Thread: What's the best Handheld gnu/linux machine for 2016?
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Ken-Young is offline Ken-Young
2017-01-03 , 04:45
Posts: 387 | Thanked: 1,700 times | Joined on Feb 2010 @ Cambridge, MA, USA
#598
Originally Posted by railroadmaster View Post
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Comp...-production-10

Honestly I think there is an opportunity for GNU/Linux to succeed on phones. Android is decent but there is room for improvement. Given that Apple and Microsoft have both been floundering a new competitor is needed. No technology market can thrive with a monopoly, some sort of second competitor is needed.
What we have is a duopoly (iOS + Android) not a monopoly. There has been a duopoly in Desktops/Laptops for decades (Microsoft + MacOS) so I don't think the phone duopoly is unstable. iPhone sales are dropping not because people are searching for an alternative OS, but because there has been little improvement in the last few generations of iPhones. I wish this were wrong, but I think there is absolutely no potential for a gnu/linux phone to obtain a significant market share. None. Zero. If there were space for a third ecosystem, Microsoft would have filled it.

The Raspberry Pi success has shown that gnu/linux products can be successful if they find a new niche to fill, rather than trying to go head-to-head against the established mainstream commercial products.

We need to give up on the fantasy that some organization like Jolla is going to make a successful mainstream gnu/linux phone. Face the grim facts: Android is what linux on a phone looks like.

Mobile gnu/linux will succeed IFF it finds a new purpose for mobile devices.
 

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