Is SailfishOS ready for daily use?

[Ingo]

@Epy

I hoped to use SailfishOS (almost FOSS and out of big data companies) on a recent phone but it doesn’t seems ready to use daily on FP2 from what I read, maybe I’m wrong ?

I don’t use it as my daily driver but checked it out on a secondary FP2. It seems good enough for daily use, depending on the apps you need. The OS itself is ok I think.

[Epy]

Is all the hardware functional ? Mobile data, GPS, Camera, Gyroscope sensor, Bluetooth & Wifi at least ?
That would be nice !

I don’t need many apps, I’d have to check the SFOS app repository. I think Android emulation with Dalvik isn’t available because FP2 is not officially supported by Jolla but that’s not a big problem, I don’t have Android apps today either :]

[Stefan]

@Epy

I think Android emulation with Dalvik isn’t available because FP2 is not officially supported by Jolla but that’s not a big problem, I don’t have Android apps today either :]

I think that’s the only problem. All the hardware works according to this wiki entry that also includes the latest installation instructions: Adaptations/libhybris/Install SailfishOS for fp2 - Mer Wiki

Edit: This quote and other opinions in that topic are surely interesting for you:

@ced117

@pa4wdh @axelito I use the Fairphone 2 with SailfishOS as my daily driver. It’s a great piece of software, that’s for sure. If i can test something for you, just let me know

[Epy]

Excellent for the hardware support, I knew I hadn’t already read all about this subject

@Stefan

Edit: This quote and other opinions in that topic are surely interesting for you:

You are right, very interesting ! Thank you

[Ingo]

Some more information on SFOS

• Announcement of the last update: Sailfish OS 2.1.4.14 alpha6 release
• My personal experience on my test device: Sailfish OS updates + feature tests

[mal]

I’m the maintainer (and main creator) of the Sailfish OS port for FP2 and I have used it as my main device for a long time now (maybe about 2 years). Don’t be afraid that it’s not good enough because it’s still called an alpha release, I’m just too much of a perfectionist. I’m thinking of naming the next release beta already, most other Sailfish OS porters have wondered why I still have it as alpha when many of them would call it already a stable release instead of alpha or beta.

[Epy]

Thanks @Ingo for those links ! It will help me to decide !

@mal

I’m just too much of a perfectionist. I’m thinking of naming the next release beta already,

That’s a great great news from a perfectionist! And I really know what you are talking about

Many thanks for replying !

While I’m now thinking about directly using SFOS on FP2 instead of a “short time” on a cleaned Android waiting it to be ready, I have to ask SFOS users the same question I asked here:

Receiving MMS while mobile data is off

Hello I’m not already a FP2 owner but I have a first daily usage question: For battery and data consumption reasons on all my phones I only activate mobile data when I need it, for example to get weather with an app, or train schedules … or sending an MMS My brother (on iOS) doesn’t receive message at all if he doesn’t activate data, that’s annoying ! On my smartphones (current and previous) I receive a text message with a link “Get multimedia content” I can click after activating data and i…

What is the behaviour of SFOS when mobile data is disabled and someone sends you a standard MMS not a “data app message” is it notified waiting data to be enabled or not ? Thanks again

[pa4wdh]

I have used SFOS on my FP2 since i got it, which is two months now. All the essential stuff i need works, and i have to say i’m not a heavy user.

I can’t comment on MMS for SFOS on the FP2, it worked perfectly on my Jolla phone with mobile data disabled, but can’t test on FP2 because my network operated stopped offering MMS.

[Epy]

Thanks for your reply I’m not a heavy user either, but I tend to use it more and hope to test and add more self hosted services
I’m sad for your mobile contract. I wasn’t a big user of MMS at first but it became really useful to share something quickly

[antis81]

I also switched to the latest SailfishOS about two months ago now and find it running quite stable for my petsonal daily needs. However with the community port it is not possible to use any Android Apps yet. Means some stuff works quite different compared to the Android world. IMO one of the biggest pro’s giving Sailfish a try is the fact that switching back is fairly simple without losing your precious data like contacts and photos. As long as you don’t depend on whatsapp or fancy VR games, Sailfish is definitely worth a try.

[pa4wdh]

It’s indeed a bad move to shut down MMS services, and doing so without offering an alternative is even worse. I didn’t use it that much, but it’s the only way to share pictures with your phone if you care about privacy.

Their logic was that you can use any other messaging service to do the same, which might be correct from a functional point of view, but you’ll have to give up your privacy.

[Epy]

Not sure about the privacy thing because all multimedia data was transferred using their servers, with or without a good security, it was still theirs . I would not send anything private through MMS either

But it sure is an economical advantage for them to tell their clients using others apps (Signal for example)
[devil’s advocate: there may be fewer and fewer users because of things like Signal, Whatsapp,… for the same amount of servers… money first…]

Thanks @antis81 for your comment I’m more and more convinced and will need to find some money for the FP2 ^^

[pa4wdh]

MMS is/was not more or less private than SMS or a phone call, and the best part was: It worked for nearly everybody without the need for apps or other privacy breaches.

I indeed think that all the messaging services (i’m always amazed by the number of services) made MMS less profitable, and eventually shutting down was cheaper than actually serving customers.

[juri.gagarin.ii]

I would totally agree to call it stable. For daily usw I habe not found any disadvantages compared to official ones like in my Jolla 1. Really great work, mal!

I think I have read somewhere that you were also working on integrating Anbox, is that true? If so, are there any hopes to see it on the FP2 soon?

[mal]

I have been working on Anbox for Sailfish OS but mostly on a different device. The old kernel of FP2 is causing some issues but there has been some progress recently and I got part of Anbox running also on FP2 but graphics don’t work yet so no idea how difficult that will be.

[juri.gagarin.ii]

I really appreciate your work!

[00prometheus]

Hi! I have been using SailfishOS on Fairphone 2 as my daily phone for almost 2 years now, and it is working very well for me. As mentioned by others, there is no official Android app support, so you can only run Linux programs, however there is a large and thriving community for third-party software at OpenRepos.net (similar to Launchpad and PPA on Ubuntu).

The only thing that doesn’t work is double-tap for screen on, it seems to be the only hardware limitation on FP2. If not for that, Sailfish has the ablility to run zero-buttons, with double-tap to wake, top-swipe to sleep, and three-finger drag for volume.

[mal]

From what I have understood the firmware on the device doesn’t support double-tap to wake and therefore fixing it might not be possible. There is a hacky way of doing double-tap to wake without proper firmware support but that would most likely cause quite much more energy consumption and it probably isn’t worth it.

[muppeth]

Is there no way to upgrade the kernel, say from LineageOS 15. Tbh I don’t know which kernel is it using there so if i talk BS correct me

[mal]

I use the official kernel which is 3.4 and I think LineageOS 15.1 uses also 3.4 but they may have some additional patches added.