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I got a Pinephone for Christmas!
Here is quick summary of my experience with it. (Originally published on mastodon.)
Update on the pinephone as promised.
I love it, but I would definitely not recommend expecting to use it as your actual phone.
I have the Manjaro Phosh edition. Phosh is GNOME customised for mobile.
It turns on, you can unlock it, and you get a launcher. It has apps, and some of them work.
Firefox works really well. I can use it for Youtube and loads of other sites. I installed uBlock Origin, and it works.
Adding my Nextcloud config to Phosh seamlessly gave me Calendar, Contact and TODO list apps working, with my data in them.
The Maps app found me easily via GPS. I could bring up directions by entering a from and to, but it didn't seem to want to guide me via GPS.
Several apps don't fit properly on screen, and there doesn't seem to be a way to scroll or move the windows.
The camera technically works but the picture looks terrible (squashed, wibbly and blue-coloured).
Scrolling around on the launcher updates at about 5-10 fps, which is fine but would put many people off.
Many of the apps available to install in the Software app don't really work. I assume the list of apps is the standard for GNOME or Manjaro, so many are not adapted for phones.
I _love_ the fact that all the work that has been put into desktop Linux can be re-used on phones. Why wasn't it always this way?
It's great to be able to buy hardware that is specifically designed to run properly free software.
The Terminal app works nicely and presents a keyboard with extra keys that you need in a terminal.
The settings app works nicely.
My biggest frustration was not being able to find software in the Software app that worked nicely.
I was looking for a Youtube app that protected my privacy. On Android I use NewPipe Legacy. On desktop I use Freetube. I couldn't find Freetube in Software. I tried Minitube but it was unusable (window didn't fit).
I haven't tried installing software from the command line. Maybe I can find (or build) Freetube via a Manjaro repo?
Or maybe I should investigate NewPipe Legacy via anbox, although that seems to miss the point a little :-)
Originally posted at 2021-01-04 16:29:26+00:00. Automatically generated from the original post : apologies for the errors introduced.