Lolek (a Bolek), you are wrong. You follow some self destructing agenda that was keeping linux as a niche product for 20 years (I am 45, so I have seen it first hand).
You dont have the leverage of number of users, to vote with your wallet. Once the leverage is there we can all vote with our wallets, now we are just losing users. It is like saying you arent going to vote until the political system changes. No one cares, other 99.999% of voters will vote instead of you.
As I have said, the number of non iOS and non Android users is in a range of statistical mistake. No one cares for them. But the Sailfish has something that other, lets say āmarginal operating systemsā dont and bridges lack of software - Android container. As more and more bluetooth (and NFC) shit is needed to operate daily lives we need passtrough, ideally for both, as it is only turning users away from sailfish to android.
Not to the fact that android is better - it has nothing to do with phone, they cant use infrastructure that is there for android users.
Of course there is also an Android version of AirKey.
The point was that this technology is used Today, and that a solution is needed Today.
Workarounds like carrying a second Phone are just that - workarounds that will be unacceptable to most people.
I donāt want a work phone- I want a Sailfish Phone.
And I need it to be able to open the office door.
And it sure would be nice if it would also work with the MiBand 6 that my work gave me. Sadly the Sailfish app available only supports MiBand 4, even though MiBand 6 has been available for several years now
And itās still niche product on desktop and in companies. And this is where it counts where the money are created. There are special case of usage, for example RHEL was used as a base system during Shrek 2 creation because Windows couldnāt handle that much of memory. But itās still a rare thing. For example Bentley systems had great products but after acquisition by Microsoft thereās no more Linux version. How about games? Well itās still the same. Ok thereās Valve who was working very very long to get it to this level but itās one company and others? Thanks that itās possible to watch streaming video on Linux, but how long did it take? Printers, scanners, laptops? When you try to select one, you first check if itās properly supported on Linux not the otherwise around cause youāll end up like other people that cry on forums that something doesnāt work. And let me give you example. If Linux is not niche, please tell me how to get working a fingerprint reader on Dell Latitude series. A little hint - Broadcom chipset. I could go on and on and on and the fact is the same.
If you want something working on niche systems, you first check if itās supported and then you buy it. You go the other way around only if youāre willing to either live with that or fix this on your own and share the fix with others. Thatās how it is constantly and if you donāt believe me, go to OpenWrt forum and see how much problems there are currently with routers.
I donāt know if we;re loosing users or not and how many what I see is that 4.4.0.58 is the first version that has working browser. And this is something thatās a changing point as previously you need to have some Android support to have firefox or something else otherwise you had just a simple dumb phone.
Now, when you check the forums, people complain on keyboard a lot. People complain about functionalities that they have to apply with patchmanager which need to be unapplied with every single update and applied again. There are basic things that still doesnāt work like RTC alarms.
We finally have encryption but itās only a plaster because itās weak. Some problems with simple phone shutdown for Xperia 10 that shouldnāt exists at all, Radio not working, peoples complain about loosing audio during call we can go on and on and on and really these are much more important things than android support. Cause you want a working decent phone. Iām not saying thereās no progress oh thereās a huge one that Jolla made and I constantly keep my fingers for them, but Iām not wearing pink glasses and I see the problems as they are.
BlackBerry had it also, it was working and they had also money and how did it end? They killed their system because why would someone buy BB phone to install Android apps when he can get native support. This is as simple as that. Even great keyboard, amazing HUB and whole gesture support didnāt help. Because one company brainwashed peoples that they need apps, that
thereās an app for that [tm]
itās not need, you believed marketing guys that told you itās needed. Because if it was needed then I couldnāt live without it while I can tell you that the only thing I use BT for is for transfer my files between my mobile phone. And nothing else.
The world is moving forward and usable bluetooth is a must. Since there is no way to expect vendors will start supporting Sailfish, the only option that stays is have a working passtrough to android container.
I have put this topic on IRC meeting for tomorrow, if I dont get definitive answer that the bluetooth passtrough will be supported, I will probably vote with my wallet, buy Pixel 6 and move to grapheneos.org. Which is one user less for Sailfish that invalidates all your sacrifices to use old hardware.
Once the bluetooth issues are supported in whatever way (either local software -which is impossible- or passtrough) I might come back - or not, porting all my contacts and messages wasnt fun at all.
Anyway, Sailfish is a good daily driver I had almost zero issues with it, also bluetooth connect/disconnect works better than with Ubuntu 20.04.
I dont care what you think is needed or not. The fact is that there are more and more devices that use BT for something else than what we used them in 1995. And even if you throw your tantrums at the whole world this is not going to change.
Not for you and another 1000 individuals that cant cope with the fact that there are billions of other people that make you irrelevant.
And if there are 2000 users of Sailfish getting a chance to use hardware that other people are using this is not going to change anything. You will still be irrelevant as you are now but people that are less single minded will be able to use Sailfish.
My old XA2 is running /e/ os now because GPS did not work. In itās new task location is irrelevant (fixed, really).
I can live with using an Android phone to access my 14 BT devices but I would prefer using Sailfish and itās Android compatibility layer. Just to give new life to my third phone.
I wonder if the WH-1000XM4 also has some advanced features besides audio. Not that I could imagine myself needing any of these features ever as the headset seems to be doing what itās intended to do already (means it can play audio) but Iām curious if theyāre maybe using the same protocol.
Many Bluetooth-controlled devices are indeed just gimmicks, and having bespoke apps with proprietary interfaces is a nuisance and bad form (Bluetooth or otherwise).
There is no excuse not to openly document this stuff. These products are basically eWaste waiting to happen; no way all apps will be available and work as long as the devices.
For example; one of my test printers for SeaPrint has an app to set WiFi configuration - it is already broken and canāt connect to APs and since it is proprietary there is nothing to be done about it whatsoever.
We most definitely should be voting with our feet and wallets against this BS.
Using Sailfish only as a means of running Android apps kind of defeats the purpose.
However(!), the Android App Support enables enables regular people to live regular lives as part of modern society.
If it can grow Bluetooth, NFC and WiFi control support - great! If it canāt, or comes at basically the cost of half an OS and is not feasible, so be it.
Where this midpoint lies will be different for everyone.
Just consider that none at all will be too hard for most, and all is the same as giving up.
For example; i am emailing politicians left right and center about the abysmal state of eID here in Sweden. They actually seem to mostly agree, but everything is super slow. In the meantime, iām quite happy that the current crap works on SFOS.
Iād like to see the mileage on my ebike from time to time. In order to do this, I have to flash back to Android and I am not going to buy a second device just for that. What a real shit show SOFS is turning out to be.
Wrong. The real shitshow is all those companies spewing out wifi and bt-connected devices with proprietary protocols and APIs. Even if youāre on Android, youāre still bound to their app and more often than not terrible EULAs and āāprivacyāā policies.
So, ask your bikeās manufacturer if you can get the protocol specifications. Thatāll more useful in the long run.
Example? Example. Iām still using my Pebble smartwatch, because they did publish the protocol, and the SFOS compagnion Rockpool app, based on this protocol, still works great for this 7 year old watch, even though the company folded into fitbit (and then google) long time ago.
Is not the real shit show the fact hardware manufacturers are trying to lock everyone in into their apps and cloud services with the goal to squeeze every bit of information out of their customers?
Iām wondering if it might be feasible to utilize a bluetooth-(micro)usb-dongle for Bluetooth functionality in android aliendalvik. Iām not sure if something like this could be achieved by the community or if the the related part in AD is closed source.
Check this tech out - you can see your bike mileage no matter what phone OS you use. Only catch is it must be solar or something, I couldnāt download the mileage from mine at night for some reason.
You summarize it perfectly - I have to ask a manufacturer for help because Jolla is not capable, hence my comments about a shit show being quite correct one way and another, so youāve proved me right, and shown everyone else that your apparent logic is flawed and very, very fuzzy indeed. I should not have to contact ANY manufacturer just to run an app on my phone.
For all the shit that Android is said to be, Iām thinking I may as well use Android, at least I can have things working Iād like to use and I really do not ask for much regarding mobile devices.
One may call me a bit old fashioned but Iām not entirely sure why a missing feature that a minority of users may care about would warrant using such language.
