KDE Plasma Mobile On Track To End 2020 With Quite A Polished Linux Mobile Experience

[Baguy]

Can it be used on other phones than pine phone?

Yes, Plasma Mobile can run on other devices. PostmarketOS has it packaged, so it should run on any support PMOS device.

[Baguy]

Does it support VoLTE?

Yes the pinephone supports VoLTE. AT&T and T-Mobile work the best in America (I've tested both personally and used T-Mobile on it when i used my pinephone as a daily driver). Verizon gives alot of trouble, and I've heard Sprint does too.

[doomie]

I have a lot of equipment that needs ether Android or IOS apps for me to be able to work. I wish the devs the best but I couldn't consider this unless I could run those apps even if I have to side load them and they will never be ported to this OS. Breaking into this market is a Hurculean effort becuase of the absolute stranglehold the two big players have over both the app makers and the telecom companies.

completely valid (and i'm so sorry to hear it), but then again, there is a huge market for this stuff, at least potentially, even without android apps. i know many many people who would buy such phones, but who don't move in the right circles or frequent sites like this to even read about them. when the phones are ready, it'll take some word-of-mouth (aka viral marketing), but that's actually very effective, and don't underestimate how many normies are interested in many of the advantages of OSS and/or consumer- or privacy-focused phones, AND not everyone depends on the big two gatekeepers to live... yet.

people who don't depend on android to live, but also don't mind planned obsolescence, walled gardens and spyware will never have a reason to buy anything but the most competitive spyware and consoomer-funded phone, because those phones will always thus have the edge on price + perf. those people just pay in frequency of purchase, maintenance costs and loss of privacy, security, choice and rights... a fair trade in many people's eyes.

so, "Breaking into this market is a Hurculean effort" kinda depends on the market, though it is taking a lot of effort no matter how you look at it.

[MadeUpName]

I have a lot of equipment that needs ether Android or IOS apps for me to be able to work. I wish the devs the best but I couldn't consider this unless I could run those apps even if I have to side load them and they will never be ported to this OS. Breaking into this market is a Hurculean effort becuase of the absolute stranglehold the two big players have over both the app makers and the telecom companies.

[Quackdoc]

I cant really see linux mobile leaving the niche in a niche market until we get one with good android app support, whether it be anbox or some other solution. which is a shame in my opinion, but it is what it is I suppose.

But I would love to see one of these distros make a x86 oriented port. I have a fair chunk of 2-in-1 and other touch tablets still running windows has I havent found a great alternative yet (which is a shame as my T100TA only has a 32bit uefi, so im still bared out of 64bit only apps). that would bring a fair amount of devices into the testing eco system as all a phone really is, is a small tablet with calling capabilities. and it would be really nice to see touchscreen laptops and tablets getting some real love. as existing solutions feels hacky at best and a complete after thought most of the time.

[f0rmat]

I like this project...I sincerely hopes that it works out. I would absolutely be thrilled to break away from the Android/Google spyware and the Apple Walled Garden.

Rant Begins

Every time I get a new Android phone, it takes me about four hours to turn off or block or remove permissions of all the stuff I do not use. Why does a flashlight app need to know my location? I do not need a camera to record my location. And then when I start to run out of space, I get messages like "Consider removing apps that you do not use." Well I do not use Duo (cannot uninstall), I do not use YouTube (on the phone - cannot uninstall), I do not use Hangouts (cannot uninstall), and on and on, etc. Damn bloatware and spyware. I use two authentication apps (for work) and an app for talking to my family - other than that (and they are required), I would use a flip phone.

And please do not recommend Apple. I am entirely too hard on phones and my experience with Apple phones is that they are simply not rugged enough for me. BUT, that is my use case.

End of Rant

[Vistaus]

Can it be used on other phones than pine phone?

Yes, it works on the Planet Computers Gemini PDA and Cosmo Communicator as well (although you have to install the plasma-mobile packages afterwards as Planet offers you desktop KDE by default).

[Flaburgan]

And is canonical still working on something like that or are they just sulking because the community was displeased about their display server fragmentation approach?

Canonical isn't related to KDE at all. And no, they aren't working on phones anymore but UBPorts is the community effort continuing it and it works well, i am using it to write this meassage on a Fairphone 2.

Also, if these things were actually available on real-world phones, I would like to try it. But this does not seem to be the case.

As indicated in the news, it is running on the pinephone which is a real phone, available now on the pine64 store.

[Kemosabe]

And is canonical still working on something like that or are they just sulking because the community was displeased about their display server fragmentation approach?
Also, if these things were actually available on real-world phones, I would like to try it. But this does not seem to be the case.

[shmerl]

Does it support VoLTE?