Total newbie question, I know. Anytime I install a new Linux distro on a computer I always find a “do this after installing” article with tips, suggestions, and settings to change.
I assume you guys have the same suggestions for Sailfish. My phone shipped today so I should have it in a few days and be ready to get started.
Install fdroid (android) and chum gui (sfos). As app stores. Then use chum to install openrepos for further sfos apps and aurora store from fdroid for playstore android apps.
Like already said, install the common App-Stores (F-Droid, Aurora Store, CHUM and Storeman).
What I can also recommend is to install “Sailfish Utilities” from the Jolla Store.
Everything else depends on your preferences. If you need messaging applications, there are native ones for Signal (“Whisperfish”), Telegram (“Fernschreiber”) and Matrix (“Hydrogen” or “Sailtrix”). If you are looking for maps-applications, you can use PureMaps, OSM Scout, maep.
And of course there are plenty of other applications the community made.
I recommend to install File Browser version 2.5.1-1 from OpenRepos because the older version available in Jolla Store doesn’t show all directories and files.
Something to do at systemic level was described here in relation to whatsapp but I can’t find it right now. Only the main user has access to alien dalvik at the moment. So use that exclusively for android use. Set up another user for your day to day use. That way android apps can’t access your “real” contacts etc. I’ve never tried this. I’m not sure if there are practical drawbacks.
One of my favourite steps is setting up the ambience. You can even start on this before your phone arrives, by choosing the image you want to use.
Any image will work, but for best results I’d recommend a square image. For example the built-in ambiences are 2048 ⨉ 2048 pixels, but only the middle section will be shown. Here’s a simple guide:
One of the first things I do is going to Settings, tapping on ‘apps’. Then I tap on the browser app. I choose ‘Bing’. Then I leave Settings and go to the Sailfish browser. I search for Openrepos.
In Openrepos I download ‘Search engines for Sailfish’. Now I can go back to Settings- apps- browser app. Then I choose the search engine I want. I do that because I want to use Qwant of Duckduckgo instead of Google.
The old File Browser version is still in the Jolla Store for compatibility reasons. It’s the latest version that works at some older phones while the current version of FB doesn’t.
So the outdated version of File Browser in Jolla Store is for long time support of this old phones. Thank you Jolla!
Isn’t this unnecessary? You can just navigate to your favourtite search engine and then go into the browser settings and install the search engine from there