Mobile Linux (Phosh) in 2024
The issues with Linux on Mobile devices including tablets this year!
[mobile-linux postmarketos New devices!
This year I have the following devices instead of the PinePhone to review Phosh:
- OnePlus 6T (Phone)
- Lenovo IdeaPad Duet (Tablet)
These are both running postmarketOS instead of NixOS like last year had. Now let’s start with screenshots of these new (to me) devices with their new OSes if you haven’t seen Phosh in a while (or ever):
| Overview | About |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Overview | About |
|---|---|
 |  |
NOTE: You can click on the images for the full sized image.
UI/UX Issues
Let’s pick up on the issues that we talked about last year and where they are, below we’ll most often see issues:
- FilePicker
- New windows for certain sections of applications like Settings
Yep those are still issues even with applications that use libadwaita.
Application Issues
We’ll use the same list from 2023 since I think it’s a good list of things that most folks would expect but we’ll add more basic things that I left out last time. Now a lot of screenshots will be the same since the same UI/UX issues exist but there will be some new ones that include what a tablet looks like:
- Phone*
- SMS*
- Matrix (Fractal)
- Browser
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Clocks
- File Manager
- Music
- Video
- Podcasts
- Text Editor
- Books
- News Feeds
-
Social Media
- Now I don’t have a working SIM card in the phone so I can’t test them but there are apps and they worked fine in the PinePhone.
Matrix
Fractal
This works well and looks good!
Browser
GNOME Web
Now postmarketOS ships with Firefox ESR with patches to make it work decent on small devices but I found GNOME Web to work better. It also has a WebApp manager so you can install websites like applications with a launcher like I have done with the LFNW website here:
Calculator
GNOME Calculator
Again for some reason the keyboard which isn’t needed for this application as it already has those buttons:
| Main Window |
|---|
 |
Calendar
GNOME Calendar
Now I think GNOME Calendar is nice and works better then the default karlendar that postmarketOS ships with.
Clocks
GNOME Clocks
This application looks great on mobile as well.
File Manager
GNOME Files and Portfolio
Now I used to recommand Portfolio and it is still a great piece of software but now GNOME Files looks great on mobile as well!
| GNOME Files | Portfolio |
|---|---|
 |  |
NOTE: The Portfolio screenshot is from the PinePhone.
Music
In this example we’ll be using Lollypop and Spot (Spotify client):
Lollypop
Now the same issues as last time are still there so I’ll re-use those images:
| Settings | Albums |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Collection change | Different Window |
|---|---|
 |  |
Video
Light Video
Now I have this sideways as I have issues rotating the tablet sometimes.
Podcasts
GNOME Podcasts
This works really well until you try to import a file for your podcasts that you bring from another device.
| Importing |
|---|
 |
Text Editor
While it looks great at the start it also has the same failing as the Podcast application when you try to open a file with it:
| Main Window | FilePicker |
|---|---|
 |  |
Books
Foliate
The main application seems good until you look to the right where content is off screen a bit.
| Main Window | Catalog |
|---|---|
 |  |
This continues to the download window and import which are not scaled and go off the screen.
| Download | Import |
|---|---|
 |  |
News Feeds
GNOME Feeds
This starts out looking great and continues until you hit the FilePicker diaglog window, the Settings also creates a new window.
| Main Window | Settings |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Add Feed | Import File |
|---|---|
 |  |
Social Media
Tuba
This works well and can manage more then one account as well! Works great on the phone and tablet though logging in can be difficult with getting the auth code from the browser.
Bonus section
GIMP
Polari
