linuxaudio.org

On 27 January 2011 11:08, Ken Restivo  wrote:

quoted text
> It's sorta-off-topic, but my Sprint contract ends next month, and I'm looking to shake up my phone/mobile-network situation. I'm looking at other providers (and I refuse to use Verizon on principle, becuase they are unscrupulous thieves, but that's a different story).

>

> Well maybe it is on topic, because I would LOVE a smartphone that runs linux and has a hardware QWERTY keyboard, and even better if it could at least theoretically run fluidsynth and jackd and aseqnet.

>

> The perfect phone to get seems to be the N900, since Linux runs on it explicitly with manufacturer support and usability, but it is very expensive (US0 used).

>

> There are, however, very many used smartphones on Craigslist for a third or less of that price. I'd prefer going that route. But which run Linux? It's a zoo. There doesn't appear to be any nice clean table anywhere showing what phones can or can be made to run Linux and to what degree they actually work.

>

> Any advice? I'm told some of the older HTC's out there have been made to run Linux, but the documentation on that hasn't been too encouraging.

>

> It's a cost-versus-risk thing. If I can find a US phone with sort-of-might-work-on-linux, then I'll take the gamble and try to get it running, and just resell it if I can't. If I'm going to spend US0, I need the thing to pretty much be guaranteed to work. And if I've got to spend much more than that, I might just keep saving up for a while and get an N900.

Save up. Anything else, you either don't get the full Linux experience

or don't get the full phone experience. Most older phones are not

really "Linux" as we have come to know it - they just run a Linux

kernel and some custom userland. Those that can be modded to take a

Linux kernel can be seriously crippled.
I have a ROKR E8 which I've painfully modded and have it running stuff

like mplayer, so theoretically I can play jack and fluidsynth if the

sound system allows for it. There's a crippled bash shell in it as

well with key-completion, aside from a full-blown text editor which I

have found no use for. There are lots of games system emulators, of

which ScummVM I have run, and I also played Quake II on it. Seriously,

the only useful outcome is mplayer.
The closest to Linux is the N900. Then you have the Androids.
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