With the possibility that Google is going to make some big changes to the open source status of Android, the importance of smartphones that don’t run either iOS or (some form of) Android is definitely increasing. Linux on smartphones is not as complete as iOS or Android, and I personally think one of the primary reasons for that is a lack of easy access to devices that don’t require manual installation or other forms of hackery, only to then end up with a partially supported device because the device in question was never originally designed to run regular Linux.
A few companies are trying to change this, developing Linux-first smartphones instead. One of the newcomers here is Liberux, a Spanish company who just unveiled the crowdfunding campaign for their Liberux Nexx, a Debian-powered smartphone with excellent specifications and some unique additions you won’t find on any other smartphone. It’s powered by an octa-core Rockchip RK3588S (four Cortex-A76 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores up to 2.4 GHz), 32 GB LPDDR4x RAM, tons of expendable storage, and a 6.34″ 2400×1080 OLED display.
At the top of the device sit something you won’t find on many other smartphones: dedicated hardware switches to physically cut power to the modem, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip, and the microhone/camera array. When all three switches are disabled, a number of other features, like GPS and sensors, are also turned off. On top of all this, various internal components are designed to be replaceable and possibly even upgradeable, with manufacturing of the device taking place in Europe – which probably refers to assembly, but still. The device is supposed to become open source, too.
It will run Debian 13 with a customised version of the mobile GNOME Shell using a standard Linux kernel. Android applications will also be supported using Waydroid, which you’ll most likely have to rely on for things like banking and other application categories exclusive to iOS and Android. Liberux promises that any development done on both the Linux distribution and other related applications will be done openly, which is something we can hold them to quite easily.
I’m always weary of crowdfunding campaigns, and all the usual caveats, warnings, and concerns still apply here. I’m highlighting this campaign because I feel like many of the kinds of people who read OSNews are longing for a modern, capable smartphone that runs not iOS or Android, but proper Linux, even if Linux on smartphones isn’t quite there yet to go toe-to-toe with the two duopolists. For more information on the device and the people involved, be sure to read LINMOB.net’s excellent interview with Liberux.
Liberux has told me they want to send over a review device once development has reached a point where that’s possible. So, assuming the crowdfunding campaign is successful, you can look forward to a review of the Liberux Nexx on OSNews somewhere between now and mid-2026.
I’d love to test it out if they have AT&T USA frequencies 😉
Expendable storage? Does the phone stage like a rocket and discard disk blocks into the ocean?
All storage is expendable. Stay on top of your backups!
How many components are manufactured in Europe?
Pretty sure none.
We already have a very decent project in this area – SailfishOS. I wish the EU would invest in it in order to make it a viable alternative for normal people also.
Nevertheless, they already have a phone, their Android compatibility layer works very well and the Sony phones it can easily be installed on are quite a bit nicer than whatever Rockchip-powered crap these guys are trying to sell.
Sailfish is not open source and requires a subscription for updates. The most recent Sony phone it supports is from 2021, with a Snapdragon 690, which is about on par with the RK3588S. You have to buy this Sony phone used on eBay without any warranty.
No thanks.
I think it’s impossible that the 1.5 mil funding these guys want will be able to generate hardware supported for more than a week and as for warranty, warranty provided by an Indiegogo startup is pretty much the same as no warranty, because you never know when the whole company will fold due to cashflow issues.
They also make no mention of OIS, without which any smartphone camera is practically useless outside of bright sunlight (a problem with the Sailfish Xperias, as well), so I fail to see what problem this phone solves except for “what Librem did, but faster”.
As for subscriptions for updates, you tell us where funding for developers is supposed to come from…Home Assistant has an optional subscription which I happily pay because I don’t want such an excellent project to die and this should be a more common model for major open source projects which solve a real problem, like a non-NSA smartphone.
PROTIP: Don’t buy a low-volume 4-year-old phone off eBay unless you are fine with being sent used phones as “new”, being sent water-damaged phones, or even being sent slightly bent phones.
I had to do it to get some phones I really desired (some stereoscopic 3D phones and some HTCs) and it wasn’t the most pleasant experience.
You see, once the big sellers lose interest on a phone model (because it’s wasn’t that popular when new and now is 4 years old), you are left with the bottom-feeders.
At least this Liberux Nexx phone will be new.
https://postmarketos.org/ is the way…
I see SailfishOS as a project that’s actively hostile to FOSS because it isn’t compatible with so much of the standard Linux ecosystem. Most FOSS apps have to be forked and ported to run on it, and most native SailfishOS apps don’t run on other systems.
Motorola had a similar product back in early 2010s – i.e. a laptop that was actually your phone + screen/keyboard
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/motorola-laptop-dock-review/
Later, Microsoft introduced
Lumia 950
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m-nak3e9XM
Nothing is new under the sun
While I admire the effort and appreciate its existence, the above caveat kills it for me.
I use my phone only for Calls, Online Banking, QR Payment, 2FA and e-mails or web-browsing in transit.
If I need to run Android in a container for any of that then the solution is not appealing, sorry.
It really depends on how much inconvenience you are willing to sustain to be able to “break free”, and how important this is for you.
I live in Europe and have been daily driving a Librem 5 for 2 years and waiting for 20 seconds 2x per day to use something in Waydroid bothered me only for the first 2-3 days and then it became second nature.
You are far more patient than I am. Waiting 20 seconds to do anything is bad enough, but doubly so when it involves using my device to pay for something or access something while on the move. Granted, I don’t use my phone for any NFC related stuff, I’m old school and carry my cards in my wallet. Still, having to wait 20 seconds to run any Android app, let alone in a time sensitive situation, would be infuriating.
I really hope this device gets funded and takes off, because the more options for a Linux phone the better, but I’d love to see an Android compatibility layer for Linux more akin to Wine rather than having to launch an entire emulated environment for a single app.
The Librem 5 does not have NFC, so I don’t use it for payments. Waydroid is for Signal, bank MFA and a few other programs. Not anything time-sensitive.
But yes, patience is the key. I think most good people in the world will pick a fight. Some will be vegetarian/vegan, others will obsess about recycling and reusing. The tech fight resonates with me. I am of the self-hosted email, nextcloud, and using 20+ year old computers for real work. No whatsapp, no facebook, etc..
And I enjoy the feeling of not giving a damn about whatever service big tech decides to enshittify or discontinue. =)
Signal has at least one Linux app, right? At the very least I can imagine someone out there writing apps for Linux phones could easily write one for the service since it’s FOSS. I definitely get it on the banking apps though, that’s my main reason for staying with the stock OS on my Pixel instead of using GrapheneOS or CalyxOS. I disabled as much of the Google crap as I could and still have a functioning device.
I’m right there with you, I don’t use any social media apart from Mastodon and Lemmy, and my favorite hobby is getting the most I can out of older and underpowered hardware. Even my cars are all 20+ years old, I sold my 2018 truck because there was too much technology in it that kept breaking, and it’s the newest vehicle I’ve ever owned.
I am all in for open source and independence. Although I don’t see any breaking free when I have to open the same system I am breaking free from in a container.
It does not make any sense unless a wine-alike compatibility layer will emerge. This thing is dead on arrival, sorry..
Agreed. I don’t know the specifics of how Blackberry did it, but when I had a Blackberry Passport running BB10 it could sideload and launch most Android apps as if they were native, there were no performance issues apart from the weird 1:1 ratio screen (which I absolutely loved for the native BB10 apps that took full advantage of it).
I really wish Blackberry had been able to hang on as an alternative to the current duopoly, even though it wasn’t open source.
In Asia, nobody uses cash or cards anymore. Every payment is QR Code these days, even street food in the village. I ran at least 10 payments average per day over my phone.
Also, what do I really gain from an “open phone”?
My whole company is Linux only for 15 years plus. It just makes sense because we need full control over our infrastructure, tools and workflows. I am as open source enthusiast as they come. But on a phone, I honestly don’t care because I will never access the code of the Banking or the 2FA app. Android is open and flexible enough for any use-case I can imagine.
Let’s see how it is going to go with the Rockchip RK3588S. One of the things I appreciate about the Librem 5 is that they went for dedicated circuitry for functions such as wireless and audio, rather than relying on the SoC.
Yes, you pay the price of higher power consumption, but there’s at least a chance that all the necessary to keep running the Librem 5 will be one day mainlined, and the Librem 5 should continue to work and get updates regardless of Purism’s continued existence.
If you can survive launching Waydroid a few times a day when you need to do something specific (in my case Signal and bank MFA). And even with its high power consumption, I can get by the whole day with the Librem 5, meaning a few calls, watching a video or 2 while waiting for something, listening to a podcast in transit, texting, etc..
And, honestly, when I use the Librem 5 docked to my monitor via USB-C, it is perfectly snappy until you open a Web browser, which says much more about the state of the web than anything else.
With a muuuuuuuuuuch more efficient SoC, I bet that this will make a truly excellent phone! Linux phones are daily driveable today, unless you need to be Instagramming and Facebooking and sharing photos of your food with your 973 friends the whole day.
To have a Linux phone as a daily driver I’d argue that messaging is one of the main issues – in my country everyone is on WhatsApp, not just friends but also various services, like locksmiths and what not. Sure, you can talk some friends into using Signal and some communication can be via SMS, but if you need to send some business you don’t know a picture of what needs to be done, no one will have patience with that one guy with the Linux phone. Just this winter I had an incident with 2 flat tires by the side of a highway and without Viber on an Android phone (lol, Serbia and their love for Viber) it would have been a long, cold day before it would have been resolved.
Otherwise, as you said, “a few calls, watching a video or 2 while waiting for something, listening to a podcast in transit, texting, etc.” is a solved problem by most Linux phones.
I really think at this point that the kind of money and cooperation that gave those of us in Europe the Eurofighter, Airbus, etc. should be put to use into making a proper smartphone platform, as it is something which would have an impact on people on a daily basis. We even have many of the components already – Nextcloud, Vivaldi, ProtonMail, Linux Mint, OpenStreetMap, Mastodon, etc. I think the main things we’re missing are a proper app store (one that can be used by paid apps as well), a notification system that doesn’t use Firebase (ntfy.sh is really nice for various things, even though not European) and a phone with a decent camera (although the Fairphone’s is not terrible, why doesn’t software just target it by default?).
When I come to Brazil (where I was born), I find infuriating and stupid how the whole society got dependent on WhatsApp. I see people using WhatsApp as default delivery method for even highly sensitive documents, such as cancer diagnostics. My 91 year old grandfather fell for a scam because the scammer figured out the name of his bank manager and the picture, so they created a WhatsApp profile matching that person.
Another thing that I find quite silly is that, once you send a message, you basically assume the situation solved. Text messages and voice messages are very perverse, in the sense that the person sending the message does not need to have any consideration for the time and attention of the person receiving it. If you have something to discuss and call, your time and attention are also on the line. But if you text or send 3 minute voice messages when two sentences would suffice? You disturb the other person, and it is for free for you. Then you get people, such as doctor clinic receptionists, multitasking on whatsapp, so you write… wait 2 minutes… write again… wait 2 minutes… and what could have been a 30 second phone call turns into 10 minutos of texting, with your attention switching constantly between that and whatever you were doing before.
Viber seems also to be a thing in Slovakia. My mother-in-law uses it constantly.
But honestly, I don’t give a damn about people not having patience for me. You want my money, you want to provide me a service. Do it via call or in person or otherwise I will find someone else who will do. Often I see around also restaurants that don’t offer menus anymore, only via QR-code-to-a-webpage. I am abroad. I got no data roaming. I don’t want to join your insecure shitty wifi. Oh, you don’t have a normal paper menu? Too bad, next restaurant. Done. I am an one-man-revolution when it comes to this. Radical. No dining out? Okey, then. More money in my savings account.
I digress.
I agree that Europe has the components to have a good tech stack. Heck, Europe had the likes of Philips, Nokia that were relevant globally when it comes ot electronics. Nokia was too late to the App Store concept, and sat on Symbian for too long But we definitely have the capacity to do it and to provide a viable alternative to the world.
Shiunbird,
I agree. The public’s infatuation with centralized proprietary services is such a shame. We could be using federated open services instead, ie something like email where we aren’t dependent on a single company.
I agree, honestly I’d bug them for a menu and seriously consider leaving, I have kids who don’t have phones for example and they shouldn’t have to. But there’s power in numbers and if everyone starts doing something, then it becomes more futile to resist these things.
Startups can have merit, but the real gauntlet is surviving the competition against dominant players. I struggle enough already just using android forks, much less bona fide 3rd party devices. There are times when I can’t install/run something because I resist using google services. Sometimes it’s extremely inconvenient though. I can’t do e-checking because the bank won’t bless my phone of choice. In another example a company I worked for switched to an authentication provider that forced me to have a duopoly phone. I pressed them to supply me with a phone because it wasn’t my fault they wouldn’t support mine. Alas they declined and put the onus on me to buy a duopoly phone…. I hated that so much, of course I still need the job. The pressure to comply is very real.
I hope the best for new startups like this, but without far more aggressive antitrust regulation 3rd party devices and their users usually get the shaft through no fault of their own. It can be a harsh reality for the underdog.
I work for a startup and we are 10 in total.
Last week, my boss wanted to start a WhatsApp group for emergencies and I said “no” with such mad face that he agreed to “ok, we will just call you if we need you”.
Which is a MUCH better way to deal with emergencies, so… It’s like people don’t think for 3 seconds. The answer to all communication needs is a WhatsApp group or putting something up on Facebook.
Now, we are just starting, but the brass consists of Microsoft fanboys… we could start differently, but all in MSFT. At least I get to work on FreeBSD and boot Windows VMs whe needed.
Shiunbird,
Good for you (non sarcastically).
The local government uses a facebook page instead of a website, which I’m not a fan of but whatever…as long as I can get to it. The problem is that facebook won’t let me view the government pages without logging into facebook myself and I don’t have an account. I can ask others to get it for me, but it feel very wrong for local government resources to require a facebook account.
I work for all types of shops including microsoft ones. I don’t really judge, I build solutions but it’s not my place to fight the choices they make for themselves. I find that at least when it comes to hosting/services most shops aren’t too bothered that servers need to run windows. So unless I’m writing desktop applications, all the server stuff is usually linux.
What I don’t like is when the employer locks down computers so heavily that you can’t even do your job. Bureaucracy can leave us stuck waiting for hours/days for IT to bypass some restrictive policy. It’s always in the name of “security”, but it really makes things inefficient. This isn’t common in startups though.
Here’s another Linux phone that’s currently on sale
https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1/
One thing I am flagging from their webpage:
They claim to “…reject any form of planned obsolescence: the NEXX’s lifecycle will be in your hands.”
I am not entirely sure they can claim this (I may be wrong, haven’t checked the details). One reason why Purism went with dedicated supporting chips rather than big-SoC is that, once RockChip decides not to support a newer release of the Linux kernel, then they are toast. Unless Rockchip drops into mainline everything required to support that CPU and opens up all require support documentation, then…
Years ago, I got a Cosmo Communicator and got stuck with 4.4 because MediaTek didn’t release new drivers.
WhatsApp is great, put it on your phone, turn off all notifications, works perfectly! 😉
I don’t think the world needs another Smartphone, unless it is actually smart, as in LLM AI smart. These things could be an awful lot more seamless in terms of control and functionality. Something that replaces the current user functions (tapping, swiping and fixing settings) with an OS that resides above the Apps, vs below. Maybe call it a Concierge System. Or ConS for short. Though that will piss off the Lisp Machine folks, unless they actually think about it.