trinity-users@lists.pearsoncomputing.net

Message: previous - next
Month: December 2017

Re: Re: linux phone, ultra portable, the universe, and everything!

From: deloptes <deloptes@...>
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2017 02:04:20 +0100
dep wrote:

> said deloptes:
> 
> | I bought Intex AquaFish and Sony Xperia X with SailFish.
> 
> What is your experience with it? Does it have good Linux application
> support? What little I know about it suggests that it might.
> 
> | I keep my fingers crossed for you - let us know if you get it, what your
> | experience is!
> 
> Thanks very much if/when I do, I will.

Hi,
I still use Nokia N9 that is meego and debian based - stable, solid and
reliable. Same people downsized built Sailfish. I was expecting the same
and follow the project from the start. Unfortunately I am working father
and don't have much time to follow as close as I wish.

I will just give a brief answer of my impression and experience. 
Sailfish OS is developed by Jolla (former Nokia employes) and is based on
mer - operating system based on linux, open source and designed for mobile
devices (no buttons except volume up/down and on/off key).
I bought the Aquafish in Nov. 2016. Hardware is average - the OS is really
good. It is based on RPM in contrast to N9 based on deb. pkcon is your
friend - and I still have to learn a lot. 
I bought Sony Xperia and Sailfish X this Nov. 2017 and installed Sailfish X
on the Xperia. Linux kernel is 3.10.
There is SDK in virtual box format with QT5 designer that interacts with the
VBox. Actually there are two vboxes in the SDK - a builder and emulator.
I build couple of packages and deployed them easily. The great thing is that
there is Dalvik (Android emulator) that is fully integrated (on licensed
devices - not community ports like freephone) and the user can install and
use android apps. The Sailfish eco system is not impressive also compared
to the N9 it is really poor and many developers complain lack of interest
and ability to monetize. I use few android apps and overall performance is
really good.

What I see as a problem is the lack of developers, licensing issues
preventing many apps or libraries be adopted and lack of functions compared
to N9. What I am missing most is the ability to sync via bluetooth (I wrote
syncevolution plugins for TDE and I am using them on daily basis, which
makes my life easier), but syncml is neglected by Jolla and mer community -
today everybody is on the cloud and Jolla is focused on that cal/carddav
crap.
The second problem I have with Sailfish X is that they adopted bluez5
(Aquafrish is still with bluez4) and I can't make it work with my car
navigations system (it's a honda 2008). bluez4 connects and operates
without a problem, but bluez5 does not. It turned out bluez5 removed
HFT/HSP and it was moved to ofono, however ofono provides plugin to
pulseaudio and pulseaudio is still in version 8. 
Recently it was discussed on the meetings to target pulse 11 and I read in
pulse 11 HFT/HSP would be fully supported and stable, so perhaps if I find
time I track this thread, compile, install test etc, as it is important to
me to have HFT support.
I tested Sailfish X with a more modern navigation system on KIA 2017 and it
worked like a charm (phonebook access, recent calls etc - no issues) ...
perhaps it's really time to buy new car :)

You can check details on youtube or sailfish or together.jolla.com which is
a big community blog - I still don't get the logic if there is one how this
block operates, but there is a lot and also the mer project with the source
code.

There are rumors that Jolla is targeting BRICS, where they hope to get also
governmental support, reported devices with pre-installed Sailfish are
produced/sold in Russia, China somewhere in Latin America recently, EU
(Xperia), India. The problem for Jolla is to find hardware manufacturers,
but things may change next.

Overall it is worth watching this story - I just hope they don't die as the
other alternative mobile phone OSes did.
For me it works perfectly (except for those 2 problems I described above). I
would really love to have the better Sony hardware as primary device but I
don't have workaround for the HFT issue.
It runs stable - there are minor things that can be improved, but there are
also many solutions one can apply and customize the os for better
experience. It is not for your grand mother, unless she had a degree in
computer science :), but even the default setup is really good.

I will not give recommendation. One should try and see if it works for him.
For me as N9 user it was easy as things are almost the same. Unfortunately
I have this bitter taste of being downgraded compared to N9, but when I
imagine using android or iphone ... I pray for Jolla and the people doing
this!

regards