A year has passed since Commodore, the computer brand many of you know and love, came back from the dead under new ownership. The comeback is picking up pace too, with a lineup that already includes multiple Commodore 64 Ultimate editions, a C64X PC, and a licensing program that invites outside builders to use the name. Now, they have announced a return to the phone market, and not in the doomscrolling glass-slab avatar we are all used to, but in a retro, very equippable flip phone format…
Android is Linux-based.
…So is sailfish… But ultimately I think the reason they went with it is that it is much more secure than an android phone as it ensure your privacy is respected. You can still run android applications, but you don’t have to worry about Google apps spying on your activity. Similar to Graphene OS where you can actually manage the permissions of Google apps rather than allowing it to have unfettered access to everything. Or heck, you don’t even need to install any Google application to be able to use either Graphene or Sailfish. To me, they are just better ecosystems. And heck, sailfish isn’t the only one. There is also postmarket os, Mobian, Manjaro ARM, Arch ARM, Ubuntu Touch, PureOS, and many more.
I wouldn’t say that shipping the phone with WhatsApp preinstalled is privacy respecting.
I’m sorry, did I miss something? The commodore phone doesn’t have social media applications.
Edit: Yes I did miss something. True it comes with Whatsapp running in an emulator in an LXC container. https://factually.co/fact-checks/electronics-tech/android-app-compatibility-on-sailfish-os-real-tests-a787aa
Who verifies that the APK is safe to install? Commostore? I’m not putting my trust in that.
What about the fact that Sailfish OS uses Alien Dalvik to emulate the apps in an LXC container? More
This is a company that is committing to never selling customer data and I appreciate that. But yeah, I think blocking Web browsers is maybe a little much. Plus I need Lemmy to get my bean fix 🫘.
They have created a shit phone, but they are proud of it. It’s essentially a less dumb version of a dumb phone.
It’s one where you don’t have to worry about someone emailing you after-hours, see your aunt bitching about her 7th husband, or get you distracted when you should be remodeling the house.
I may not agree with it… I would be more open to A full blown sailfish install, but I see the vision.
That’s all very well, but containerization is not nearly sufficient for the amount of scam apps being published, which may be designed to deceive, phish or outright perform fraud.