Finnish company Jolla started out 14 years ago where Nokia left off with MeeGo and developed Sailfish OS as a new Linux smartphone platform. Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the past number of years now has been offering their software stack for use on other smartphone devices. But now it seems they are trying again with a new crowd-funded smartphone.
Sailfish OS has supported a number of Sony Xperia smartphones and a variety of OnePlus / Samsung / Google / Xiaomi devices and more maintained by the community. Last year Jolla also announced an “AI computer” as part of the AI hardware craze. Now though they are apparently trying again at their own in-house smartphone.
I was at a bar in Tampere (a city here in Finland) last week and met a guy with a phone running Sailfish OS. I’ve been interested in them for quite a few years so I asked him to let me see it and he did. Even though it was a 6+ year old phone it was running smooth as butter, the initial UX was awesome.
I really hope this becomes a reality and that the phone isn’t just another cheap chinese touchscreen device. I am making the switch when the time comes.
I hope they succeed. Given Alphabet/Google’s recent moves to try and lock Android’s app ecosystem down and them just generally becoming more Evil every day, GrapheneOS and LineageOS etc. may be living on borrowed time.
I watched a video reviewing some phones smuggled out of North Korea a few days ago and it’s truly scary what the endgame of locked mobile phones looks like and given the trends worldwide towards authoritarianism, we’re frogs being boiled slowly toward the same situation.
I hope they succeed, it’s a very tough market.
They probably need a lot of ducks to line up in a row. But the current privacy wave and the push for digital sovereignty in Europe might help.
That design looks AMAZING.
Is there anything I need to know about the political affiliations of Jolla / past products / sailfish os before I pre-order this thing?
Edit: nvm, no global shipping
Is there anything I need to know about the political affiliations of Jolla / past products / sailfish os before I pre-order this thing?
They worked with and in Russia for a while before the big Ukraine invasion but left immediately after that. If I remember right.
They’re based in Finland, mostly, and some of the founders are ex-Nokia mobile phone people.
If they have any sort of politics, they have been classy enough to keep a sock on it.
Yeah, they don’t seem to have done anything outrageous, I haven’t heard anything and quick search didn’t bring up any results. Working in Russia isn’t alarming for a finnish company, unless they’d have continued. The most worrying thing is that AI stuff in my opinion, but they’re kinda just following the expected trend for any company right now, so that isn’t very alarming either (as long as they keep it away from the phone stuff). All in all just a pretty basic finnish company.
Get me a linux smart phone with a headphone jack and I will buy it in a heartbeat, but I don’t think very many other people will.
headphone jack is dead. Its pointless to add it to new devices.
Funny take given the resurgence of standalone mp3 players and handheld gaming machines, all with 3.5mm jacks.
Those were all supposed to be dead too.
resurgence of standalone mp3 players
Which retirement home is this happening in?
It’s so bizarre that all the user-repairable phone startups are refusing to put in a headphone jack. Like, the entire point is to limit e-waste, so why are they expecting me to throw out my wired headphones to buy Bluetooth ones or get an adapter that will stop working in a year?
What makes you think a USB-C to headphone jack adapter stops working after a year? There’s the same circuit in there that does the DAC like in a phone headphone jack.
