My current phone is literally falling apart, so I need a new one. I m pretty confident I want a #pinephone at some point in my life, but I'm not sure it is ready to be used as a main & only phone.
I bet there are people in the Fediverse who can help me with information! I want to know how much hassle, on a scale from Ubuntu to LFS and beyond, it is to setup the following functionlities:
1. Phone calls, making and receiving (has to be reliable).
2. SMS, sending and receiving (has to be reliable).
3. A #matrix client, with graphics (I have a weechat session on my server, but looking at pictures using only it would be a pain).
4. A (the?) #signal client.
5. Some #openstreetmap -based navigation (OSMAnd?).
6. And, of course, a #fediverse client (currently using Fediab).
Any other suggestions, information, and criticisms about the #pinephone are very welcome.
Boosts obviously appreciated.
I will start testing it as a daily driver once I see that there is a navigation app that "just works", the closest I have seen is uNav for UBports but nothing for Mobian or Manjaro that works yet.
Matrix have clients and I am running Friendica as a web app through the default browser - works good enough for me. I dont think there is a Signal client that works yet.
@bjoessi Thanks for the suggstion, Mobian does look at least interesting.
This might be just reliable enough. After reading through the wiki it gives me the same vibes I got from how my father has been using desktop Linux in the 90s.
Lack of navigation hurts a bit, but I guess I can get by the old-fashioned way with "just" a map in my pocket.
I know one can use the Matrix web client, but that is not ideal. On the wiki I found links to Fractal, but that one does not support E2EE yet, making it mostly useless for me. Do you know of any others?
I guess reading Mastodon through the web interface also isn't the worst thing.
Lack of Signal might be most annoying, my family wants to use it, and I don't really want to oppose it much, since it definitely isn't the worst choice. Well, I'll see what can be done.
Phone calls is working. Dunno about "reliable" coz I never really make phone calls.
SMS is working fine.
Matrix is working fine.
Dunno about Fediverse app, I just use Masto on the web.
Open-Streetmap works.
Bash is working! Apt is working! Upgrade with "apt upgrade", yay.
Signal client is the open-source Axolotl: https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=axolotl
Haven't installed that, claims to be working for 1-to-1 messages at least.
The phone is.. Okay? Not great. Feels slow, clunky, big. Lightweight and plastic.
Using it alongside NextCloud seems to be a bonus for contacts/cloud etc. I've moved all my google account stuff into a self-hosted next-cloud ready for if/when Mobian can become my main phone.
For now, it's not good enough for me for my main phone but I remain interested it it's development.
@pre Wow, I already ordered PinePhone based on the previous responses, but this implies it will be easier than I expected.
By Matrix working you mean in the browser I assume?
I know about bash and the rest of the typical Linux environment, these are the main reasons which attracted me to the idea. :D
Axolotl looks _way_ better than I expected.
Other than that I really don't have high requirements, so big/clunky/slow don't bother me much.
@timorl "Matrix client" means Fractal came already installed
@pre Thanks for clarifying, I have seen this linked on the Mobian wiki. It doesn't support E2EE, so it doesn't really work for me as a client. I am considering helping them implement it, and in the meantime I can use the browser.
@timorl No E2E? Oh, right. Didn't know that. Not actually using Matrix for anything other than looking at Fractal and seeing it work that one time anyway.
@timorl #Mobian provides most of what you listed. The desktop client for Signal is not part of Mobian but perhaps it can be installed anyways.