open source alternative, at first it's going to suck. but over time it will win. imagine how miserable we would be if all we had was windows and osx. but we have linux. we are now at such crossroads were the choice is android and apple, we need a free alternative. much sooner than most realize the threat to freedom from big corps, govt and others will be so big that we would wish to have a free mobile OS. mobile is now the main computing platform and needs a free big corp alternative. it's true that some big corps would refuse to allow there apps to run on there like a bank, but that's okay! there will be alternatives ...
The whole app ecosystem however can be generated to a large extent, so missing apps should not be a barrier for free/open source mobile OSes assuming an open hardware mobile SoC.
You've tried plasma mobile? All apps are already there. What's missing are the proprietary ones like whatsapp, uber and the likes.
It's hardware support and battery life that is severely lacking.
I occasionally contribute, but nothing major. But I have a chuwi x86 tablet running debian with plasma-mobile. It's not perfect but it's quite usable I think. Now if only there would be drivers for the new style non-v4l webcams, it would be better.
Yes, I tried all open mobile OSes with PinePhone. Even apps left a lot to be desired; obviously non-open mobile SoCs are the main problem but such is the life in the ARM ecosystem where very few custom things are upstreamed.
