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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).

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

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (13 children)

I couldn't believe the spec of ~~that pile of garbage~~ the phone when i first saw it. The worst being that It has a Mali-400 MP2 (2 cores, the most famous and used varient is MP4 with 4 cores), a GPU from 2008. I know it's supposed to run linux but they choose the cheapest SOC they could find and then asked the seller if he had any unsold SOCs from the last decade they could use instead.

The saddest part is that when I pointed this, I was always told that it's made for tinkerers and not users, but this doesn't excuse the use of extremely outdated hardware. I didn't expect the latest powerhouse but even 30$ Chinese tvboxes had the latest rockchip SOCs....

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

The phone is from 2019 and i think even back then the SoC was a compromise.

It has more quirks. There have been some hardware issues. And mainline Linux and a Linux Desktop is still struggling today with power management. Like getting chat messages while it's asleep. It's really not for use except for tinkerers.

But I'd agree. A newer, properly usable and powerful Linux phone would be great. Idk if there are good SoCs out there with fully open-source drivers and bootloader. And power consumption that lasts you a day.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And mainline Linux and a Linux Desktop is still struggling today with power management. Like getting chat messages while it’s asleep.

And the really sad thing is that the power management improvements devs have been working on for the PinePhone are really very specific to that particular device and don't help mobile Linux in general (so it's basically wasted effort).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Well, to do it properly I believe we need a whole API for applications that does connected standy. (Like Android Apps have)

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