computer instead. There are drawbacks, like I have to do my banking old school, visiting the bank site via browser, but they are worth it for me. My phone screen time has definitely shortened. It’s more quiet now.
edit: and you can do cool stuff with it, with root access by default! I have signal-cli running as a systemd service, which connects to my matrix signal bridge :)
edit2: funny story about the mentioned signal-cli. I had to put the phone in the fridge, because otherwise while compiling it (had to be compiled, no packages available) hit the critical temp threshold and shut down. :D Felt kinda funny. 2026, phones compiling in the fridge.