PostmarketOS v24.06 released

[Posted June 17, 2024 by corbet]

PostmarketOS is an Alpine Linux derivative distribution aimed at mobile devices; the v24.06 release claims support for over 250 devices, though the level of that support varies widely. "This release is geared mainly towards Linux enthusiasts. We are working hard on stability improvements and automated testing, but if you expect Android or iOS levels of polish, then this is not for you yet." Changes include an upgrade to Alpine Linux 3.20, newer GNOME and KDE versions, and more.

No country for old hardware

Posted Jun 19, 2024 0:20 UTC (Wed) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (2 responses)

Whenever one of these projects (pmOS, Lineage, OpenWRT) makes an announcement I go looking at the device lists just in case someone [re-]added support for one of the many decade old lumps of e-waste I have lying around. It's always false hope, but crazier things have happened. Ironically the one device I have that's on pmOS's supported list, an asus convertible, is the only one that won't turn on at all.

But if I'm ever in the market for something newer, projects like this seem a good proxy for the quality of the device itself. If the aftermarket support for a device is bad then chances are the OEM experience isn't going to be great either.

No country for old hardware

Posted Jun 19, 2024 13:02 UTC (Wed) by linusw (subscriber, #40300) [Link] (1 responses)

I have re-added ixp4xx (Intel XScale) support in OpenWrt which will be in the upcoming release. If you have a device I should port and can help out testing, get in touch.
https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/blob/main/target/linux...

No country for old hardware

Posted Jun 19, 2024 17:26 UTC (Wed) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link]

That's good news! But I'm starting to think it'd be unreasonable of me to ask at this point. Most of the devices in my stash are AR7/ARMv6 modem-router boxes, the ones that were supported in OpenWrt got dropped a long time ago due to not having enough flash (I remember having to use the firmware builder to remove the HTTP frontend to get one to fit), and the local ISP here's slowly transitioning everyone to FTTH so their days are numbered anyway…