As we all know, the operating system of smartphones is
monopolized by Android and iOS, and the market share of Android has reached 88%
by the end of 2018 (data source: statista). Therefore, Google with Android
has strong control over the mobile phone industry. With the open source of
Android as more and more closed, many people are aware of the hidden dangers of
over-reliance on Google.
There
are many examples of developing your own operating system, but either fail or
die. Among the currently alive systems, the only non-Android systems that
can be experienced by ordinary users are Sailfish OS and UBports. Among
them, UBports is the unofficial version of the Ubuntu Touch (Ubuntu Touch)
officially abandoned, and the Sailfish OS is the only remaining system that the
official has not given up. So today let's experience the Sailfish OS and
see what is the difference between Sailfish OS and Android and iOS.
The origin of Sailfish
OS
Although the Sailfish OS
sounds "independent", it is actually a spiritual sequel to the
once-famous MeeGo operating system . There are a large
number of former MeeGo developers in the development team. MeeGo is
Nokia's hand-picked operating system after abandoning Saipan. It was once the
hope of Nokia's rushing out of Android and iOS. The advanced gestures have been
talked about. Unfortunately, MeeGo was replaced by Windows Phone 7 a year
later. So there is a story of MeeGo developers leaving to build the Sailfish
OS.
The
reason why we chose to experience the Sailfish OS is that the Ubuntu Touch is
too cumbersome and needs to be reset by using a computer running the Ubuntu
desktop system (the partitions of Android and Ubuntu are different) . And
the support model is too small, so we can only temporarily give up the Ubuntu
Touch.
The
official version of Sailfish OS supports very few models, mainly including Sony
Xperia X (released in February 2016). In Finland, users can also directly
purchase officially certified mobile phones with pre-installed Sailfish OS,
such as the Swordfish OS version of the Sony Xperia X.
Since there is no officially supported mobile phone at hand, we
can only use Xiaomi 5 to brush the unofficial Sailfish OS. Xiaomi 5 should
be one of the best hardware phones to support the unofficial equipment of
Sailfish OS. The other one is more likely to be the 2017 Red Rice 5 Plus.
Although
the Swordfish OS version supported by Xiaomi 5 is only 2.1.0.11, it is not the latest
3.0.3.10 (just updated yesterday). But compared to the old version, the
new Sailfish OS has not changed much, so we brushed the Sailfish OS 2.1.0.11
enough for the purpose of this article.
â– Too simple
Open
the millet 5 that eats the fish, and the face-to-face is a simple atmosphere
from Northern Europe. The interface has no rules, only the simple white
font and the frosted glass background are blurred. The default green is
also very Nordic. Maybe someone likes this succinct, but the price of simplicity
is that there are too few customizable options, and you can't customize the
look of the system to what you want, just like Android. And on the rich
content screen, the design without the frame will make the content appear very
fragmented, and it will be a little hard to read.
Left:
The upper part of the screen pulls down the toolbar right: the upper edge of
the screen pulls down the mode bar
In addition, the current Swordfish OS interface optimization has
not been polished to the level of Android and iOS, some places display will be
a bit awkward, similar to the feeling of APP adaptation on Android phones.
â– It's hard to get people who are used to Android and iOS
operation logic to use Sailfish OS
The
Sailfish OS is a maverick operating system with completely different interaction logic from
Android and iOS. Android and iOS are all apps in the row
of the main screen. You can pull out the menu from the screen or the bottom
edge, and then configure the gestures with the function of return, main screen
and multitasking. The Sailfish OS has no traditional home screen, and the
main screen content is directly a multi-tasking menu, showing the most recent
tasks. To find the app, you must enter the app drawer from the bottom of
the screen.
On Android and iOS, we can all go back
to the previous level with a simple swipe, but the Sailfish OS mobile phone
operation does not return this function, you want to return only the back
button in the upper left corner of the screen.
These features are not shortcomings, but with Android and iOS, these features become a disadvantage. Because we are used to the operational logic of Android and iOS, the operation logic of Sailfish OS is completely different , not very intuitive, and it takes a certain time to adapt.
â– No app is available, compatibility is not high
Compared
to the massive apps for Android and iOS, Sailfish OS has few apps, and many of
them can be used to provide Finnish localization services.
Although the Sailfish OS is compatible with Android apps, the
compatible Android app versions are very old. Because the official version of Sailfish
OS only supports Android apps that can run on Android version 4.4 or below ,
support for Android 8.1 version of Android APP is still in the testing phase. Even
if you find a compatible Android app, it won't work perfectly. This is not
only because the APP code itself does not adapt to the Sailfish OS, but also because the Android app uses
Android operation logic, not the Sailfish OS.Therefore, the gesture operation
of the Sailfish OS sometimes conflicts with the Android APP gesture operation.
â– Full-featured Sailfish OS is not free
We
are brushing the unofficial Sailfish OS this time, so the "after-sales service"
is zero. If
you want a Sailfish OS with official service support and feature expansion, you
need to purchase a paid version of Sailfish OS on the official website .
The mobile phone must also be an officially certified mobile phone. These
officially certified mobile phones are also niche or old models with poor
hardware performance, so the entry threshold of the Sailfish OS is very high. It
is the biggest factor that blocks the swordfish OS from becoming mainstream
except for the ecological.
The full version of the Sailfish OS costs
between 30 and 50 Euros
Swordfish OS is not
alone on the road to breaking Google and Apple monopoly
Based
on the current market strategy, ecological creation and system interaction
logic, the possibility of the Sailfish OS is very slim. But that doesn't
mean we have no hope at all, because the Sailfish OS is not alone. Samsung's
Tizen has not been completely abandoned, and the third-party /e/OS has recently
had some actions (a completely abandoned Google's Android system), and began to
sell pre-installed / e / OS refurbished mobile phones. But then again, if you can't solve the problem
of APP ecology and operational friendliness, but how many new operating systems
come out, you can't break the monopoly of Google and Apple.
　　Finally,
attach the Xiaomi 5 or Red Rice 5 Plus Swordfish OS tutorial:
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