Am i going to get a functioning phone with Sailfish OS?

General
#1

I already got the Phone(Xperia XA2)and waiting for some free time to do the change.(currently on Blackberry Leap).
Maybe I’ve spent to much time on this support forum for the last couple months trying to get a feel of how things are; and I’m quit concerned and also surprised that a payed Linux OS that has been out for so long, still encounters regularly bugs and sometimes struggles providing basic functionalities.

personally all i need in a phone are calls/SMS, a Browser and two android apps(Whatsapp and a music app). obviously Bluetooth, a clock and other “basic” apps.

but i can’t afford not getting phone calls at work or having network Data issues and so on.

I’ll try it any how, and i guess I’ll see for myself, just worried a bit.

maybe it’s like on my PC’s Linux OS forum; you only see the issues people are having.

#2

Well, it’s pretty simple really and is always a case of “speak as you find”.

Flash your device to SailfishOS, try it, if you don’t like it, flash back to original OS.

Your mileage may vary. Some say things are okay, others go into meltdown, but it is the same for all other models.

I use Whatsapp without problems, but that does not mean there are no problems. Bluetooth works for headphones and headsets, as for other BT devices/toys, well, you’ll find out.

Some also report that calls are too quiet or cannot here the other person at all, while others say what great clarity their calls now have…as I originally said, try it, you might like it, if not, fall back to original OS.

I don’t have an XA2, I’m using Xperia 10ii, suits me, but then I don’t expect too much from it, whether it’s Sailfish or Android.

1 Like
#3

As a former BlackBerry 10 user, I’m afraid that you won’t find any such stable, secure and reliable OS in the upcoming decade, if ever.

I would pay any money for further development of BB10, or even just releasing its current (i.e. several years old) version on a faster hardware, with the only software changes provided being an up-to-date web browser and updated Android runtime version.

In fact, I still keep using by BB Passport whenever I need to fully rely on my phone. I have twin SIM cards in both Passport and XA2 Ultra with SFOS, and switching between them takes a few seconds. I guess I’ll keep using that Passport until it dies.

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#4

i won’t be using Android what so ever,which will leave me with a “paper weight” as I’ll have to get a Pine phone or the sort and experiment with other OSes.

totally agree;i wouldn’t have changed my phone if it wasn’t for those issues;unsupported/old browser on many sites,unsupported Android runtime for most of the apps,and a bit slow hardware(which i don’t really mind as i only use the Phone if i have to).

#5

I’ve used SFOS as my daily driver since July 2014. To me, it has worked just fine. But then I’m not a power user or anything: I make (and receive) calls, send SMS, an occasional MMS, take photos and even short videos, listen to music (4356 songs), take notes sometimes, organize my life in/with the calendar, use wifi hotspot a lot, check something up on the web, and play ‘Patience deck’. I don’t use Android apps or any apps outside Jolla Store, just the native, stock apps. I don’t e-mail, edit photos, watch movies, or surf the web very much. I do that at home on my laptop instead. I haven’t used Blackberry, but I’m very happy with SFOS on my Xperia X which continues to run fine and steady (of course, you’ll always going to have occasional glitches and odd behaviors sometimes, but nothing that can’t be solved with a restart/reboot). I’m very happy with the alternative that Jolla is bringing.

10 Likes
#6

that’s nice, it’s encouraging to ear all that.

#7

I can only tell my (releated) story. I bought a new (old stock) XA2 a few months ago and flashed SFOS. I followed the instructions and they worked great, with no issues. I had my dying old phone as a backup but I did not need it. Once I was satisfied that it basically worked as a phone (I had a temporary SIM card for testing) I went “live” and put my normal SIM card in.

I have not had any issues with calls or mobile data not working. To start with GPS didn’t work but a subsequent update seems to have fixed that, although I don’t actually use it day-to-day.

Expect to spend a bit of time getting to grips with the various stores and finding new apps etc to solve minor problems. For example I use an SD card with music on it and for storing photos I take, but the standard Gallery displays the album art for each album, all mixed in with my photos. So I had to find an app that only displays images from my camera. And the stock music player ignored my carefully constructed directory structure of artist/album, so I had to find a different music player. But neither were difficult.

I am a bit disappointed that colour emojis don’t work. What people send you is not what you see. But the monochrome ones are useable, just not nice.

The forum is a scary place at the moment because the new testing version has just been released, and people are testing it! And finding problems. If you are a normal user with the non-testing version, all of this does not affect you. Am hoping most of the issues will be fixed before general release!

6 Likes
#8

totally :slightly_smiling_face:
I’ll take my chance since i already bought the phone and hopefully won’t have to report back.

2 Likes
#9

Some people have unrealistic expectations. Some seems to think it is entirely reasonable to come in here and scream their head off that [insert proprietary service here] doesn’t work/stopped working/works poorly. Your Whatsapp counts here. Could be working just dandy, heck it probably does, but do think about what you are asking. Network connectivity issues affects a small minority - this is the nature of adapting towards semi-closed rushed-out hardware and a huge spectrum of interworking-related things.

I have used Sailfish from day 1. I am happy and content. Is everything perfect - no. With the new browser things got a lot better - and the Android runtime thinking it went offline on network switches should be resolved (not to mention there was always a workaround).

You will find none that are anywhere near as usable as Sailfish OS, so that is not a serious contingency.

12 Likes
#10

I concur with that - I’ve had a Pinephone for ages, wishing to support the initiative, but it is obsolete now that Pinephone Pro has been released and development is concentrating on that, and it never even got as far as daily usable.

Most of the Linux-on-phone developers, including Ubuntu Touch and Plasma Mobile, have gone down the rabbit hole of “convergence” - plug your phone into a monitor, add a keyboard and hey presto you have a desktop computer. Except life isn’t that simple. And I don’t want to do that, I just want a nice phone.

Where Jolla have got it right is to take a few good solid phone models and concentrate on making them usable as phones.

3 Likes
#11

I have an XA2 and phone calls/ SMS are no issue. I’m still happy with the OS (user since Jolla phone). And the integration with Android support is well done. I don’t use WA, but Signal without issue.

I agree that the forum is scary at the moment, but that is the nature of a support forum as people without issues hardly post that they don’t have issues. :slightly_smiling_face:

6 Likes
#12

Same here. Switched from N900 to XA2 last december.
Phone
SMS
Mms+pics in and out
mail
camera
music + BT
GPS
Terminal, ssh, sshfs for backups from PC
No android yet
All this including work use

Very happy with SFOS.
I just miss a keyboard, an FM receiver AND FM emitter for old radios/car radios

I also tried the pinephone which carries a great hope but for a fluid daily use, no comparison.

4 Likes
#13

XA2, X before. SF as daily driver since 2017.
OpenVPN, ssh, IMAP, Exchange, SMS, Phone, Telegram, Threema, Signal, car navigation, music, internet radio, web with Fennec and Tor etc.
Works for me.
And I love it.

6 Likes
#14

You can install “The emoji+ keyboard”, from Storeman, to have colored emojis. I think ‘Unplayer’ or ‘QuasarMX’ are media players that respect your music folders

#15

Unplayer: definitely yes, it respects folders. You can select a folder completely or make a selection inside the folder which songs should be played and which not. Also you can create your own playlists.

#16

forget about Sailfish as a daily driver. And forget you’ll get anything even close to BBOS. Security doesn’t exists, the encryption is there but it’s very weak. There’s inof on forum how to crack it and how many minutes it takes. Same for general phone protection, only pin or fingerprint - both are insecure compared to what is on BBOS10. Browser is even more problematic than on the BlackBerry. System updates tend to break working things. There’s a paid option where you’ll get automatic updates, predictive text input, exchange support, 64bit os support, customer support.
How much you’ll need it it depends on you, personally I’m still using Saiflish as a test device cause I can’t trust it so much I did BB.
There are for example still things that doesn’t work on some devices, RT Alarms are on of it. And for customer support - well there are complains on this forum on that. Not sure how big is the problem but the fact it’s there and users are paying for this, doesn’t look good.

1 Like
#17

so it doesn’t look all that bad after all. :+1:

#18

It’s true that the positive feedback I made didn’t take count of security.
For sure, I don’t want big companies to scan, categorize me and make money with my data at all.
In the same time, I am not an enough important person with enough confidential informations in my job to need high security.

But I’d be very curious to try that. Do you remember what thread it was?

#19

well keep in mind that with such weak security, storing even mail credentials on that phone is very risky. As someone may access those and you’ll be in trouble.

#20

Hmm, ok. Said that way, I should perhaps be a bit more aware.
Are these security concerns about phone access through internet or physical access only?
Thanks for the link.