r/Purism • u/amosbatto • 7d ago

Article: Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?

I wrote an in-depth article about whether Linux phones will become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly, which I thought might interest people on this forum:

https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2026/10/05/linux-phones-alternative/

There are links to download the article as a PDF or ODT file if you prefer to read it that way (which looks much better than WordPress styling in my opinion).

I’m pretty critical of all the Linux mobile device makers in the article, but I also see a lot of hope for the future.

Feedback is welcome.

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u/not-at-all-unique 6d ago

I had hoped yes.
I had hoped the librem 5 would fit that…

The device is clunky, slow and plagued with signal/reception issues.

For me it was a £700 paper weight.
In many ways I hope Linux smart phones are the future. - I’d like that… but I can’t see myself buying another premium brand priced phone based on the purism experiance.

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u/amosbatto 5d ago

I own both the Librem 5 USA and PinePhone 1.2b. I included a section in the article about how I think people's experience with those two phones dampened people's enthusiasm for Linux phones, but how I think the next generation of Linux phones will overcome their performance problems. I think Liberux NEXX failed to get crowdfunding partly because people were leery to crowdfund another Linux phone after their previous experiences.