This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
All of the open source phones I'm aware of barely function. I mean like they can barely make phone calls, and receive text messages. Much less last throughout the day.
I have a pine 64, and I would put it into the hobby toy category, not a everyday carry device.
Asking for a totally open phone, and the ability to run critical Android apps, we're not there yet. Maybe in 20 years
Yeah, the infrastructure just isn't there yet, and with the difficulty being reported on models I haven't tried, I'm not willing to jump into any of the current options.
Even the pine phone I got to play around with for a few days was prone to connection issues, and that's a bit of a dealbreaker
Sounds bleak, especially when you think that these phones cost 500+ euros, but thank you for the honest review.
Murena ? as the murena foundation that develop /e/OS ? If yes, their OS is based on LineageOS microG edition with a great ad/tracker blocker and an app store that is kind of a fusion between the aurora store and fdroid (without the ability to add repositories unfortunately, in the version I used at least).
So you can install whatever apps you want with it(Except maybe android auto, I guess). I had my banking app and it worked well (until it detected I was root).
I used it with my oneplus 7, It had some big trouble these last months as their servers were outdated and they needed to update their whole infrastructure. Now, everything seems to be back to normal.
I can not say for their phones (murena 1 and 2), but their OS is solid to me.
Personally, I'm watching Volla.
Volla supports dual boot. Android and Ubuntu. Play with Ubuntu, work with Android.
That sounds really interesting. I didn’t know about Volla, but dual booting might be the way to go.
Have you considered GrapheneOS? Not an open source phone as you say, but it is at least open source software, running on hardware with published specs. It should be capable of everything you want.
I used e/os by Murena for a few years already on my Oneplus Nord. Except for banking and some google stuff it works really well. Now that phone is almost dead, and I plan to switch to Pixel 7 pro and probably LineageOS.
I would expect murena's homebrew phones to be lower class, so if you dont want to flash/install OS yourself, you can also get a refurbished pixel 7 : https://murena.com/shop/smartphones/premium-refurbished/murena-pixel-7-refurbished/
However there are some apps that I must have, like authenticator, mobile bank and government apps.
Big lol. Gafam and commercial apps.
i use postmarketos, i allow only non-commercial and opensource apps ; i huge hate common apps. I just use sms/phone/emails and gnome maps. that's it
a bank requiring me to get their app is a bank whom account is closed within the day : they already have sms 2FA, already too much, now either you go with google/apple and commercial apps, or do without. On my side, any android/aosp/apple application is jerked out, no way for me to run them. Prefer even bberry curve. Dumbphone. I just take postmarketos for the touch keyboard, but everything except apps.
"pls install this app pls install it you need it to continue plus use the app only the app" <= when you guys will understand that [your phone] is not your phone anymore, but their device? It costs you a lot, in addition with expensive subscription, to make their cost cut, even while price will still grow up? iphone/android/aosp never again in my life...
murena = android = google somewhere, even if there are no google service installed : google says B tomorrow instead of A today, you will have to change. I dont even speak of Apple. For me postmarketos is new heaven of freedome, never to this mania of apps apps apps everywhere again. Apps are just the new pratical life disaster. Good luck with them !
jolla = sailfish = hybris or halium, both using some code or blobs from androd/aosp.
only solution : postmarketos or librem. Take your choice. But android apps are clearly related far or close to gafam. Deal with it :)
google/apple/android/aosp/iphone not allowed in my life :)
I think for some apps you need a mainstream os. But maybe you can use the bank website instead?
It's less convenient but it's a payoff
Unfortunately, in the country where I live pretty much everything requires requires a 2fa app from the government and also my job requires a 2fa app in general, so not having those would make the whole device useless.
That is too bad. Scary what the government can do. Sounds like you will need two devices if you care to have one that is open source.
Scary what the government can do
Requiring 2FA is a good idea though.
There are plenty of 2FA apps you can use that aren't made by the government and will work fine on any phone.
2FA isn't the problem. It's being required to use a specific app.
My guess would be that a 2FA app from the government is likely using PKI (private + public keys) or something similar, rather than a basic TOTP algorithm. There's not really a generic app for something like that. Many services are moving away from TOTP since it's not phishing-resistant.
Nothing is phishing resistant though?
FIDO2 tokens (like Yubikeys and passkeys) can't be phished.
Yes, it's as easy as with the TOTP app. A message that says "ok, now tell us the code"
FIDO2/WebAuthn hardware tokens don't use a code. That's why they're phishing resistant. You have to press a hardware token (usually plugged in via USB) to authenticate, but it doesn't do anything obvious on the screen like type a code. On mobile, these tokens usually use NFC, so you just tap the Yubikey or whatever to the back of your phone.
Ah ok. Last time I had a hardware key it had a little display that showed numbers. I thought yubikey did the same thing.
That's pretty cool. Ideally I'd get something like a yubikey to unlock my password manager, except I'm not sure how the yubikey is supposed to interact with a desktop computer, especially a shared/public one.
Oh yeah, I had one of those a long time ago for my PayPal account, before smartphones were widespread.
I'm using a Yubikey with my password manager (self-hosted Vaultwarden) and it works well! The Yubikey is a USB device - you can get it either as a USB-C or USB-A. It should work with any desktop PC as long as USB devices are allowed. I've got one on my keychain, and a second one stored somewhere safe. Good to have a spare one as a backup just in case the main one dies.
I'm pretty sour on murena. Never used their hardware but their cloud services have been down since October last year.
