On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 11:55:44AM -0400, Fungi4All wrote:
From: dsr@randomstring.org
Not yet a Debian on Android, but:
https://ollieparanoid.github.io/post/50-days-of-postmarketOS/
summarizes the first 50 days of building Linux directly for
several smartphones, with the intention of eventually getting
them fully functional. Their work could lead to a Debian
flavor/spin/whatever it"s called now.
Personally, I would be pretty happy to run Debian on a phone
instead of the giant pile of Java sitting on an old kernel that
currently constitutes Android.
I just wanted to check that you were aware that Android mostly doesn't run Java. True, the code is written in java, but the code isn't run by a java vm, but by a Dalvik or ART VM. Dalvik and ART are specifically optimized for low-memory, low-cpu systems. In a way, this is similar to the way switching from GCC to Clang has provided "free" performance improvements to some projects.
-dsr-
20 days of me trying to do something to an unrooted tablet and
the verdict is that you can not make a computer system out of
cat dish (used to be frisbie). For a rooted system you pay big
bucks, might as well get one of those gadgets with free open
architecture. At least you will know what your hardware will
be transmitting to your "enemies".
On an unrooted device with secret hw-code all you can do is
run something within an android compartment/sandbox.
More than half the machine's resources are already occupied
running the sandbox area (like gnuroot or termux). Start with
a cheap low resource machine and by the time you get gnuroot
ready to direct a Gui to a GFXserver program, either the one or
the other crashes with lack of resources. .... Then you open
your windows if you are lucky and 90% of the stuff will not run
in this pseudo linux/debian environment.
Systemd is having a fit as it sweeps most of the left over resources
before you even run anything.
It is amazing how something SO STUPID can be marketed to
become as esential as underware. My 6510i still sounds crystal
clear, and does all a phone is meant to do.
Yes, but can it run Debian? (My point being, what do you want the device to do? If all you want is for it to make telephone calls, then a 'feature phone' is great. It makes calls; it has solid software; it probably can't evolve to make VOIP calls, but there's no reason a new 'feature phone' couldn't. If you want it to be able to run arbitrary, mostly-unvetted applications and still be relatively secure and stable, then the modern, mobile OS is the way to go: sandbox each application such that when you download that dodgy knock-off version of Candy Crush, it doesn't have the ability to silently call all your contacts and offer them life insurance. If you want a pocket, general purpose computer, then you basically need to either use a laptop or a PDA, if they still make them). -- For more information, please reread.
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