I’m mostly interested in Fairphone due to its B Corp, Repairability, Fairphone 5 supports Ubuntu Touch so I assume 6 will eventually be supported and other Linux versions.
All I can find is either clove.co.uk or I find someone in Europe that’s willing to ship.
From the few comparisons I’ve seen Ubuntu Touch vs Postmarket OS vs Sailfish OS, Sailfish OS and Ubuntu Touch are the two better options. It is dependent on your device’s compatibility. Ubuntu is a little more fiddly, and Sailfish is a little more friendly, but more harder to tweak.
Apparently Sailfish OS and a highly compatible phone is the vlosest combination for a daily driver.
Hopefully the new Jolla phone is a massive success and they expand to the US and Canada.
This was a nice list I’d consider
- Murena (France) with /e/OS (France) on:
- Fairphone (Netherlands)
- Hiroh (USA)
- SHIFTphone (Germany)
- Teracube (USA)
- Punkt MC03 (Switzerland)
- Volla (Germany) with Volla OS or Ubuntu Touch (Germany)
- Jolla (Finland) with Sailfish OS (Finland)
- Purism Librem (USA, manufactured in the USA)
Of note, e/OS is not a mobile Linux OS, it is a degoogled Android ROM, like LineageOS and iodeOS (also based in France)! Far more control than stock Android, but it isn’t Linux-based. If you are looking for a degoogled Android ROM, iodeOS could be a good option too if you want something closer to stock Android compared to Murena who has an iOS-like launcher by default. They support a lot of the devices that Lineage supports, like the Fairphone 6! I believe iodeOS also has some optional parental control features, if you need that.
The Purism Librem is a very poor value by the way, I would try to avoid it. There are much better value Linux (or Linux-compatible) phones out there.
If you want my opinion on this, aside from supporting Fairphone and their mission (repair ability, fair materials, fair working conditions, etc.), if you want a phone (with either a degoogled Android ROM or a Linux-based mobile OS), the best bet is to go used for something like a Sony Xperia, Pixel, OnePlus, etc. It’s cheaper and you can reduce e-waste too!
For Linux phones specifically, the OP 6 and I believe the Pixel 3a (or the 4a, one of them) series are quite well supported. The Jolla Phone also looks very interesting if you like SailfishOS (partially closed source, but still Linux-based), especially given the price is pretty reasonable.
For degoogled Android ROMs, a lot of the Sony Xperia, Pixel, and OnePlus devices are well supported. For the more recent releases, Sony is the only one still producing phones with a headphone jack. All the Pixel phones are well supported by numerous different ROMs (including GrapheneOS, if you can get past the harsh criticism that the developer has against other projects), but of course the hardware is produced by Google, so used market is the way to go. A lot of the Xperia 1 series (the higher end models with the good cameras) have good support, as well as a few of the 5 (smaller screen) and 10 (cheaper models) series. And most of OnePlus’s main series of devices up to the 13 are supported by many custom Android ROMs.
Hard pass from me. Also just curious, AI written? Sorry if not.
I want to buy new and something I could reformat into Linux, like Fairphone despite it coming with Android. If that’s not possible, then at least buy new of a degoogled one.
Nope, not LLM written. If you need something new, yeah, the Fairphone is a great option. I believe both iodeOS and e/OS also have online stores where you can buy devices with their ROMs preinstalled.
Motorola’s also have headphone jacks, atleast the 2024 one did.
Oh yeah, there are a few Moto models that support LineageOS from what I can tell, I forgot about them! Motorola isn’t as common where I live, so it passed my mind. Not all the models support alternative ROMs though, so you need to make sure to check the model name carefully (in my opinion, Motorola’s naming scheme is even more all over the place than Sony)
Of the options I mentioned, Sony is the only one out of the three (four if you include FairPhone) that still makes phones with headphone jacks. They also do other neat stuff like having a notchless display and generally having pretty good camera performance (like optical zoom on their 1 series, but now a few other phones have it too, like the Xiaomi Ultra phones)
For my next phone I’m eyeing the latest Sony Experia(used) supported by Sailfish, whatever Motorolla that comes out supported by Graphene, and Jolla if it comes to my region.
I’m mostly leaning used Sony, because I hate selfie camera notch/cutouts. Plus used if it sucks I’d only be out $300 instead of $800 or so.
- Murena (France) with /e/OS (France) on:
I have a pinephone and a pixel 3a XL(?) flashed with Ubuntu Touch. Neither are really daily drive able unless you enjoy messing with it just to keep it working.
I’ve considered trying a jolla phone but I can’t seem to get it to ship to Canada. It uses sailfishos and you can flash that to some Sony phones I believe. Been considering that too.
I have a friend in Europe who I’d ask to ship a phone here but I’m not sure that’s an option for you. Maybe a reship service?
IMO you have to weaken the monopoly Telus/Bell/Rogers has on the telecom industry to get open source phones in Canada.
Some people are mentioning they are already using open source phones in Canada.
