Furilabs Linux Phone

Why not use the open source Android? I just feel like it would be more mature.

And yes I like many others here have been trying Linux phones for 10+ years, since N900.

Your phone just has to work, it can't crash because you get a call, or hide buttons because the UI is confused by orientation. IT MUST WORK. So that's why I wonder why people don't just use Android.

Open source Android has been increasingly neglected by Google, and is (essentially) unusable at this point unless you are ok with the look and feel of very early Android. It also isn't likely to improve as Google's strategy seems to be to move toward more and more proprietaryness.

I think a much more sustainable approach is to focus on existing Linux distros and get them more usable on phones.

You are wrong about AOSP. I'm running LineageOS (Android 14) on both my phone and tablet without Gapps and it is a fully functional system. (NewPipe for youtube, Aurora/Fdroid for for App Stores)

I don't know what you mean by "look and feel of early android" either, as AOSP based ROMs look just like Google Pixel in the settings, quick dropdowns and dialogue popups.

LineageOS is not the raw open source Android though that the parent probably referred to. Afaik there are quite some changes needed by now to make it really usable.

But sure, LOS proves it can be done.

It's like using Chromium or whatever clone-a-chrome is hip at the moment. That does absolutely nothing to disrupt the status quo and is very much at the whim of the upstream "owner" whether you want to see it or not.

LineageOS != AOSP. They've put quite a bit of work on top of it too make it usable.

To be clear I have nothing against lineage, and I'm a Graphene OS user myself, but these projects add a lot of value on top of raw AOSP.

Still though it kinda proves my point. What's the quickest path to a usable phone? Quite a bit of work on top of AOSP, or even more work ontop of Linux?

Disrupting the status-quo is important, but having a working communication device is more important to me. If AOSP is further along towards a working phone then I don't see why we shouldn't focus development efforts on it.

It only benefits the open source market in the long run because a working device will garner wider adoption.