14 DAY TRIAL // I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: the world of Linux phones is evolving so fast that it’s probably just a matter of years until it finally becomes an alternative to Android and iOS.
And while that’s hard to imagine right now, Linux on mobile phones is gaining more and more traction, with fresh projects enabling new capabilities that aren’t otherwise possible on the other mobile platforms.
More recently, the PinePhone has received a new bootloader that allows multiple Linux operating systems to boot on the device. In other words, the so-called Pineloader is a multi bootloader that essentially allows users to choose what operating system they want to run when starting the PinePhone.
A photo published by developer Danct12 on Twitter shows the Pineloader in action, allowing to choose from four different operating systems on the PinePhone, namely Ubuntu Touch, postmarketOS, Sailfish OS, and Huong Tram Linux.
Selecting the Linux OS you want to use
Selecting the operating system can be done with the volume up and volume down since touch doesn’t work in this menu, and then confirming the selection is possible with the power button.
While for many this doesn’t sound like big news, it actually is, especially because a multi bootloader opens the door for many other Linux-based projects on the PinePhone.
For now, however, the world of Linux on phones still appears to be mostly aimed at power users, and as said earlier, some years of improvements are still required until it can become an alternative to Android and iOS.
Fortunately, everything appears to be moving in the right direction, so fingers crossed for all these projects to advance just the way they are supposed to advance in the first place, so Linux on mobile phones can eventually become a common thing.