Sailfish OS 5.0, originally released late last year as part of the new Jolla C2 Community Phone, will now be pushed to all Sailfish OS devices. There have been several other minor releases since the original release, so if you’re running Sailfish OS on something other than the C2, you’re getting a release with some more bugfixes and improvements.
The main improvement is an upgrade to Gecko ESR91, with work underway to move to ESR102 – this is far from the latest release, but sticking to ESR releases seems like a wise idea for a smaller team. This release also upgrades the Android application support to Android 13 (API level 33), and adds the microG 0.3.6 enablers. There’s Wireguard support now, call blocking, and new landscape view for a variety of applications.
Incidentally, I was one of the first people to publish a review of the original Jolla Phone, exactly 11 years ago in 2014. Since I was such an early adopter, I have the The First One version, and it just so happens I’m also one of the very few people who actually received the Jolla Tablet, after being an extremely early backer of that device, too. I still have both of them, and especially the Jolla Phone I used as my main device for quite a while – half a year to a year, or so – before going back to Android.
I’m glad Sailfish OS is still going, and I’m definitely interested in giving this new release a go. I would need to buy the Jolla C2 Community Phone, and if finances allow, I may actually do so. In case you want to help, feel free to become an OSNews Patreon or make a one-time donation through Ko-Fi.
The company was owned in large part by Russia state backed telecom giant, prior to the invasion of Ukraine.
I am able to find reports they attempted to cut ties, but nothing to suggest they ever did.
Before buying new devices from them, it’s probably worth validating what the current ownership structure looks like.
Of course.
No Russian connections since 2023. https://jolla.com/content/uploads/2023/11/Former_leadership_buys_Jolla_Business_Pressrelease_271123_.pdf?x16788
Aside from corporate restructuring they should undergo a solid security audit by Supo.
Having said that it’s the only serious competition in the smartphone space Europe has. Maybe it will someday become our HarmonyOS.
You need a subscription if you want software update. Sorry but it’s not for me.
Also a non-subscription single payment for the Sony Xperia 10 series will be offered, as was previously.
Here’s some additional information on Sailfish 5:
https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/sailfish-community-news-20th-february-2025-sailfish-5-0-for-all/22221
If they just open source’d their OS it would be *the* mobile Linux OS. But currently, the nerds won’t touch it and instead tinker with Ubuntu Touch and PostmarketOS.
Red Hat has shown that you can open source your OS while still circumventing the GPL, so I don’t know what they’re afraid of.