Bare‑metal (native Linux kernel + native drivers)
pros:
True Linux kernel
Long‑term maintainability
No Android blobs in userspace
Cleaner architecture
cons:
Driver support is the biggest pain point
Modems, cameras, GPUs, sensors often require reverse‑engineering
Power management is worse
Hardware acceleration may be incomplete
Fewer devices are viable
You can put this on an old pine phone, or a pixel 3 or a fairephone 4/5
You can buy a preconfigured puresim librem 5
Battery life is pretty rough. You can find lots of youtubes recounting their attempts at daily driving both PostmarketOS, Puresim and UBPorts on bare metal
Halium‑based (Linux userspace on top of Android hardware abstraction)
pros:
Excellent hardware support (camera, modem, GPU, sensors)
Better battery life
Runs on many more devices
More stable than bare‑metal
cons:
Controversial in the community
Relies on Android blobs
Not “pure Linux”
Kernel is usually Android‑based, not mainline
Long‑term maintainability depends on Android vendor support
You can buy preworking models from Volla or you can put it on a Fury Phone
there are a number of options for used phones if you want to install it yousel.
IMO, If you want a daily driver with working cameras and good battery life, Halium is usually the practical choice.
You also have to beware of usage in some places, looks like most of the carriers in Australia will refsue to active VoiceOverLTE even though the phones support it.
So what can I buy now?
I’ve been following this for a while.
You have two main branches to follow
Bare‑metal (native Linux kernel + native drivers) pros:
cons:
You can put this on an old pine phone, or a pixel 3 or a fairephone 4/5 You can buy a preconfigured puresim librem 5 Battery life is pretty rough. You can find lots of youtubes recounting their attempts at daily driving both PostmarketOS, Puresim and UBPorts on bare metal
Halium‑based (Linux userspace on top of Android hardware abstraction)
pros:
cons:
You can buy preworking models from Volla or you can put it on a Fury Phone there are a number of options for used phones if you want to install it yousel.
IMO, If you want a daily driver with working cameras and good battery life, Halium is usually the practical choice.
You also have to beware of usage in some places, looks like most of the carriers in Australia will refsue to active VoiceOverLTE even though the phones support it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_phones#Devices_with_formal_support
My tears, maybe I can afford to eat today.