by March 2026
I have finally managed to pick up the ball that I “fumbled” when I dropped my Volla 22 phone off the motorbike and it got promptly run over by the car behind. It was a technically very interesting phone with dual-boot into degoogled android which I had got running pretty well using as much f-droid as possible and also with ubuntu touch as an alternative start option.
I had been eyeing up an iphone for a while mainly because the camera seems to be very good …
The screen had been thoroughly squashed and although the electronics seemed to have survived, I couldn’t source a new screen so the phone had to retire to a shelf in my office. The project was on pause. In the meantime I have been using a slightly elderly iPhone 12 pro max which has been (and still is) solid and has an excellent camera which I have come to value greatly.
I had also started another ubuntu touch project in the meantime with a Oneplus 6 which, although looking initially promising, collapsed when I more or less bricked the phone moving between postmarket OS and ubuntu touch. This also landed on the afore-mentioned “shelf of stationary projects” in my office.
After my last post thinking about ways to deal with the current world situation and, in particular, developments in the USA… -> Ubuntu Touch
Starting the Sailfish OS project:
Some time in October I think it was I decided that it might well be a good time in world history to get hold of a reasonably secure and “smaller-tech” mobile phone in order to be a bit less dependent on the current major players. I had experimented briefly with Sailfish OS on a Sony Xperia some years ago and also as a third boot option on the volla 22 and had been impressed. Perusing the Jolla website I got caught on the C2 community phone and spontaneously bought one. Time went by, I forgot about it then remembered in January and wrote to Jolla. Nothing came back but about a week ago I got a shipping notification and on friday the parcel arrived.
A few unboxing photos:
I did briefly entertain the idea of doing an unboxing video but decided against it as too much effort and also somehow a bit pointless but maybe that’s me being an old git. I did take a few photos with the trusty old iPhone so here is a small unboxing gallery:
First impressions and setup were very smooth and polished. I put in my spare SIM and a 512GB MicroSD card. With android support activated you can use the Aurora and F-Droid stores as well as the Jolla store for native apps so a huge amount of choice. As someone coming from ungoogled android and various custom ROMs it felt familiar and has been so far a very pleasing experience. I am still setting things up and installing OSM and attaching my Nextcloud. I am not rushing it and will gather further impressions in the coming weeks. If you only have experienced stock google or apple ecosystems so far it might come over as a bit of a learning curve but certainly nowhere near as rude a shock as ubuntu touch could be so…
Small update with screenshots from the first few days:
I am really happy to have my Firefox and Vivaldi browsers as well as some definite old favourites like Tiny Weather, Tusky and OSM and, of course, VLC 🙂 . The whole experience has, so far, been very relaxed and cool.
Next small update:
I’ve had the C2 running now alongside my main phone for at least two weeks now and am still very happy with it. The app tray has slowly grown and developed and have gathered various old f-droid faves. A lot of android apps work very well within sailfish os. It does get more difficult with apps like gadgetbridge because, most probably, not running natively and access to bluetooth pairing does not work smoothly.
Admittedly though, I am quite pleased to have various small, compact apps like AllRadio2 which is a sailfish native app with which I can listen to BBC Radio4 without fiddling about with geofences, vpn’s etc great work there!
I hooked up Joplin to work now on all my various machines (Fedora, ElementaryOS laptop, iPhone, SailPhone) using my Nextcloud so that’s all fine.
Am still on the lookout for a wordprocessor or office app but I suppose a text editor will do for the time being.
I am also thinking about trying my Garmin Smartphone Link solution on the Sailfish OS phone but need to get the motorbike up and running first. It’s still freezing here at night and in the morning so haven’t got the battery back in yet.
… BUT no amount of fiddling about or reinstalling, resetting or various other methods could persuade the Garmin Smartphone Link app to work without Google background services…
There are moments where the android app support layer feels a bit drowsy but, to be honest, I think it depends what you are used to and it’s not hanging up just a bit undecided.
Some Photos from the C2 Sailfish OS phone from early spring:
to be continued in a short while…
Update after several weeks if not a few months:
Back again. Now after many weeks or even a few months of using the Sailfish C2 as a secondary and in short bursts as a primary device I am still quite taken with it. I like its “frontier” feel and the step-by-step refining of apps and functionality. What I really like is that you’re not tied into an ecosystem and I don’t feel algorithmically guided into the given system hubs. There are some really good podcast and internet radio apps and I have found myself listening to radio more than in recent years.
I am renewing efforts to get out of Spotify and Netflix despite considerable resistance from the family. 🙂
Update after upgrading to Sailfish OS 5.1:
June 2026
The sailfish phone has been ticking along as a secondary for some months now. I have added this and that and found loads of great apps on f-droid. Some things had been difficult (or rather impossible) such as using Gadgetbridge for a smartwatch because there was no way to use bluetooth from within the android support layer. This has now changed dramatically with Sailfish 5.1 and now I have got my old Garmin Instinct working fine with Gadgetbridge and is now a privacy friendly way to use the watch data. It also means that I can use headphones for music streaming for the usual suspects and basically a new range of possibilities have opened up for the phone. There were various other updates with 5.1 that make the whole experience feel more mature and refined such as weather app integration and little but nice things like that.
I have yet to test the Garmin Smartphone Link functionality with my Zumo 590 or anything to do with banking apps but generally feel that this is a step towards significant primary phone functionality and really like it.
I also have the new Jolla phone in order so that should be turning up in August/September (??) and will shout up when that arrives.
2019 android aosp art bike Challenges change changes christmas climate catastrophe climate change corona Die Grünen france german Geschichte guzzi health illness iphone libertine container linux mgl moto guzzi motorcycle new job ota 12 Pflege plans purpose economy pyrenees smartphone sony xperia x thoughts triumph tiger ubports ubuntu touch uNav ungoogled update volla os volla phone 22 work xperia x zukunft
