Soo, anyone ELI5. If Android is basically Linux, how hard would it be - given drivers are not an issue - so just make a Linux phone and mass produce it? You probably don’t have that many apps, but it will be possible to call and/or use messaging apps.
Linux is just the Kernel, Android is the OS. There’s a ton of stuff on top of Linux that makes an Android device.
Making an Android device (or Android device hardware) run Linux isn’t hard. In fact, you can just use Termux on pretty much any Android device to run a regular desktop Linux distro run in a container on Android. That way, the Linux distro uses the kernel from the host Android OS and just runs its own userspace parallel to Android’s userspace.
But if you want to make a stand-alone Linux phone without Android, your biggest issue is that you won’t have phone apps. There’s close to no app support for phone-linux. So on your Linux phone you won’t get any banking/authenticator/messaging/games/… apps. You can run desktop apps, but that sucks on a tiny touchscreen display. And many use cases (e.g. authenticator/two-factor/buying public transport tickets) are very cumbersome or sometimes even not possible on desktop OSes.
Now you an make your Linux phone run Android by emulating the Android userspace. That’s possible, but then again you are basically running Android at that point anyway. But Android with one big caveat: It’s not a Google Play Store Certified device, and it will never be if it’s not running full Android.
And missing Google Play Store Certification means no google services and no apps that rely on Google Services or require Google Play Store Certification. That means e.g. no Banking/Authenticator apps and many games won’t run.
Also, if you aren’t actually running Android but some kind of Android emulator, you will always be outdated and buggy.
So essentially you made a phone that
Runs Linux apps a little better than an Android phone
Gives you more control
Allows you to do much, much less in regards to it being an Android phone
People have done it. There are a handful of Linux phones (e.g. Librem 5, Pinephone) that are barely usable as phones due to lack of app support.
They’ve done the opposite as well, so running Linux on a phone originally designed for Android (e.g. PostmarketOS), also barely usable as a phone.
There’s also the middle-ground with custom ROMs, some of them degoogled (like LineageOS, GrapheneOS, /e/ and many others). They run full-fat Android, but without all the Google apps including Play Store, Google Services and of course also without Google Play Store Certification. That’s more usable as a phone, but you will still be cut off from anything using Google Services. There are some hacks and workarounds that sometimes work and sometimes not. You might get stuff to work but it’s a constant race.
The problem is that currently if you want to use a phone as a full phone that covers all phone usecases, it’s got to be an iPhone or a Google certified Android phone.
there are android emulators / compatibility apps like WayDroid that you can run on linux to simulate an android experience but they’re not perfect – and any App that processes payments (banking, utility, parking) outright rejects being in a container and has many tests for detecting so
Then you’re basically making a ROM and there are many small detections for this. Many apps rely on proprietary closed source code like google play services
You will be able to do some things, but it will be a massive pain. Android is big, really big. Emulating will just mean you’re running Android all over again (and it’s often detected). Making a fork is a lot of work
Android apps are specifically using google ecosystems and would break without such things. It would also mean taking a developers app and putting it in a new market, this requires permissions and they might be under contract.
Linux can run android apps, but having a fully commercial device would need lots of new natives.
Soo, anyone ELI5. If Android is basically Linux, how hard would it be - given drivers are not an issue - so just make a Linux phone and mass produce it? You probably don’t have that many apps, but it will be possible to call and/or use messaging apps.
Linux is just the Kernel, Android is the OS. There’s a ton of stuff on top of Linux that makes an Android device.
Making an Android device (or Android device hardware) run Linux isn’t hard. In fact, you can just use Termux on pretty much any Android device to run a regular desktop Linux distro run in a container on Android. That way, the Linux distro uses the kernel from the host Android OS and just runs its own userspace parallel to Android’s userspace.
But if you want to make a stand-alone Linux phone without Android, your biggest issue is that you won’t have phone apps. There’s close to no app support for phone-linux. So on your Linux phone you won’t get any banking/authenticator/messaging/games/… apps. You can run desktop apps, but that sucks on a tiny touchscreen display. And many use cases (e.g. authenticator/two-factor/buying public transport tickets) are very cumbersome or sometimes even not possible on desktop OSes.
Now you an make your Linux phone run Android by emulating the Android userspace. That’s possible, but then again you are basically running Android at that point anyway. But Android with one big caveat: It’s not a Google Play Store Certified device, and it will never be if it’s not running full Android.
And missing Google Play Store Certification means no google services and no apps that rely on Google Services or require Google Play Store Certification. That means e.g. no Banking/Authenticator apps and many games won’t run.
Also, if you aren’t actually running Android but some kind of Android emulator, you will always be outdated and buggy.
So essentially you made a phone that
People have done it. There are a handful of Linux phones (e.g. Librem 5, Pinephone) that are barely usable as phones due to lack of app support.
They’ve done the opposite as well, so running Linux on a phone originally designed for Android (e.g. PostmarketOS), also barely usable as a phone.
There’s also the middle-ground with custom ROMs, some of them degoogled (like LineageOS, GrapheneOS, /e/ and many others). They run full-fat Android, but without all the Google apps including Play Store, Google Services and of course also without Google Play Store Certification. That’s more usable as a phone, but you will still be cut off from anything using Google Services. There are some hacks and workarounds that sometimes work and sometimes not. You might get stuff to work but it’s a constant race.
The problem is that currently if you want to use a phone as a full phone that covers all phone usecases, it’s got to be an iPhone or a Google certified Android phone.
All the Linux phones run on outdated hardware because that’s the main problem.
Probably this hard: https://postmarketos.org/
You can, but no one will use it because you won’t have Android apps on it. The lock in is real
Well, time for zoomers to experience our childhood (with phones that could call, send SMS, and play Snake).
That’s a nightmare
I would
Congrats, I wouldn’t and it’s a pain
So how come android is Linux but Linux don’t run android apps? How hard it is to have a simulator like harmony os for unsupported apps?
there are android emulators / compatibility apps like WayDroid that you can run on linux to simulate an android experience but they’re not perfect – and any App that processes payments (banking, utility, parking) outright rejects being in a container and has many tests for detecting so
Then you’re basically making a ROM and there are many small detections for this. Many apps rely on proprietary closed source code like google play services
You will be able to do some things, but it will be a massive pain. Android is big, really big. Emulating will just mean you’re running Android all over again (and it’s often detected). Making a fork is a lot of work
Android apps are specifically using google ecosystems and would break without such things. It would also mean taking a developers app and putting it in a new market, this requires permissions and they might be under contract.
Linux can run android apps, but having a fully commercial device would need lots of new natives.
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/
https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-community-phone
Jolla looks awesome, have to look into that.
Yeah I’m eyeing that one too. Price is good OS looks good. I need to do my homework