Jolla is another system that took many of the lessons of iOS and Android, and rethought how a mobile system should work. Since Jolla’s tablet crowdsourcing project ends tomorrow, this seems like a good time to talk about some of the things Jolla does really well.
Sailfish-the-operating-system is pretty good. Sailfish’ applications – or lack thereof – however, are not. I’ve bought the tablet, as did many, many others (it’s a runaway hit), so let’s hope this changes things for the better.
The situation of apps on SailfishOS isn’t that bad. Its a young platform so its missing the numbers and big names. But if you keep in mind that the official store is just a software repository basically, because of no paid apps and very restrictive api usage rules and the second software repository(openrepos) is basically a free-/open source software repo then the apps that are already there and the quality is all in all good.
The majority of smartphone users will almost find all the apps they need and most of them are native and not Android ones.
Its not perfect though and I really would like to see more big players of the app world bringing out apps for SailfishOS but I kind of understand that they limit their ressources on bringing out iOS and Android Apps and for the Jolla they say just use the Android app.
In my opinion Jolla needs to partner with big app manufacturers like they did already with rovio. I hope to see more native SailfishOS apps growing from this partnership. They also partnered with F-Secure and as far as I know they are working on an app aswell.
But don’t forget the community aspect. It is not to underestimate. Jolla has a great developer community and they keep developing great apps and even helping on some Jolla apps like the sailfish-browser.
SailfishOS and its development aswell as the app development is very much community driven which is one of the reasons many like the Jolla approach.
Since it can run Android apps, and I have a lot of content (music, ebooks, games) through the humble store. Having a Humble Store App would sure be a plus, but I haven’t had access to a device to check to see if one exists, or if the android one runs.
So which applications do you need? Which applications from those provided on iOS/Android platform are we Jolla users missing on?
Seriously.
I installed the Android ’emulator’ package, browsed all the available Android stores, and ended up installing a bunch of apps.
Virtually the only application I’ve ever used more than once has been Osmand. And HERE maps too.
Once that realization came upon me, I ended up completely removing the Android ’emulator’….
– Google Authenticator for 2FA with AWS
– Barcode Scanner to connect to wireless AP via QR code
– WhatsApp to talk to my friends without subjecting myself to the wrath of the flamboyant author of mitakuuluu
– Opera Mini, all my devices must have Opera installed
The Android emulation layer makes it possible for me to use Jolla as my primary phone.
SGAuth for Google Authenticator functionality:
https://openrepos.net/content/stozze/sgauth
Code Reader from the Jollastore can grab Barcodes.
Whatsapp and Opera are commercial. Can’t comment on them. Ask the vendor.
Edited 2014-12-10 07:30 UTC
Whatsapp and Opera Mini run with ACL.
Ha, seriously. I’ve installed tons of apps on my Note 3, and not that many are terribly useful, most are ad-ridden unless you fork over the cash, and even then almost all are ‘in-app purchases’. Didn’t have such a huge problem on my N9 with that, and it had all the apps I ever really needed. I’ve decided that for the most part it sucks to play games on that small of a screen, so most of the games that I’ve put any sort of time into have been puzzle games, and the N9 didn’t really need any of those to be an awesome device.
Jolla really needs to make a phone for the US market.
“Jolla is another system that took many of the lessons of iOS and Android.” Since when? It’s the progression of Maemo/Symbian -> MeeGo -> Jolla.
I have a Galaxy Note 3 and the interface to me still seems SO very clunky compared to my N9, and even the Jolla Launcher on top of Android seems far better than the various android launchers, that all seem pretty much the same, but with slightly different features.
I haven’t really used iOS that much, so won’t really comment there. Either way, I’m excited for a tablet with Jolla, and wish I could have gotten a Jolla phone, but without the 3G or 4G… it would have been too painful.