The PinePhone isn’t totally new but it is pretty new to most general consumers. When you think about a mobile phone/smartphone you think of something from Apple and everything else that runs on Android. You essentially have two choices for your phones operating system.
Sure, you might be old enough to remember the failed experiment that was the Amazon phone that still was essentially Android in a heavily modified state, or you might have had a cheap Windows Phone running, well, and version of Windows 8. They were cheap because no one outside of your grandparents bought them.
But recently a newcomer has put their hat in the smartphone race in the form of the PinePhone. What makes the PinePhone special is that is runs on the Linux operating system. While this may sound really strange it makes a lot of sense as most everything runs on Liunx, at least on their backends. The magic of the PinePhone is that it is super secure and for privacy geeks, this is the phone for you.
The only issue for the basic users that kept them away from the wicked affordable $149 PinePhone was that it came with no operating system installed and lets you choose upwards of 20 different operating systems. You put everything on it yourself with an OS that you choose. For tech-heads, this is a tinkering dream, but for average joe it is a lot of work as making a simple phone call requires a lot of work.
But now, Manjaro Linux is running on the PinePhone and you can even pre-order new Manjaro Community Edition PinePhone. This is an already fantastic version of Linux which is dirt simple to use and understand. In turn, this should make ordering this phone much nicer as you can, you know, turn it on and just start using it as a phone.
The team seems to be wanting to branch out to more users with this built-in build as Manjaro is already available for the device, but you do have to figure out installing it yourself, making this a must-have phone for someone like myself.
“Manjaro has offered support for PINE64 devices since the very beginning and the PinePhone is no exception in this regard,” says Pine64’s Lucasz Erecinski. “There are currently three Manjaro PinePhone build variants (Lomiri, Phosh and Plasma Mobile) for users to try out – all available for download from Manjaro’s download’s repository.”
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