Zorin Smart Phone

I'm sure many of you have heard of the PinePhone and Librem 5, but I was just thinking of how amazing it would be to have a smartphone based on ZorinOS. I would absolutely love to have a Linux phone that makes use of hardware kill switches and prioritises security, but there really aren't a lot of options out there. It seems to me that ZorinOS has some of the best Linux developers in the world working on the platform, and would likely be the best choice for making such a device. Perhaps I'm just daydreaming here, but what do you guys think?

2 Likes

You might look into Ubuntu Touch:

Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu, so realistically, Ubuntu Touch could be modified to be a Zorin Spin.

1 Like

I think I would prefer to keep to un-Googled Android, with perhaps some Zorin theming. :wink:

I have been playing with postmarketOS, checking back every couple of months to try new builds on a couple of their better-supported phones I managed to get from eBay for about ÂŁ20 each, but even discounting the installation process and being a techie user, it's just not there yet. The few existing mobile linux initiatives support barely any devices each, mostly old low-end hardware, which doesn't help the user experience being sluggish and buggy. It really makes me sad. I'm probably going to end up on LineageOS or GrapheneOS soon.

1 Like

You could always try /e/OS. I installed it on an old 1+ 3. (But could only sideload using Windows :frowning_face: ) adb in GNU/Linux did not work for me.

I've not looked into /e/OS much but my cynical self saw how much they are pushing their own all-in-one ecosystem and assumed nefarious intent. I don't want to leave Google just to find myself stuck with a new Google-lite overlord.

I'll have a deeper look and try to give them the benefit of the doubt for now :sweat_smile:

I don't have any phone that supports custom roms, but im quite happy with ungoogled android 12L on my tablet with an unofficial port of lineageos I've found

Charging limits to preserve battery life, the option to completely disable camera and microphone from the control panel that is right next to the notifications, up-to-date security patch (as opposed to the 4-years-old last official patch samsung released for this tablet), more storage because of complete removal (instead of just disabling) of google and samsung bloatware (that is VERY noticeble on a 28 GB tablet), the option to change the behaviour of the phisical buttons (yes, the tablet is old enough to still have those), etc.

And all of that without getting rid of usability (I can find everything I need on F-Droid, with the exception of some apps that come from the Amazon Appstore and others like the steam mobile app that the developers themselves provide the option to download the .apk directly from the website)

Linux is amazing on desktop and laptop, seems like it would be great aswell on a tablet. I don't know how that translates to phones, as I don't have any supported device to try it out, but if your device doesn't support Ubuntu Touch and all you want to do is run away from the google monopoly, you could consider ungoogled android. Sure, android is technically made by google, but the base system without the google services can be pretty good at avoiding google and their invasive practices. And you can find way more supported devices for android roms than for Ubuntu Touch or postmarketOS, making it the only option easily available in most cases

Though, it is true that I wish projects like Ubuntu Touch and postmarketOS got the support needed to make themselves available and usable on most devices eventually

I doubt that it is as it was founded by the developer behind Mandrake Linux, Gaël Duval.

I beg to differ as having seen a video a long time ago, Mark Shuttleworth looked like he was trying to be the Steve Jobs of the Ubuntu world. I hate Ubuntu because from a few years ago it puts Linux kernel below Ubuntu as the boot screen states Ubuntu with Linux and also fails to acknowledge the OS, GNU. It is refreshing to see a distro like Q4OS have the boot script acknowledging GNU/Linux.

1 Like