Install postmarketOS on Android phone and use Docker as a home server

Re:Install postmarketOS on Android phone and use Docker as a... by Tade0 on Friday December 06, 2024 @11:26AM (#42341192)

10 years ago I worked at a company which had a fleet of phones to test mobile browser games we were making and the batteries were in noticeably worse shape after a few months of near constant use.

Nowadays in most phones you can limit charging to e.g. 80%, which is much lighter on the battery.

Additionally, the battery works as a heat sink (or heat store really considering it's just a solid slab of dense material) so expect more throttling when it's not there.

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Re:Install postmarketOS on Android phone and use Docker as a... by nine_k on Friday December 06, 2024 @01:14PM (#42342415)

If you have an old phone that would otherwise go to garbage, likely its battery is not in a great shape anyway, and server-like loads are mostly incompatible with being battery-powered. I suppose it's going to be permanently attached to a USB power source.

Thanks for the heads-up about the thermal inertia of the battery! Maybe a stationary phone in the server role could use a glue-on passive radiator.

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Re:Install postmarketOS on Android phone and use Docker as a... by close04 on Friday December 06, 2024 @03:24PM (#42343977)

The problem isn’t the performance of the battery but the safety. A dead battery for this always-connected use case is probably a non-issue. A swollen battery that could explode or catch fire is definitely an issue.

You could take it out but many phones won’t work without a battery so you need to find a way to trick them into thinking one is installed.

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