# How the PinePhone helped advance the mobile Linux software ecosystem

DevFeed: [How the PinePhone helped advance the mobile Linux software ecosystem](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/game-changers-34224.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2022/02/04/game-changers/>)

Author: Mobian team

Published: 2022-02-04T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Mobian's Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/mobian-s-blog.md>)

Topics: [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>), [Linux](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/linux.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>)

Tags: [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux.md>), [mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mobile.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>)

## AI overview

The article reflects on the PinePhone Pro's usability and the engineering choices behind it, then argues that the original PinePhone helped mature the mobile Linux software ecosystem by giving developers and users an affordable, usable device to improve.

## Source excerpt

While mildly working on and playing with the PinePhone Pro, I recently got amazed at how pleasant to use this device was, and how little work it took us to get to this point! Clever choices Don't get me wrong, the fact that the PinePhone Pro is already quite usable (to the point where the bravest could probably daily-drive it - I actually did for a whole week!) is the result of countless hours of engineering, most of those having happened before the Developer Edition even shipped, in good part thanks to the combined efforts of @megi and @MartijnBraam. It's also the result of very clever choices made by Pine64: design the device around the RockChip RK3399, a very well-known and supported SoC in mainline Linux and u-boot use the modem we already know (and, at times, hate) from the OG PinePhone choose peripheral chips identical to those used on the OG PinePhone (flashlight, accelerometer...) or already well supported upstream (audio codec) This definitely eased the initial bringup process and allowed us to enable several useful features very quickly. However, the most amazing part of this whole process is the maturity of the whole software ecosystem when compared to what we experienced in the days of the BraveHeart Edition PinePhone! If you build it, they will come Two years ago, when first starting working on the OG PinePhone, the available software targeting mobile phones was a bit rough around the edges, to say the least: Phosh was barely past the proof-of-concept stage Plasma Mobile wasn't very usable, although things improved quickly mobile-friendly apps were few, and often needed a number of downstream patches to be usable on phones With the exception of UBPorts/Lomiri, the FLOSS ecosystem clearly wasn't ready for the PinePhone! However, give enough developers an itch to collectively scratch, and they'll each do their part. And that's precisely what made the PinePhone instrumental in improving the mobile Linux ecosystem: by providing a low-cost (yet usable) device