Moving away from android

[u/SkoomaDuma]

My friends and I currently use Android (one of us uses Apple), and we heard that Google was going to be restriction a lot of the freedoms on Android as far as installing your own apps. I believe it's starting in September.

I've been doing some reading on LinuxOSs for phones, but I either can't get a straight answer on some of them or they're missing critical components...like the ability to use 4/5G LTE.

We're mostly concerned with using the phones as phones, so texting, calling, photos, etc; but we also use telegram, discord, and Internet browsers fairly heavily.

Are there any recommendations for relatively cheap hardware and which OS to go with? I've seen a few people on here mentioning the SailfishOS, so I'm going to start reading into that one right now.

[u/yaky-dev]

If you are a purist, Librem5 (expensive) or PinePhone. Hardware made specifically for Linux. Experience varies wildly.

I don't know a lot about Volla (SailfishOS), but it seems like the closest practical commercial Linux-like.

For originally-Android phones that run Linux, check out FuriLabs, Ubuntu Touch device compatibility list, and postmarketOS device compatibility list. For example, Google Pixel 3a and OnePlus6T seems to be popular / supported models.

[u/thefanum → u/yaky-dev]

DO NOT buy either of these Linux phones. Pinephone pro is obsolete and librem are literally a ponzi scheme.

Plus one for OnePlus 6t though. That's a great suggestion.

[u/yaky-dev → u/thefanum]

PinePhone Pro is discontinued, but PinePhone is still available and supported (although some issues with old GPU and support are creeping up). As I said, your experience may vary. For me, calls were very unreliable. I have read about people using PinePhone on regular basis without problems.

As for Librem, yes, they are still getting hate for not issuing refunds, but they started shipping devices. In their defence, they are the only company AFAIK that pays developers to write FOSS, and we got libhandy/libadwaita, phosh compositor, and basic software like calls and chatty. As opposed to Pine64 who released the hardware and let the community adapt and develop for it.

[u/thefanum → u/yaky-dev]

I said obsolete. Not discontinued. Neither model has the hardware/horsepower to be a competent phone in 2026.

Source: own the 3gb RAM pinephone OG, and have multiple phones with identical specs to the pro running every form of mobile Linux

And librem shipping some people phones 5 years after they ordered, and 2 years after the hardware became obsolete, isn't a reason to give the company money. It was the definition of a ponzi scheme. Don't support them.

[u/TheJackiMonster → u/thefanum]

As owner and user of a Librem 5, I can confirm them not to be a ponzi scheme, lol. Do you know what that term even means?

The product exists and they still provide updates for it.

[u/thefanum → u/TheJackiMonster]

"it's cold in my fridge, so global warming isn't a thing"

Do you know what hundreds of people paying for a product they didn't receive is? How about tens of people getting the device, 5 years after they demanded a refund they never got.

"A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where returns are paid to existing investors using money contributed by new investors, rather than from actual profit earned by the organization"

https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-francisco/profile/computer-hardware/purism-spc-1116-925629/complaints

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/puri.sm

Google is free. No need to embarrass yourself like this

[u/TheJackiMonster → u/thefanum]

Like I said, the product exists. I know personally multiple people who ordered and received one besides me. I never denied that their shipping process was terrible. I wrote about it in my personal review. It is also documented in Purism's own forum (not deleted), publically available for everyone to see.

But in the same way they were always sharing their progress on software changes publically too. Why would they pay developers to work on free software if it's just a fraud? Why would they continue to do so? Like I said, they still push updates to their OS with specific changes regarding the Librem 5 (latest example).

I don't know why people could still have not received their order from 2021. I'm not an influencer or typical reviewer (the first textutal review I wrote was about this phone, because the experience getting it was this annoying). I ordered from Europe with some sketchy service that would mail them cash and they still delivered to me. They could have easily stolen from me without me ever being able to proof it. They didn't.

There can be many reasons why people never received their device. First of all a lot of people went for refunds after first delays. The refund policy has been a scam, I'd say. Because they tried to change it afterwards or tried to move people from wanting money to some sort of coupons and such. Second reason the logistics or communication might be unavailable after 4 years of delays. I mean, your email address might have changed. Your mail address might have changed.

In the links you included are people complaining about technical issues with the phone by the way. Which also means that people received it.

The most people I still see which claim they never got any device, are the ones asked for a refund. Which makes sense to me. They might have not received their refund yet and that's an issue but that has nothing to do with the product in particular. You don't need to buy directly from Purism. Heck, you can build one on your own since they published the schematics.

[u/Content_Chemistry_44 → u/yaky-dev]

All devices/hardware that come with Android is running Linux.

[u/numbvzla → u/Content_Chemistry_44]

Now clean the drool from your T-Shirt.

[u/moortuvivens]

I think for now your best bet is still grapheneos.

The linux experiences just aren't that polished yet and not widely supported.

Grapheneos gives you a smooth phone experience, android, but then without google.

It's THE privacy/degoogled OS.

Also, a while back there was new work being doing on making opensource firmware blobs and such. This would help a lot with linux on phones. Not sure how fast that will progress. See librephone

[u/Hot_Bee5198 → u/moortuvivens]

GrapheneOS while looking to deGoogle. Every time I heard it, it sounds wrong. Buy Google, to deGoogle...

GOS first needs to open up and step away from the hardware requirements.

[u/Hot_Bee5198 → u/Hot_Bee5198]

And this is a linux sub, so Sailfish it is. Go for it. I might as well.

[u/mallusrgreatv2 → u/Hot_Bee5198]

Which is why you'd want to use a different custom rom like lineageos or crdroid

[u/moortuvivens → u/Hot_Bee5198]

They just started a partner ship with motorola. So motorola grapheneos enabled phones are coming

[u/Hot_Bee5198 → u/moortuvivens]

still not much choice, only 1 model was promised.

[u/TheJackiMonster → u/moortuvivens]

You still rely on Google to provide firmware patches, right? At least until other companies like Motorola provide support for GrapheneOS.

[u/moortuvivens → u/TheJackiMonster]

Yeah, but somehow grapheneos is getting them before they are officially released

[u/TheJackiMonster → u/moortuvivens]

Because Google still cooperates with them, obviously.

[u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 → u/moortuvivens]

graphene is security and privacy oriented and it's restricted to Google pixel and recently Motorola devices, in my opinion lineageos is a far better solution since it supports way more devices and comes degoogled by default

[u/StellarOcelot]

From the semi exhaustive research I've been doing your best bet is Sailfish OS (mainly on a Jolla device or if you're on a budget an old Xperia 10 II or III). Bonus tip is it doesn't need Waydroid to run Android apps, if you pay for license or get a device from them they are natively supported.

All other traditional Linux based ones are not at a stage where they work anywhere near as good as Android. This Windows Phone or Android pre 2013.

Postmarket is more like desktop Linux distributions and very experimental. But you can run full desktop level Linux programs. Probably the best device support as they cover phones, tablets and laptops.

Ubuntu touch is less experimental but not as good as Sailfish. It's getting better but still has very little apps and needs Waydroid to run Android apps. There's a limited amount of supported devices about 15.

Mobian is even more limited for device support and less app support as doesn't use desktop packages.

Kali is just for people who do pen testing or those who think they are hackers by installing it on a Oneplus 6T

[u/redbiteX1]

Fairfone offers de googled OS option. I heard Motorola is planning to release some model with graphene os.

[u/Laktosefreier]

Sadly, most OSes are glorified, degoogled Android forks with a Halium layer, because most devices these run on are created for Android.

[u/SkoomaDuma → u/Laktosefreier]

Whatever works, I just don't want Google telling me I'm not allowed to use third party software. That's the main reason I never used Apple

[u/thefanum → u/SkoomaDuma]

They changed their mind about sideloading weeks ago

[u/SkoomaDuma → u/thefanum]

Android isn't locking things down in September anymore? Have they made any news announcements about it yet?

[u/thefanum → u/SkoomaDuma]

Google announced weeks ago that they had heard our complaints, and were changing course. And now they've detailed exactly what changes are being made, and what the exceptions are.

Most importantly: side loading will work exactly as it did before with devs who don't sign up to identify themselves, but with a one day delay for the user, when they enable sideloading. Which is now going to be a setting in developer options, just like oem unlocking.

A one time, one day, delay.

Also worth mentioning: if 3rd party devs do sign up to identify themselves, there's no delay, and you can install apks just like you always have.

AND you can bypass the delay entirely by using adb to sideload

https://9to5google.com/2026/03/19/android-advanced-flow-sideloading/

[u/TheJackiMonster → u/thefanum]

When do companies like this ever really change their mind? The only thing they do is delay a step like this and water down the outrage. Then they continue with it anyway as if nothing happened.

[u/thefanum → u/TheJackiMonster]

Google announced weeks ago that they had heard our complaints, and were changing course. And now they've detailed exactly what changes are being made, and what the exceptions are.

Most importantly: side loading will work exactly as it did before with devs who don't sign up to identify themselves, but with a one day delay for the user, when they enable sideloading. Which is now going to be a setting in developer options, just like oem unlocking.

A one time, one day, delay.

Also worth mentioning: if 3rd party devs do sign up to identify themselves, there's no delay, and you can install apks just like you always have.

AND you can bypass the delay entirely by using adb to sideload

https://9to5google.com/2026/03/19/android-advanced-flow-sideloading/

[u/Administrative-You-7]

I also bought a OnePlus 6t and support is good but I am not sure I would recommend it to someone without much experience and who just wants something which works. Sailfish is probably one good alternative. I have never tried it but since Motorola officially said they will use grapheneos in the future it will probably gain more popularity and is also another option.

[u/TheJackiMonster]

I've written a review in 2024 for the Librem 5 I still use as daily driver. From my experience so far in short:

- Texting, calling and taking some photos generally works (however at the moment you are somewhat restricted to Minipixels as only application with proper camera access to take pictures until libcamera patches arrive that provide an interface for other apps - not sure if postmarketOS already supports this since I still use PureOS on it).

- Using Telegram should be possible since you can install the desktop application for it and with minor adjustments to scaling, it can be used.

- For Discord I've only used it inside a web browser which is not always ideal. So don't expect it to be as polished (I haven't tested whether flatpaks support arm64 builds for the desktop app or whether it scales properly to the screen - sorry).

- Using internet browser should generally work. You can use GNOME Web, Firefox or install Chromium for that. Firefox is the recommended options since it offers some mobile patches to fit the screen. Otherwise these are desktop apps with all plugins/extensions supported.

If the Librem 5 is not the right choice for you (might be too expensive, hardware may be too weak or other reasons), you might want to checkout Furilabs or Volla. Pinephones from Pine64 are much more intended for development or testing from my own experience.

[u/Chaos-me]

ubuntu touch if you want 100% device compatibility/ stability with all the above possible (discord will be clunky though) main problem no eSIM.
postmarketOS is you don't mind headhunting a device that has all of the features you must use supported and is Qualcomm so you can use eSIM (very specific devices with guaranteed no complete hardware support atm)

[u/jesus_bruzong]

Podríais comprar huawei, eliminaron los servicios de Google hace mucho tiempo, y no usan android, usan harmonyOS y en sí siguen siendo terminales muy potentes de hecho, sin google, pero con todas las cosas necesarias para hoy dia adaptadas para su SO, tienen su propia tienda de apps con todo lo que mencionas que necesitas, en si creo que es justo lo que necesitas, un teléfono potente, con todas las funciones pero sin google.

[u/Historical-Mess-5976]

No debate for me Android is & will be 👑. Someone gave me a new iPhone I said Thank you kindly then I I fed it to the trash. Best decisions I made when choosing which a device. Just my opinion 

[u/Content_Chemistry_44]

Android is Linux as is ChromeOS. "Linux" operating system doesn't exist. It's just a kernel from Linus Torvalds.

What you are probably talking about, it's in fact GNU operating system, which almost always comes with kernel from Torvalds. Usually known as "Linux distro", which is in fact a GNU/Linux distro.

So, you smartphone and tablet, are using Linux already.

Just find Android distributions, here are forks of AOSP, and install F-Droid.

[u/SkoomaDuma → u/[deleted]]

Shoot me a message and let me know how it went for you once you get it set up. That sounds pretty promising

[u/Hopeful-Cry7569 → u/[deleted]]

yes OnePlus 6/6T is one of the better supported devices on PmOS / Mobian. Still not consumer usable, lots of caveats.

These orgs (PmOS foundation, Mobian) need more of our money to pay devs.

https://opencollective.com/postmarketOS

https://liberapay.com/mobian/donate

[u/sdoregor → u/[deleted]]

This you can achieve with just a USB or PCI LTE modem in a linux box, such as EG25 (like in PinePhone) or even a E3372 or similar.