back to article Jolla Sailfish OS to support Android hardware, apps

Finnish smartphone startup Jolla has announced that its Linux-based Sailfish OS mobile platform will be both software and hardware compatible with Android. Sailfish OS will be able to run unmodified Android apps alongside native Sailfish ones, the company said in a press release on Monday. In addition, Sailfish will be …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What would be the point of Sailfish?

    Is it supposed to be somehow better than Android in some way, some way that Android can't match for some reason? Cheaper due to reduced hardware requirements, perhaps? Will native Sailfish apps be able to do things that Android apps cannot and will not be able to match?

    There has to be some reason for people to choose a Sailfish device, and some reason for developers to develop Sailfish apps, otherwise the whole exercise seems rather pointless.

    At least the FirefoxOS project has some goals in mind (targeting lower hardware requirements to be able to hit that very low segment still dominated by feature phones which Android cannot reach) Tizen has the advantage of having Samsung behind it, and thus could guarantee millions of sales in months if Samsung decided to get serious about pushing them.

    1. Bad Beaver

      Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

      Maybe you can find the time to look into it a little more, you might like what you see.

    2. Steve Brooks

      Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

      The point would be that you are not confined to one OS seller/supplier, and that if that OS seller/supplier decided to do something to the OS that you personally found so unethical that you couldn't possibly purchase a phone using said OS, you actually have an alternative available.

      1. Sam Liddicott

        Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

        Google don't get their mitts on your contacts and emails?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

      There needs to be an alternative to Android that gets some decent market share. It's called competition.

      iOS is only for Apple phones and Windows Phone isn't getting much traction.

    4. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

      It's the continuation of MeeGo which was a very good mobile OS in the N9.

      It's nice to have an alternative which is not iOS (nice but restrictive) and Android (lately only seems to be developed in ways which make it a more interesting advertising platform for Google).

      It's not from a US corporation (sorry US corporations, talk to your government).

      By the way, the article mentions Android Compatibility Layer but I was always under the impression it used Alien Dalvik which was also available for the N9.

      1. Mark .

        Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

        I've never seen an advert on my Android phone (well, of course there are adverts on web pages and in 3rd party applications, but that applies to all platforms). I think more choices is a good thing, so look forward to Sailfish (if we end up in a world where the only alternative is IOS, that is not a good thing), but I don't understand this common criticism of Google using Android for ads.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

          Basically everything's 1000 times easier if you go through Google. IMAP IDLE, Caldav, Carddav, .ics/.vcs via SMS/MMS/e-mail/Bluetooth, LAN sync, selective sync depending on connection, local sync to PC, and similar things are absent unless the phone manufacturer adds them (haven't heard of one) or you install third party software.

    5. Mr Anonymous

      Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

      Choice.

    6. SpiderPig

      Re: What would be the point of Sailfish?

      Because Sailfish is pure Linux coming out of the Meego project. Android is a Linux fork and certainly not an open system.

  3. Bad Beaver
    Thumb Up

    Looking forward to the final device

    It could all turn out pretty nifty. Jolla folks have the best possible background so expectations are quite high but the "other half" concept provides a an excellent USP. Android is the cherry on top and the saftey line for all those afraid of "dead ends". I might actually succumb to pure technolust and get the Jolla device despite my private Nokia N9 being all fine. All thumbs up.

  4. mistergrantham

    They should do it first, talk about it afterwards...

    Unless they're running out of money.

    1. Anonymous Coward 101

      Nail on head there, I fear.

    2. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

      A bit of public awareness does not hurt. Provided they are able to deliver.

  5. Piro Silver badge

    I, for one, will be looking at Jolla with interest

    Mainly if one of the "other halves" for the phone is a sliding keyboard. I could probably recommend that to someone I know quite quickly, due to the lack of decent sliders available, especially in the UK.

    Android compatibility is just a massive layer of icing. Need to see how this whole thing pans out, though.

    1. ted frater

      Re: I, for one, will be looking at Jolla with interest

      Me too, tho whats of more interest still is the return of proper keyboards onto smart phones.

      look at the disaster M/soft have had with their on screen keyboards in their latest pc s/ware.

      For real work, id bet that just about everyone uses keyboards for imput.

      Nokia had at one time engineers who sat down and looked at pda's , of which many had good, properly sized and spaced keyboards and said, how can we put a phone into these?

      The result was the communicator. A proper business communication device. I currently use the 9210i, tho have the earlier 9110 and later 9300. Both of these are deficient.in some way or another.

      the best keyboard is/was on the Psion 5. If they used that form factor with a modern screen and jolla, Id buy it in a second.As Ive said many times before here on The Reg, the money is there when the product is, ill buy it. right now, it isnt, so the money stays burning a hole in my pocket. Nice feeling!!.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Android compatibility is the only way for Jolla to have a decently sized applications ecosystem.

    Unfortunately without applications a smartphone is a dead fish: good for Jolla to go for it.

    They can tap on the big android ecosystem as well as bring little by little more developers to consider their phones.

    I'm happy that finally they made it public and they go all the way for full Android compatibility.

    Jolla can kill firefox OS in the market... and it's good they are first mover here because other companies (OEMs) are going to do a similar play

    1. Jess

      Jolla can kill firefox OS in the market

      I don't see why.

      Sailfish is the development of the once planned replacement for Symbian.

      Firefox is obviously targeted as an S40 replacement

      I really don't think their prospective customers will have much overlap.

      However, it is quite possible the same phones could be available with either OS (or Android or Ubuntu.)

      I shall follow this with interest. I would quite like a large phone with a good, non USA sourced OS.

      I think a Samsung running a derivative of of Nokia's canned OS would be a suitably ironic replacement for my N8.

  7. Zola

    Alien Dalvik from Myriad

    is providing the Android compatibility layer, and libhybris manages the hardware side of things.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google play may not be only store in town

    But it's the only secure one, all the others are littered with crapware apps.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Google play may not be only store in town

      I suppose you're thinking about GetJar and similar instead of Amazon.

  9. Luke McCarthy

    Sideloading Play Store?

    I hope it is possible...

  10. phil dude
    Thumb Up

    proper compartmentlization...?

    I have always though the benefit of android + "raw linux" is that one could better compartment the applications running?

    I have an android tablet (TF101) and the complete lack of control for applications accessing the system is bizarre (yes, I know google has addressed this, but no more firmware forthcoming to this tablet...).

    As an N9 owner that is sad the battery seems to be failing, I cannot wait for the next rev to arrive...;-)

    Even though I will probably have to get it shipped from Blighty

    P.

    1. Gob Smacked
      Pint

      Re: proper compartmentlization...?

      I owned the N9 and it happily outran Android phones while using inferior hardware. I had to move to Android again later due to lack of a few important apps I relied on before the N9.

      To have the speed of raw Linux combined with the resources of Android... nice: best of both worlds. :)

    2. Bad Beaver

      Re: proper compartmentlization...?

      Look up how to replace the battery on the N9. They are dead-cheap and only a few torx screws away.

  11. jalyst

    *TEST*

    When we comment, are we auto-subscribed to these comment threads or what?

    1. Bad Beaver

      Re: *TEST*

      No, you are not.

  12. jalyst

    2 major factual inaccuracies

    "Other, competing Linux-based mobile platforms, including Firefox OS, Tizen, and Ubuntu, have been built around the Android device driver model to achieve broad hardware compatibility."

    This is kinda very wrong, the only ones to devise a novel sol'n in this respect, are the mer/nemo/sailfish/jolla peeps in the form of libhybris.* Which was promptly "borrowed" by canonical & presented (initially) as "their" solution, after taking it internal, doing some more work on it, & not sharing that upstream. They rectified that little "foopah" some time ago, & have since been mostly good F/OSS citizens, so I guess by-gones are by-gones.

    Also, OpenMobile is the last co. they'll be working with for an ACL, that org. has a looong & chequered history of being little more than hot air & spam/snake-oil merchants. It's been well-known for ages that they have a close association with Myriad (they've announced them as 1 of their primary partners at some of their reveals -going back as far as Nov 2012), & that some variation of their AlienDalvik will probably be used. Although the latest chattering's suggest that Sailfish(Jolla) may have developed something that is entirely of their own making.

    *FFOS also -in some respects- has devised something similar

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like