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Are there any combinations of cellphone + Linux distro out there that allows you to run a near 100% FOSS cellphone with only moderate to mildly severe effort?

Need to haves:

  1. Texting
  2. Calling
  3. Contacts / phone book

Nice to haves:

  1. Calendar
  2. Browser
  3. Mail app

I'm aware of Android and all that - obviously - but I'm looking for something thats 100% open source, apart from device drivers. Something like Debian on a phone really!

Is that available as of today?

Cheers!

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What about this project? – AndrejaKo Apr 7 '12 at 21:14

closed as not constructive by Kellenjb, Kortuk♦ Apr 7 '12 at 23:51

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1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

The closest that exists is OpenMoko. Phones such as the Neo FreeRunner, designed to run OpenMoko, aim for open device drivers and open hardware as well: its components are chosen in order to allow that, and you can download the schematics.

Unfortunately, some of the components are covered under very tight NDAs.

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I've stumbled upon that myself, probably should've mentioned it. Is that really the best available? – user9115 Apr 7 '12 at 22:00
@user9115 I think so. There was the TuxPhone project but it seems to be dead. – Renan Apr 7 '12 at 22:02
You know, I'm looking in the old obsolete Nokia and SonyEricsson drawer, and I'm thinking 'there must be a kernel for that' ;-) – user9115 Apr 7 '12 at 22:03
@user9115 maybe there is one, but it's unlikely that this can be done without some serious reverse engineering. – Renan Apr 7 '12 at 22:05
thanks for the answers, it's been great help so far! I'll leave it open for a couple of days, seeing what happens. – user9115 Apr 7 '12 at 22:13

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