Ditching Android for Linux: one user's move to SailfishOS on a Fairphone 4

Frustrated by Google’s direction for the Android Open Source Project, the author has migrated their daily phone to mobile Linux. The grievances are cumulative rather than singular: deepening reliance on Google Play Services and its tracking, device-tree lockdowns that hamper custom ROMs, AI features baked into the OS, and — most objectionable to the author — recent moves to restrict users’ ability to sideload apps of their choosing. The sense is that AOSP as a genuinely open platform is on borrowed time, prompting a jump to Linux before that window closes.

Owning a Fairphone 4, which is supported by Ubuntu Touch, postmarketOS, and SailfishOS, the author settled on SailfishOS for its gesture navigation, polished app framework, and Unix underpinnings — including SSH access from a PC over USB or Wi-Fi. The trade-offs are real: the unofficial Fairphone port ships outdated Python and glibc, breaks GPS and Waydroid, and leans on community apps of uneven quality, including a WhatsApp client the author depends on. Ubuntu Touch was evaluated as an alternative — Waydroid works there — but notification and clipboard sync gaps, weak default apps, and missing features like call blocking made it a worse fit.

Because Waydroid is broken on the Sailfish port, the author can’t fully cut ties with Android: banking and government login apps in Norway and services like Uber in Brazil still require it, so a backup Galaxy A17 is kept on hand and tethered only when needed. The plan is to keep notes on what works and publish a fuller writeup or video later, with a Jolla Phone 2 purchase floated as a likely next step. It’s a candid, hands-on account of how far — and how not-yet-far-enough — desktop-style Linux has come on phones.