This linux phone by Liberux seems like the most promising option in the near future. The crowdfunding campaign failed this summer but the project is still moving forward, just waiting to hear more from them @Liberux
Also GrapheneOS but not sure how far along any of this is: “We plan to partner with OEMs to have devices produced meeting all our requirements, providing additional privacy/security features beyond them and ideally shipping with GrapheneOS rather than massively lowering our standards.”
Edit: here’s a recent post from GrapheneOS from August 2025:
Isn’t Liberux a crowdfunfing scam?
Why do you make baseless claims like that? They refunded everyone when they didn’t meet their funding goals, and also committed to creating a special edition phone in the next campaign for everyone who supported. You can see the campaign here on indiegogo
Edit: Librem and Purism the controversial ones, not Liberux
LMAO
That Liberux phone looks pretty cool, though I’m not sure how Linux apps would work. Does it just use Android apps? I can’t imagine too many Linux programs would work well on a phone, both because of the size as the screen as well as battery usage/background sleep.
We kind of need the Linux Foundation or Fairphone or similar to fork android or create a solid base for an alternative. Otherwise, we are screwed.
Like lineoageOS?
I imagine it would be the likes of Graphene, Lineage, Calyx, and some others at the core. Probably some hardware vendors like Fairphone, Shiftphone, and probably a Xiaomi or Huawei.
Edit: ROMs maintain their own code base, but I’m pretty sure OP was talking about a larger fork of AOSP. That’s what I’ve suggested recently, anyway.
I don’t see that happening since the Linux foundation gets a bunch of funding from Google
Yes, but Google is probably happy to host their whole datacenter infrastructure on Linux and won’t have to buy expensive Windows server licenses and wants to keep it this way.
Windows can’t remotely keep up with Linux or even BSD
Ah yes, let’s host a website on IIS
While it sucks at least they say adb install will continue to work (for now)
https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/faqSounds like I’ll be using a “phone” with Ubuntu Touch or similar with a VoIP SIP app running. As long as I have 4G/5G data, that’ll probably work as well as anything I’m willing to use.
For me, this has the added bonus of being able to configure my VoIP service however I want. Mine lets me do custom menus and such, easier to filter out robots that way.
Let’s see if I have an old Pixel 3a around…
Is it offering SMS? I ported to jmp.chat recently, using their XMPP gateway for voice and SMS. They offer a VOIP option, but don’t support SMS.
I like being able to SMS, and I guess call, from my laptop. But there aren’t any Linux XMPP clients that I’m particularly happy with, so I’m just using Cheogram in Waydroid. It’s not exactly optimal.
I’m using VoIP.ms and yeah, they do SMS and MMS ($0.0075 per SMS, $0.02 per MMS). They have both an online portal and an Android app. There are a few limitations, but it seems to work pretty well overall.
deleted by creator
I mean, this is terrible garbage, but if Google is going to fully ruin Android then at least the news being out might push resources towards mobile Linux faster.
I’m actually using an old iphone. I look at it like an appliance to connect with mainstream institutions (including local people like other school parents), and take pictures. I have other appliances of varying complexity up to and including my car that run systems I know nothing about as well. I’m not happy about that either, but these are the compromises that happen in the real world.
The closed system isn’t appealing to me, but the mass market appeal of the device is. A stunning majority of my direct acquaintances use it. It can streamline interactions sometimes.
And you know, I don’t trust them of course, but at least Apple has actually said out loud in high profile presentations that privacy is a fundamental human right, and they always point out when they can keep personal things on-device. And they fight orders to unlock phones. Plus they make their money on hardware sales and services for the most part.
Google, on the other hand, exists pretty much solely to vacuum up data and keep us online and cloud-connected. They typically get major points for interoperability from me, but then I ask how often is it just a cynical embrace/extend/extinguish strategy?
Any big mainstream phone now is just a locked down disposable product of a megacorp. It’s also a data scraping tendril of said megacorp loaded with sensors and a fast data connection. And now as a bonus for those of us in the US - it’s probably a convenient backdoor warrantless wiretap that the oligarchs can just accidentally forward the government the passwords to.
My COMPUTER runs Linux. I can’t wait until I can have a real linux computer in the form factor of a high quality phone.
Removed by mod
My 320 EUR Pixel 7a is running GrapheneOS.
It’s just Android. You’re as subject to this as anyone else is, if not moreso.
It is an a degoogled by default open source Android fork. I am writing this on a Pixel tablet running GrapheneOS with zero Google software sources on it. Google Play has no power here, and is running sandboxed if you choose to install it.
One day you’ll wake up to the news that Graphene is ending support at a certain Android version because they can’t get sources.
Your privacy depends on Google allowing Android to be open. It isn’t anyone’s decision but theirs.
It ain’t today. Relax.
Obviously Google can stop releasing upstream sources and they could also prevent bootloader unlocking on Pixels, which would limit GOS to legacy support, unless somebody can maintain an Android fork and also a sufficiently open and secure hardware base. Which is a major effort.
The alternative is to move to a mobile Linux or just Linux on a WLAN tablet or other portable device. With a MiFi router or a tethered phone.
If that is not an option, I will rise up from the comfort of my couch and go back to using Linux desktops. Which I never stopped doing.
If that’s not an option, there are still books.
Yeah, if devs stop developing apps for android. It won’t matter if you use android without play services.
No. It’s removed downstream. Anyone with a degoogled Android phone is not subject to this.
I agree, and I’m very much for an open Android fork. I think it is a path of less resistance than trying to hammer Linux’s spherical bod into a square hole
I have a Oneplus 6T. Linux phones feel like laptops, behave like laptops, and the apps? They’re the same, nothing is made with vertical orientations in mind, and almost nothing you need for a phone is available outside of scant outliers.
Even with being a complete music pirate with complete, Jafar-levels of control over my collection, I had access to two abandoned subsonic apps, Clementine(vertical, riiiight) and Jellyfin.
Jellyfin on a desktop loads every image every single time it loads, and it does the same on mobile Linux, because it’s the same app. On Android, it caches everything and sleeps itself.
Multiply that by, every app you use.
That’s our workload for Mobile Linux.
We already have it. When you install an Android OS it doesn’t include google by default It requires additional work to get the gapps spyware
At this point im not sure why I dont just get an iphone
Going from needing Google’s permission to install apps to needing Apple’s permission to install apps. How would that help in any way?
For those that don’t install custom roms it may be preferable to entrust their data to Apple than Google if they are having to end up in a closed ecosystem.
Rest of us are enthusiasts so we can just pick phones with custom rom support, but its not something every Android user is willing to do.
I use GOS rn and quite frankly if GOS ever shuts down I’ll get an iPhone, I refuse to accept worse security from roms like LineageOS or /e/os
Because this headline is bunk
Ok?
deleted by creator
GrapheneOS is probably not long for this world with how much Google has been fucking with AOSP’s source code releases. We need full-fat mainline Linux on our phones, with no Android code included.
Lineage OS works for me
deleted by creator
Still sucks for the OSS community as a whole though.
Didn’t Google just fuck with them by making it really hard to developed graphene for pixel 10? If graphene os depends on the aging fleet of pixel 9s and older, they’re a few years away from being screwed too.
Yeah sort of. I think they’re working with an OEM so they do get security patches early, but yeah. They stopped publishing the reference device tree or something and now it’s harder to support new pixels AFAIK. Yes. I imagine graphene is going to try to switch to a new OEM phone they can have more control over, but we’ll see. Really sucks and fuck google. They’re just trying to lock android down like apple to ensure they get a % of all profits. (IMO)
Us: nope, I degoogled my Android phone. Good luck.
MicroG is amazing
Your™
Well, I never gave them permission to install Google Chrome. Maybe they should start thinking about their self first…
Ive had grapheneOS for years, is every customer android rom done for? I may just get a “dumbphone” or maybe back to iphone? I wish I could just have no phone but obviously need close family to contact me at anytime
It’s very strange that you are considering moving to a dumbphone or an even more locked-down platform because google is locking down android.
They’re taking away a vital feature, so you want even more taken away?
What would you recommend? Apple tracks a ton of data but also blocks 3rd party trackers at least
I would recommend staying away from apple if control over your device is something you value.
