Yeah that’s what really needs to ramp up now is the alternative mobile operating systems that are and have been around for quite a while actually but just never managed to stick it to the man so to speak.

But yeah Linux actually had an official build Ubuntu touch or it was maybe not cononical possibly but if it wasn’t it was as close to I condone this as you can get from the Linux world and Ubuntu (cononical) etc.

The issue is it never took off it was called Ubuntu Touch and it still remains although unofficial to the original dev team although likely some of the team kept the dream alive for the minority as it is really limited as to the device list it can be installed on.

But it is quite literally a mobile version of Ubuntu, it released initially though on select devices not too expensive but not cheap they were borderline middling level handsets to reasonably higher middling handset’s there may have been some high end units with it, the problem was it just wasn’t what the public saw as a necessity in its day, it wasnt then but it could be more a lot lot more giving back some choice to users regarding their personal data not being shared or read via app installations demanding set permissions and so on.

Despite that going for it not against it where it will have to expand really quickly is in the software and apps department it will need to have a humongous instant library of apps and programs yeah real Linux software or ports of those that run like full Linux software to really get people talking and joining in as a developer and or an end user buying a phone, as well as growing the existing compatability list of devices to degree far far exceeding it’s current compatibility levels, as they do cater for a fair few devices yes, but nowhere near the hundreds to a thousand or thousands plural it would have to rapidly introduce to that list to encompass a larger userbase overnight which is the only sort of guaranteed adoption it’s going to need adoption to encourage investors I should imagine…

Then the store with these apps and programs would need to be less FDroid (no offense intended) basic quality of apps, it would require a far more premium grade of apps and full software programs that give a mobile chipset the abilities to eg. Fully compose music using an opensource plethora of DAW’s (digital audio workstation’s) and eg.inbuilt usb drivers for externally attached dvdrw drives working like plugging them into a desktop not a mobile OS, and going further future wise, they’d need to be leaning into higher chipsets to eventually be running the steam software and playing games for real as a Linux steam install on mobile chipsets as they improve they are getting just on the borderline edge right now they could maybe run a game or two low end stuff on a mobile desktop is build.

Believe it or not the current processors well SOC chips from rockchip namely the rk3588 is now able to run some amazing emulation PS2 and switch and more it’s apparently around 2 to 2.5x the power of the Nvidia Shield TV’s X1 SOC chip is it X1? Basically the Nintendo Switch is the same SOC chip a Nvidia Tegra X1 super up a bit overclocked I presume with 1gb extra ram I think it is. But the RK3588 by Rockchip obliterates its power CPU and graphically.

But if you give those SOC chip production advancements a further say 8-10yrs and you spend it readying for steam playing off these SOC’s software architectures and you couple it into the Ubuntu Touch build advances then pretty soon your talking these SOC’s are replacing some computer hardware of certain ages but reasonably capable of steam and your then getting closer to a full desktop utilising it with a mobile operating system rather than going mainstream mobile OS’s that are going the opposite way they are heading downhill with the proprietary nature of the current mobile OS’s whicc are lets face it is seemingly heading towards completely disbanding bit by bit the whole pay once (premium one-time purchase) app payment m.odel for the IAP and subscription based IAP models, it’s going to be IAP and subscription only and Ubuntu Touch should seek heavier investment and development immediately like right now so should other open source mobile operating systems they should be thinking go big or go broke though all in or nothing at all.

One thing I quite favour the idea may not be practically possible though, is the cluster computing method these science guys build out of say lots of PS3 consoles or old laptops all linked together to perform computing tasks faster.

I looked at this a number of times over the years I know nothing much really can’t remember hardly anything at all on it, but I think it is asked many times in forums on this well can you parallel the graphics as well but they said it’s only CPU tasks its for not gaming, but if somehow a device link ribbon could do all the joining work and bins anything mobile phones for eg. And laptops and desktops to use them as a cluster for not just CPU tasks and maths answers turbo fast but for regular computer use and gaming then this would be a major milestone, you could have say 5 old galaxies a s7 a S8 as9 and S10 say and combine them all running in some mobile chipset compatible Linux distro and be able to run proper steam gaming adding more and more TV boxes or old phones etc to the cluster to basically modularly build a super computer with super computing graphics running phones and TV boxes would be about 7-15watts electric each way way more economical and green than gaming pcs on average have been.

I did see there is apparently a distro or Linux desktop software that does allow paralleling phones CPU combined with the desktops and laptops CPU but forgot what it’s called, but any way a Ubuntu Touch build incorporating what I say CPU and GPU cluster computing and gaming spec would be incredible imagine rk3588 clusters

IIRC the ad blocker toggles for Mullvad VPN on android were added this year.

Well, not about the DNS blocking, that’s absolutely great but it can only block on a domain basis so ads from the same domain aka first party ads (E.g. Youtube ads) can’t be blocked using it.

I use it not rooted, on both an android tablet and phone. Haven’t run into any issues, it uses a VPN to block the ads

Edit: there was one issue where youtube wouldn’t update the watch history, to fix this just allow s.youtube.com on the allow list