This is perhaps an incredibly basic question, but information is spread around and it seems quite conflicting. I have just found out about the Jolla Phone and it is quite exciting as someone who would want to have a bit more space for tinkering than your usual phone.
It appears that Sailfish OS is license based (not a stranger to pay for Windows, the price is reasonable and all, but i digress)
But, it seems to be quite the confusing situation. For example, the Jolla Phone 2026 page mentions a “voluntary subscription” at the bottom of the page, but the store itself says you need a license in order to receive a set amount of updates. So… For this OS’s own mainline device. Do you need the license for the updates? is a license part of the purchase? does it just ship barebones and you have to flash the commercial/community image yourself? How does it work? It appears that the C2 would ship without the commercial license and you need to install separately.
I guess that would beg the question that if you have to bring your own system image it would be reasonable to assume one could install whatever if they so wished after the fact. (PMOS, /e/, etc)
Is the whole licensing model similar to, say, how Debian only ships free software and if you want certain programs you have to install a repository, but in this case it’s a license key? Is that how it works?
English isn’t my first language so apologies for the strange wording but hopefully the question makes sense.
This actually has nothing to do with the new Jolla Phone. The “voluntary subscription” is just a way for you to (continuously) support Jolla with your money. It is basically just like the “Donating” feature of many other open-source projects.
So if you buy a Jolla phone, you don’t need this voluntary subscription, these two things have nothing to do with each other
That was cancelled.
Some say it is quality not quite warranting it, others say it is to not run afoul of the EU directive to include X years of updates.
So it is safe to assume the J2026 will probably work the same way then? It’ll just come with Sailfish as-is (least you want to strip the closed source bits and you install the community edition from the shop?)
This is what i meant that information about this was all over the place.
Either reason would make sense, honestly. But i’ll admit this is dizzying, the licensing situation that is.
Honestly, for me, having the android app compatibility is big enough of a plus to stick with the closed source bits but i imagine people (as it’s a thing when it comes to linux) would want a minimal system image with nothing on it (and/or nothing propietary on it) if given the choice.
But… this tangent is perhaps derailing the original questions of the thread. (i mean i started it but i don’t know) I guess it is safe to assume the phone will come with all of the software then. Never have had any experience with sailfish so honestly i would not know what to expect if i buy the J2026, seeing all this info about licensing hahaha. But i guess that clears some of it.
That pretty much nails down my concerns with licensing! Given the precedent with the C2 it’s reasonable assume to the J2026 will as well come “batteries included”. So that’s good.
Well. That’s good reference to know for future posts then!
least you want to strip the closed source bits and you install the community edition from the shop?
Just to be clear on this point, no Sailfish OS flavor (licensed, free trial or community port) comes without closed-source components (well, there is NemoMobile, but that’s a different beast). Jolla is in the process of open-sourcing some components, but some key components (e.g. Silica, the UI toolkit) are still closed source.
Those two and text prediction are part of the paid licenses for the Sony Xperia devices - so the devices you will have to flash yourself with SailfishOS.
The “real” Jolla devices (J1, C1, C2) came with already installed SailfishOS and include Android App Support, Exchange and Text Prediction.
In both cases (at least as far as I remember, but not sure for the real Jolla phones) it is necessary to “active” those features with your Jolla account in the device settings.
If I remember correctly, predictive text input (XT9) is not available for new Sailfish OS installations. Jolla lost the license to redistribute it when the company became JollyBoys.
Not my business but i guess if it’s no longer a feature being included i guess it’s fine if it’s not mentioned. FWIW i didn’t even know that was a thing. Hell, not even the exchange server functionality. Just the android support.
So yeah. i guess a clear picture is that the license is really only a thing for the third party/community ports of the OS. (though this would lead to a conversation of what parts of the OS are then actually redistributable but that might be out of the scope of this.)