If the specter of x86 computers (Intel and AMD) makes it difficult alternative operating systems, the situation of these on mobile phones is downright hellish, with a virtually non-existent presence. If the “duopoly” of Windows and macOS on personal computers turns out to be strong, the dominance of Android and iOS in the mobility sector has become a tyranny in which users have no viable alternatives, although this can also be interpreted that users have refused to have many alternatives. in that segment.

In addition to consumer trends, there is another factor that has contributed to the mobility industry becoming a duopoly: the closedness of devices using ARM processors. While x86 is a platform underpinned by many standards and specifications, in ARM we find many devices whose bootloader is locked and often require their own system image to work.r, making it difficult to have a generic kernel capable of running on any device. In addition to the well-known Android ROMs, we can also mention the work done by Asahi Linux to make the well-known kernel work on Apple Silicon processors.

With all that said, it’s clear that the development of non-iOS or Android-based mobile operating systems exists, so we’ll take the opportunity to mention seven examples of these. Some of the mentioned systems are freely distributed and others not so much and not all existing mobile devices are compatible with them.

Before we start the list, we want to clarify that Android ROMs have been left out of this list, because after all it is still a Google system, but modified according to the criteria and goals of developers. Of course, some of the systems we’ll mention support running apps built for Android.

Sailfish OS

We start with what is probably the strongest alternative to Android and iOS at least in terms of software maturity (probably courtesy of the latter). Sailfish OS is a Linux operating system that uses Wayland as a graphical display technology and whose graphical user interface is built using Qt, the same technology used by the KDE project.

Sailfish OS is basically a sequel to another Linux-based operating system called MeeGo, which was developed primarily by Nokia and Intel and fell out of favor with the Finnish company. At first, Sailfish OS was pre-installed on the Jolla Phone, released in 2013, but over time, it has become an independent system that is popular with Sony’s Xperia devices.

Added to all of the above on a feature level is the purpose of a secure operating system that has compatibility to run some Android apps. The latest version, Vanha Rauma (4.4), was released in March 2022.

UbuntuTouch

UbuntuTouch It was a very ambitious project for Canonical, specifically one of the cornerstones of its strategy around convergence, which it eventually abandoned in favor of servers and the Internet of Things and returned to GNOME as the reference desktop. This also marked the official end of the Unity desktop, which was recently resurrected (in terms of serious and active development) to rejoin the Ubuntu family.

Ubuntu Touch is a dead project for Canonical, so UBPorts has had it for yearsa non-profit institution that continues its development as much as it can, because the process is very slow, so much so that it currently seems that it can adopt the Ubuntu 20.04 technology base.

Ubuntu Touch, under the umbrella of UBPorts, continues to refine its experience and improve its applications without giving up the convergent spirit that the project had when Canonical was responsible for it. Despite its slow development, it is one of the most interesting options in the segment.

PostmarketOS

PostmarketOS is a project born with the intention of enormously extending the life of smartphones, which generally tend to be crushed by an aggressive planned obsolescence policy. As a result, many devices end up without software support after a few years, with all the security risks this entails.

This operating system is marketed as a true Linux distribution is trying to extend the life of smartphones and break through the limitations of the walled gardens that are iOS and Android.

PostmakertOS is also capable of running on the PineBook Pro, a PINE64 notebook that uses the ARM architecture. However, like the other systems mentioned here, it doesn’t support a large number of devices, and if you want to play it safe, you need to have a device from PINE64, a small company that has a long history of releasing ARM-built devices to work with Linux.

clean OS

clean OS is an operating system under the umbrella of Purism, a non-profit company based in the United States. Although it is free to download and use, especially considering that it is actually a converged system compiled for x86, it is closely related to that company’s products, which include the Librem 5 smartphone.

PureOS stands out in four ways: it is a convergent system capable of adapting to mobile and desktop contexts, its strong focus on privacy, and the fact that it is pure free software. when we say it is pure free software is that it does not contain any proprietary component, not even at the firmware level, which is why it is present on the list of distributions approved by the Free Software Foundation. (which Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux and openSUSE cannot say).

As we can see, it is possible to be a pure stallman and use mobile, but app support and the idea of ​​reaching the public are different matters.

Tizen

Tizen is the operating system it falls under the umbrella of The Linux Foundation and which Samsung tried to use to distance itself from Android, but the point was to see the passing of time and the almost zero presence that the mobility segment has. Finally, where Tizen managed to gain a foothold was in smart TVs and certain wearables. Samsung itself, the main company promoting it for a long time (although The Linux Foundation remains the legal owner), opened it up to other manufacturers this year 2022.

At least Tizen had some Android app compatibility. On the other hand, it may not end with the enthusiasm of Open Source fans, since its SDK has proprietary components belonging to Samsung, and some 40 vulnerabilities were discovered a few years ago that question the security it offers.

Mobian

MobianAs its name suggests, it’s a Debian derivative built to work on mobile phones, though so far it only supports the OnePlus 6, Librem 5 (thanks to its free drivers), PinePhone and PineTab. It also supports PineBook Pro and has an image for x86_64.

Mobian uses Phosh as its GUI, a development supported by Purism to adapt GNOME technologies to mobile devices, and works with Wayland using a proprietary compositor called Phoc. At the application level, Mobian is not bad Chromium, Firefox ESR, GNOME Web (formerly Epiphany), Telegram Desktop, Google Maps and MPV for hardware-accelerated video playback.

After all, an attempt to bring the most traditional Linux distribution to a segment in which it has a very difficult time.

Harmony OS?

Finally, this server decided to close the list HarmonyOS, which many are questioning as a non-Android operating system, as evidence has been found that it has taken over parts of Android. While the other operating systems we’ve mentioned started supporting Android apps long after they existed, HarmonyOS is unclear and all indications are that it’s at least a fork of Google’s system.

HarmonyOS is the operating system that powered Huawei as a result of boycotts by the US government. Restrictions imposed by the Trump administration have forced the Chinese-origin technology company to ditch the Honor smartphone brand.

The problem is that the company promised the operating system from the beginning and that it would use a microkernel, but in the end it ended up being another exponent based on Linux and less independent than promised.

Despite everything, and looking at who’s behind him, he seems to be one of the few non-US exponents, if not the only one, that could become massive.

Conclusion

As we can see, even if it doesn’t seem like it, there is plenty of life outside of Android and iOS, but it’s rare that the alternatives aren’t based on Linux in one way or another, and they generally support a very limited range of devices, a circumstance that is mainly due to the lack of a standardized platform around ARM that x86 has. The lack of apps like WhatsApp because the client is proprietary is another obstacle for operating systems to gain a foothold in the market.

An alternative that competes with iOS and Android, and depending on how far HarmonyOS goes, will probably come from within. Yes, we mean Google’s Fuchsia operating system, which is not unlikely to make its way to mobile phones in the future, and with the possibility (if possible) that the company will just replace the Linux kernel with Zircon in Android to get rid of GPL license.