this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
603 points (99.8% liked)
Linux Phones
1439 readers
310 users here now
The Discussion on Linux-based Phones.
Benefits:
- Hardware freedom.
- Perfect operating-system competition.
- Full utilization of specs.
- Phone lifespan raises to 10+ years.
- Less e-waste.
Linux Mobile Distros:
- Ubuntu Touch
- Sailfish
- FuriOS
- Postmarket OS
- Mobian
- Pure OS
- Plasma Mobile
- LuneOS
- Nemomobile
- Droidian
- Mobile NixOS
- ExpidusOS
- Maemo Leste
- Manjaro Arm
- Tizen
- WebOS
Linux Mobile Hardware:
- Fairphone 5
- Volla Phone
- PinePhone
- FLX1
- Librem 5
⚙️Contribute
🧼Go Clean From the Duopoly:
💻Related Communities:
📰News:
💬Messager:
⌚️Watch:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
please make something affordable. I want to be able to make mobile apps without being forced to the Java/swift shit duo.
The app ecosystem will be wild, if this succeeds.
I hate Java so much, and so deeply, that I do not develop quick handy little Android apps.
But if I can use a less obnoxious language, the world is going to see some mobile apps for tracking all the push-ups I'm not doing, and all the salads I intend to eat.
Edit: Android is already a huge success, by any meaure, of course. But it can get better without Java.
Edit 2: I do know that cross compilers exist. They still smell like Java, though.
Isn't the default for Android nowadays Kotlin? Which, yes, still runs on the JVM, but the language itself is much nicer designed.
Yes. I have heard it is much nicer since last time I tried it.
I might give it another try sometime, if AOSP survives what Google is doing to it, and my dream Linux phone still isn't ready yet.
I've used it for backend development not Android so I wouldn't know how that's improved (presumably you still have to deal with any Android idiosyncrasies), but I definitely loved it. Just knowing if something can be null or not is already awesome. Same thing I like about Swift, the language iOS uses.
What is annoying about Android, is that whatever language you use, YOU NEED SOME JAVA GLUE to make your app, and the signature thing. When I tried making the "hello world" apk I was astonished to see how hard it is compared to Linux dev. There has to be something wrong that led to the disgrace that is Android Studio (+10GB or something, I just recall it being ultra bloat) to start up with android dev.
I mean, to be fair, if you're doing the APK, you're also doing the packaging. If you compare that to building and packaging for all the Linux distros out there, especially considering all the different packaging systems, doing up a single APK is probably a lot easier.
I agree. There's something just a bit off about the whole ecosystem.
I think it may reflect Google wanting to appear FOSS while not actually giving up control.