cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/61869260
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Linux Phones
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The Discussion on Linux-based Phones.
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Is it really that bad? Software updates cost money to develop, they've gotta get paid for somehow. Either it gets front loaded into the price of the device, or it gets dribbled in via optional pay for updates. At least with the later you can opt out if the updates are not providing value to you.
I'm mostly referring to feature updates, rather than security updates. Security updates should not be paywalled.
People want new competitors but want someone else to finance their effort to join a market with a duopoly in place.
Kinda funny too, they would complain about the lack of support if it was all free and updates happened whenever the dev felt like working on it.
At least with the subscription model, they have a clear business plan for sustainment. Other phones often have no plan (cheapo phones with no support at all) or make claims for support, but with no clearly set aside funds, its not possible to know if they can actually provide the support.
I didn't find anything about security updates on the website so that worries me even more.
I now software dev cost a lot of time, effort and money ( being a dev myself ) but they are a lot of way that are far better than keeping updates from user. IodéOS and Murena being two examples.
They ask users to drop 60€/year for potential features updates. Even if this include security updates this is very expensive.
IodeOS and Murena are both repackaging upstream android projects (/e/ and lineage), so they get a lot of the work done for them for free, Jolla is doing the entire phone OS, so there is a large scope difference.
I personally dont see any issue with feature updates being paywalled, as long as the security updates and bug fixes are free for the supported lifetime of the device. I buy a device based on the features it has today, not the promised future updated features, so missing future updates, or having to pay for them doesn't really matter.
Also, arguably, with the subscription model, you can always just cancel the subscription, wait and see what the updates bring, and decide later to resubscribe if the features matter to you, so you dont need to pay $60 each year unless you really want to be on the bleeding edge of features.