Most of the chips in a smartphone are made by Qualcomm, both processors and peripheral chips like 5G modem, LTE modem, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Qualcomm chips require proprietary binary blobs to function, and usually only have a support lifetime of about 2 years. They also only supply those blobs to the manufacturer of the device.
Qualcomm being what they are is the reason Apple was able to provide a better lifespan for their phones for like a decade (you’d get 5-6 years of iOS major version upgrades compared to 0-2 on Android phones).
Google actually pushed the Android ecosystem to do better by creating its’ own Tensor SoCs which they support for longer… But they don’t really make the drivers for those open source either. So we’re still not doing better in that regard.
The sooner there is a rom compatible with most android devices, the better.
I’d be off Android so fast.
And Signal gets on board
They already have a Linux app, I can’t see them not making UI adjustments for Linux phones.
I’m also personally fine just using matrix but thats just me.
matrix lad myself… but
https://linuxphoneapps.org/apps/org.nanuc.axolotl/
oof
i know Flare is another client for Linux, which does adapt itself to window size so it should work on mobile
tho it can’t be used as a primary device easily (so you’ll need signal on another phone) and from past experience, the linking can be pretty iffy
Like 90% of the blame here goes to Qualcomm AFAIK :/
Why is that? (Genuine curiosity)
Most of the chips in a smartphone are made by Qualcomm, both processors and peripheral chips like 5G modem, LTE modem, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Qualcomm chips require proprietary binary blobs to function, and usually only have a support lifetime of about 2 years. They also only supply those blobs to the manufacturer of the device.
Now I wish we had riscV mobile phones too…
Pine64 I think said they’re making the next Pinephone when they can make it RISC-V.
Which either means they’re enthusiastic about the pace of RISC-V development, or they don’t want to make a new phone anytime soon.
Ah that makes sense. Thanks.
Qualcomm being what they are is the reason Apple was able to provide a better lifespan for their phones for like a decade (you’d get 5-6 years of iOS major version upgrades compared to 0-2 on Android phones).
Google actually pushed the Android ecosystem to do better by creating its’ own Tensor SoCs which they support for longer… But they don’t really make the drivers for those open source either. So we’re still not doing better in that regard.
I hope there’s a good alternative soon. I’d love a Linux variant phone that is usable.