I don’t appreciate this comment. I am willing to spend twice as much on a Jolla phone to get away from Google and anything they have influence over. Linux is obviously better than Android, which only exists to tighten Google’s stranglehold on the market. What I really want is a computer that works as a mobile phone. Not another corporate Trojan horse to screw us all. GrapheneOS is clearly a more mature product, for better or worse. I’m looking for pragmatic ways to reduce my reliance on it.
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Also one of my reasons sticking with Sailfish is how easy it is to develop software for it.
I can run my old Python scripts that effectively use the same libraries as my desktop on a phone and don’t have to be adapted at all.
Or I can cross-compile a Go app and just scp the binary over and it simply works.
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@WT.Sane SailfishOS is so niche that finding accurate up to date information becomes difficult. Every version of Android and its derivatives is well documented. Many references to Jolla phones and SailfishOS go back to 2013. There have been different official websites and forums over the years. It doesn’t have a wiki with clearly delineated version details (unless I missed it). Few people have compatible devices, most of which are discontinued. There is a reason Jolla advertise Android comparability so heavily. Unlike with NixOS I can’t browse the native apps from a website and easily check their website or GitHub. There is no single unified repo. The phone I paid a deposit for doesn’t even exist yet. Everything is hypothetical. If I had known there were quality Linux phones and tablets back in 2013 I would never have bought an Android one. I hope to never buy a Google Pixel again but it was better than nothing at the time.
I am sorry, but some people here seem to be fed up with reading about Android this and Android that over and over again, when all they really want is Sailfish. 
You have totally valid concerns, and in the end it is up to you to decide what your priorities are.
All I wanted to say is that Sailfish is not a drop-in Android replacement. So if you intend to rely heavily on Android apps, staying with Android (including Graphene) may be the better idea, since some things work very differently on Sailfish or may not work at all. If you care more about the Linux side, then Sailfish may be a good fit, even with it’s drawbacks.
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My response was to the other person being sarcastic. I do appreciate your comments very much! The forum layout didn’t make that obvious since I didn’t @ anyone.
I know, I just wanted to make sure you don’t get the impression everyone here is super rude
Check docs.sailfishos.org
With other members, we are writting a FAQ for newer users to avoid such situation like here.
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2 posts were split to a new topic: Prepare transition from Android to Sailfish
That’s kinda what I meant to convey, indeed. People use SailfishOS out of principle, because it’s a nicer experience for their specific case. Make no mistake, however. Signal is 90% of my reason to carry a phone as well. I just don’t want to get into the mess that is Android ROMs, and I like my phone to be “just” GNU Linux as I’m used to everywhere else. (Please, someone come destroy my TCL TV).
You’re making quite a few assumptions in that question.
If Whisperfish were a headache, I wouldn’t have gotten to it. It is a hobby, a playground (both as hobby developer, as well as academic privacy and cryptography researcher) and quite a joyful project altogether.
Jolla is certainly contributing with what they can. Whisperfish is a major reason why the Rust compiler infra is kept up-to-date, for example. Being able to chat with literally all the OS developers on IRC whenever we want is a huge privilege and advantage, which you won’t easily find with Android.
I might have phrased this poorly, if this is your take-away. We’re always playing catch-up, because of how quickly Signal moves, not because there’s some fight behind the scenes.
We could discuss endlessly here about hypotheticals. I suggest you keep your pre-order, and play around with it. I’m quite sure you’re going to like the device and the ecosystem, and we can talk about any grievances and issues after.
I quite agree with this statement. We lack an attractive, up-to-date, opinionated and consistent wiki. https://sailfishos.wiki/ should be that, but I don’t feel like it scratches that itch just yet. I’m looking forward to what @pherjung is doing on that FAQ, however! We need something ready when the phone hits its customers…
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It used to be so that Whisperfish could not be used as a primary app. This is why I use Android Signal on SFOS (no gapps or microG required btw).
Has this changed?
Other question, is it possible to use both Signal (the primary) and Whisperfish on the same device?
PS: GrapheneOS is problematic.
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Yes, I have this setup.
I use it as primary so this limitation must have been lifted quite a while ago.
Whisperfish could always be used as a primary device, but there were some moments that the registration was broken specifically. It actually used to be primary-only!
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I must have tested it right at that time.
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This week I tried to switch to Whisperfish since a long time. But it is misbehaving for me, I’m not receiving messages, contacts are not shown (not from phone or from Signal). I really want to use Whisperfish and I never switched as it forced primary on me.
@rubdos what is the best way reset Whisperfish and remove all information stored locally?
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It’s in the FAQ:
The current version has some issues sending/receiving messages indeed (mostly since today). Hence, please do wait with your re-registration until the next release, which should be … tomorrow morning
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