Hello everybody,
I have a simple question : can I replace Android with PureOs on my smartphone ?
Thank you !
Okay, here is a simple answer: no. 
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To elaborate a bit on @mladen’s answer, your phone wouldn’t be compliant with PureOS, and you don’t want (yet) PureOS on your phone.
First, your phone’s driver probably are not free and/or not supported by the average linux (and PureOS, which is based on debian). Under these conditions, it is quite hard to fit a Linux distribution on your phone.
Second, PureOS is made for the desktop at the moment. Purism’s hard work and efforts will make it mobile friendly in the coming year. If you want a Linux (non-Android) replacement for your phone, Plasma Mobile seems to be your best bet. Although it’s not suitable for daily use.
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Okay, thank you for your answers. I’m looking for an alternative to Android. Because I’ve looked at some of them, but they’re not necessarily supported anymore. Of you have an idea…
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if you are looking for an android alternative repecting your privacy, the only choice is the librem5
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My first question would be: Why do you want an Android alternative?
Are you tired of Google controlling everything? There are plenty of non-google android roms out there.
Do you long for an FSF endorsed phone operating system? Try https://replicant.us.
Do you want a GNU/Linux operating sytem now? Try Plasma Mobile. They already have a product you can use. This will require a Nexus phone. https://www.plasma-mobile.org/index.html
Simply put, there are options to hold us over until PureOS and the Librem 5 are released.
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@blendergeek points out very valid alternatives.
Currently, I’m using LineageOS without Google Apps on my Nexus 5 because:
- Replicant has limited hardware support
- Plasma Mobile is not yet ready for daily use: many features only lack polishing, some crucial (the battery usage as an example) are not suitable for an actual use
The best plan I’ve come with so far:
- Backing the Librem 5
- Raising the awareness wherever I can about the Librem 5. The more backers it gets, the more resources Purism has to develop the phone, the better the phone will be
- Actively participating in building a welcoming community. I believe finding a kind, active and helping community is a priceless difference when buying a product
- Keeping using something usable (not always convenient) in the meantime. I will convince no one if they can’t relate. Being the tinfoil hat of the group doesn’t help convincing people that privacy matters
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I would share that installing PureOS on existing hardware would be a really important step for me before I could buy the Librem 5. I can’t afford to purchase hardware that I end up not being able to use as a primary phone, and would really need the opportunity to test it out as a daily driver on an existing phone, where worst case I could reinstall Android. I understand that setup doesn’t give all of the benefits that the Librem 5 hardware gives, but it still gives an incremental step to test out this completely different software stack.
I understand that this won’t be a priority for the Purism team, but I don’t think it’s helpful to pretend there aren’t any good reasons to install PureOS on different hardware.
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It’s not possible to install PureOS on different hardware because there are no free driver for the other smartphones. Maybe it is possible to get PureOS running on Smartphones which are compatible to Replicant or even LineageOS (or Sailfish OS or Uports).
But it is a lot of work to support this hardware because it is not open. But PureOS is open and anybody who wants to run it on other hardware is allowed to do it and to port it.
As a backer of librem 5 I would be very disappointed if Purism would invest any precious developer time to get PureOS on other hardware. There is still a lot of work to do to make GNU/Linux a mobile system.
I understand that you don’t want to buy a device and risk that you can’t use it as a daily driver. My advice is to wait and read the first user experiences with the librem 5. And maybe there will be a second hand librem 5 from a disappointed backer. Or once PureOS/Linux is a full mobile system there will be a raise of community ports for other devices.
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I am currently working on a project about a real-time version of Android and I want to use the Librem Dev board as the hardware platform.
Do you think there would occur any problem(like driver issues, etc.) running android on the dev board?
postmarketOS - A real Linux distribution for phones. Many thinks don’t work, like 3D acceleration or hardware decoding, but screen and touch works well on my smartphone.
https://postmarketos.org/
Just reigniting the conversation here and try to find out if PureOS is now ready to replace Android on stock hardware. I have Motorola G7 that I want to install PureOS on. Is that even possible? What pains can I expect to encounter?
No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
Will almost certainly never happen.
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Which device are we talking about?
Nope. PureOS is not being ported to closed hardware. If it requires non-floss drivers, it will never be compatible with PureOS.
Not possible because PureOS/Phosh is designed to run on Linux drivers and your hardware only runs on Android drivers. Sailfish OS, Ubuntu Touch, WebOS/LuneOS and postmarketOS can run on Android drivers through libhybris, so porting to your phone may be possible with one of those operating systems.
I see that someone is attempted to port Sailfish OS to the Moto G7, so you can try out his ROM:
People are working on porting postmarketOS to the Moto G7 Power and Moto G7 Play and Ubuntu Touch to the Moto G7 Power. Given that the G7 has the same Snapdragon 632 processor as the G7 Power and G7 Play, it should be possible to port to the G7, but porting is always a challenge and don’t expect everything to work. It is best to buy a phone where people have already done the porting work.
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