Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

I've been getting away from apps installed from the play store over the years. This is one of the 2 remaining apps I have that I paid for. This is appalling behavior my Google. I can't wait until I can make a real Linux based phone my daily driver.

> I can't wait until I can make a real Linux based phone my daily driver.

Alas, all the competitors are now moribund, and much of the market couldn't give two hoots about privacy issues.

I would love this as well (Linux phone). Sadly not likely to happen on wider scale and nice hardware.

What do you mean? Pinephone is alive and well and you can get your own Linux "toy" for $150. Can't say much about Librem 5, but afaik they are also shipping.

This would be really nice, yes. Then we could just use the same tools we configure our computers with on our phones too.

You can also get officially supported Sailfish OS on a couple Xperia devices:

https://jolla.com/sailfishx/

Perfectly suitable for daily use, typing from such a device just now. :) IIRC there is a community port for PinePhone as well.

Here you go:

https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

and

https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

I do not see why it cannot happen. Everything starts from a small number of dedicated users.

> I can't wait until I can make a real Linux based phone my daily driver.

They will be too busy arguing about systemd or similar rather than working on the UX so it will never happen. The Linux world seems to strive for perfection (despite everyone's idea of perfection being different) when they barely have the resources to do even a "good enough" solution.

I had seen them and perhaps it's time to give them a go. Are you (or anyone else) using it, and how is it?

I'm using a Pinephone for a few months now. Not as my main Phone. The hardware is not great(150$) but the software is getting better each week. It's so much fun to play around with. And I'm going to buy the next hardware generation without thinking twice.

Sailfish is pretty great and I wish them all the best, I did find myself in need of a few features while using it, one thing being their web browsers lack of usb access for devices like yubikeys: https://together.jolla.com/question/213458/usb-2fa-support-i...

How is Whatsapp support? Phone without WhatsApp is currently nogo here.

Comments from someone who has them both: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23195007

Um .. PinePhone? PostmarketOS? Plasma Mobile? These things exist now.

No idea, haven't touched WhatsApp and don't intend to. :)

That said, the SW will of course lag behind commercial offerings. Just see how long it took for desktop Linux to catch up to the major players. But open source system gives me the freedom to turn it inside-out, get rid of things I don't want (even systemd if I felt really strongly about it), repair what I want - be the owner of by phone and not just a cow to be milked for rent. Nah, I can live without WhatsApp. Or I can get a secondary cheap Android phone for such apps.

Devices are cheap. If you can't live without certain proprietary apps, carry two phones. If you don't want to do tethering for battery reasons, a second cell plan is under $10/mo.

From what I can read, the use of Sailfish is only allowed in certain EU countries. Why is that? Their site does not address this.

couldn't edit, but want to add that there are now more alternatives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7LFPw9Z2aM

I'm just guessing but one reason could be to avoid having to support foreign payment, tax and possibly warranty regimes (Jolla, the company behind Sailfish OS, is based in Finland).

Also they might want to avoid doing business in countries that support software patents and are over litigious over that (eq. USA).

But this limitation is pretty much artificial - the only thing you need to do from the EU is buying the image. This can be achieved via an EU based VPN (reportedly the built in VPN in Opera works) and AFAIK any mainstream payment card will work (does not have to be from an EU country).

Once you got the license and installation image, there are no real EU specific limitations. I have used Sailfish OS twice while on a trip in Japan and all worked just fine - repo access, etc. Also from the download statistics from OpenRepos (a community package repository for Sailfish OS), you can see there is a lot of users from countries that are not officially supported:

https://openrepos.net/statistics/global