Not the person you're replying to, but I have the same issue. The phone OS is indeed a way to get to apps for me. And the problem is that the "alternative" phone OSes don't have access to apps that I've woven into my day-to-day-life: banking apps, contactless payments, video streaming, music streaming, etc.

None of these are available on platforms other than iOS or Android, unfortunately. Some of them have web experiences, but they're terrible on mobile when compared to their app.

I, too, would love to run a mobile-optimized Linux desktop on my phone, but it's not about the desktop, it's about the apps and functionality it gives me access to. So I'm stuck with Android for the time being.

What would be really cool is if these alt mobile OSes could perfectly emulate Android to the point that Google's SafetyNet would believe that everything is a-ok. Not sure if that's even technically possible, but could help bridge the gap and allow alternative OSes to gain some market share among people who aren't willing to give up many of their usual mobile apps.

> What is an ideal phone for you, and how would Linux help achieve that experience?

The main bits for me are privacy and control. I refuse to use an iPhone because I viscerally hate Apple's stranglehold over the platform. I very reluctantly use Android, hating that Google is always watching. A fully-open mobile OS where I get to choose what runs on it, how it runs, and what access it gets would solve both of those problems.

I don't like the ridiculous number of settings you have to tweak to stop google from spying on you, 4 settings levels deep somewhere. I don't like that google made phone manufacturers take the "disable location" button out of the quick menu. I don't like the restrictive policies of the app store that is downright prudish, and how every app on the app store is just laden with crap and ads, and often also spies on you (i do use f-droid to circumvent most of that when possible). I don't like how you literally cannot control your phones update behaviour. I don't like how after a couple years, the phone will stop being updated and you'll have to buy a new one or just accept that your phone has security holes that will never be fixed. If you're using a modern phone os, you are fundamentally not in control of the device, and it will make sure at various points to remind you of this.

That's pretty much my use-case too. I want my laptop, but smaller :)

Primarily, I want software I can trust, because I trust that the developers' motives are aligned with my own: a useful tool that I'm in control of.

In my experience, most Free software fits that bill; whereas most proprietary software seems more interested in persuading me to buy something or sign up for something that I don't want. (Most, not all; I can think of counterexamples.)

Bluntly, Free software is usually much less full of skeevy bullshit.

> Bluntly, Free software is usually much less full of skeevy bullshit.

Yes and it's amazing how much smaller, faster and battery-efficient it can be without all the marketing and tracking crap.

Most apps on F-Droid are a few MB as opposed to tens of MBs for the play store ones. Most are well written and efficient. The quality of these has really increased the last couple of years.