Linux

48215 readers

708 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

179

The Paperweight Dilemma: Original Pinephone might lose future kernel updates if devs can't pay down tech debt (blog.mobian.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I think I'm reading this blogpost correctly: Mobian devs working on maintaining Linux kernel support for Pinephone painted themselves into a corner with tech debt, and may not be able to continue porting new kernel updates. Pinephone Pro runs a different chipset with wider community support, so it's not affected.

I didn't see any communities or articles talking about this, so either it's not a big deal, or nobody is talking about it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think back in the day, we had more diversity on the market. In the pre-smart-phone era Nokia came out with silly keyboard designs regularly. We had blackberrys at one time. And now they all look the same. Slightly different form-factor but that's about it. You can spend $1200 to get a status-symbol phone but that does practically the same my $350 phone does. (Okay, Samsung tries silly flip-phones but I don't like them.) All the more recent attempts kinda failed. Like Motorola doing attachable acessories, or Google trying to invent a modular phone. (I believe Samsung Dex, LG's WebOS etc are also a thing of the past.)

I'd like some company to be bold and try new things. For Linux it'd be probably enough if some current SoC got free software support (and drivers for the camera, peripherals etc). We could buy a standard phone then. But currently I don't see that happening. All the phones with mainline support are very old and/or severely underpowered. And there is no one phone with a big free software community behind it. Well, Pine64 tried...

Valve seems to be more successful with their Linux endeavours. Maybe we can expect more from that corner of portable Linux devices. And the Steam Deck costs like half an S23 Ultra (or iPhone).