Jolla Ports Sailfish OS To Google Nexus 4

[GreatEmerald]

Argh, why must you make choices harder, Jolla I'm considering a Jolla phone, but the Nexus 4/5 are pretty much the same price, yet with much higher specs. Aurgh...

[blackout23]

Thanks, I didn't even know that there was such a thing aiming to replace Dalvik. But what do you mean by FreeART ?

I mean someone should take the ART from Google Android and modify it in a way so that it can be used in community ports of Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS to enable Android App compatability. Similar to what Myriad Group seems to have done to create AlienDavlik but it's not free to use. Instead of making a FreeDalivk something like FreeART would be better, since it leads to faster apps because of the low level machine code that the Apps are compiled into. If we would have that it would be trivial to also use it on your regular Linux desktop.

[89c51]

Argh, why must you make choices harder, Jolla I'm considering a Jolla phone, but the Nexus 4/5 are pretty much the same price, yet with much higher specs. Aurgh...

The jolla is the official so it will probably work better and you won't have to "hack" it.

[GreatEmerald]

The jolla is the official so it will probably work better and you won't have to "hack" it.

I know, hence why it's a difficult choice... Nexus devices have a wealth of OS options, though. Although admittedly they're not supported by Replicant, which could indicate problems with device support. Yet there is very little information on Jolla's precise hardware specs, either...

[89c51]

I know, hence why it's a difficult choice... Nexus devices have a wealth of OS options, though. Although admittedly they're not supported by Replicant, which could indicate problems with device support. Yet there is very little information on Jolla's precise hardware specs, either...

I think most specs for the jolla are known at this point.

[GreatEmerald]

I think most specs for the jolla are known at this point.

Precise ones, as in what modem model, what GPS model is used, whether anything requires proprietary blobs etc.

[89c51]

Precise ones, as in what modem model, what GPS model is used, whether anything requires proprietary blobs etc.

I don't believe it's that open. And it doesn't have to be IMO. The software is as close to desktop linux as possible. With the exception of Wayland the stack is quite similar to the machine that i type this.


Anyway. Here is what these guys have discovered thus far. http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=92243

[GreatEmerald]

I don't believe it's that open. And it doesn't have to be IMO. The software is as close to desktop linux as possible. With the exception of Wayland the stack is quite similar to the machine that i type this.


Anyway. Here is what these guys have discovered thus far. http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=92243

Yes, and neither is the Nexus, so it boils down to a matter of degrees. Nexus 4 in particular has a load of blobs and the modem is controlling half the system. So it would be interesting to know how the situation is on the Jolla side.

And thanks for the link!

[scionicspectre]

I mean someone should take the ART from Google Android and modify it in a way so that it can be used in community ports of Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS to enable Android App compatability. Similar to what Myriad Group seems to have done to create AlienDavlik but it's not free to use. Instead of making a FreeDalivk something like FreeART would be better, since it leads to faster apps because of the low level machine code that the Apps are compiled into. If we would have that it would be trivial to also use it on your regular Linux desktop.

I've always wondered why no one started a project like this, since it's nowhere near the complexity you would have with something like WINE or Darling, and there are quite a few things that would be nice to have on the desktop from Android either way, even if you're not targeting a mobile OS explicitly.

It makes me wonder if there could be a way to abstract it like AlienDalvik has, where you basically write your own ART backend of sorts to support your device in some basic way. Of course, with optimizations like you mention, you could easily get a great performance boost. Then again, even AlienDalvik relies on app stores, so I guess it wouldn't be so simple to get ANY Android app to work this way.

Of course, there's the question of whether it's the best political decision to make Android apps work everywhere, since it could possibly eclipse efforts to create better platforms for app development.

[GreatEmerald]

Of course, there's the question of whether it's the best political decision to make Android apps work everywhere, since it could possibly eclipse efforts to create better platforms for app development.

Well, those who want their apps work on Jolla will still create native RPMs instead of Android apps, because you can't rely on the translation layer. Same thing with Wine, it's just a fallback and true support comes only when it's ported natively.