05-05-2021, 06:47 AM
I can't comment on your question about providers, I'm not familiar with US cell providers and how well they get along with the PinePhone.
About which software to install:
If you're familiar with Android then Plasma is quite similar and actually quite pleasant to use. The caveat here is that it's not exactly complete or ready for day-to-day use. If you know your way around the GNOME desktop then you'll feel right at home with Phosh, it's "based on GNOME technologies".
If you go with Plasma, then Manjaro is pretty much your only choice here (and if you're waiting for the Beta Edition of the PinePhone then that's what pre-installed anyways). If you decide to go with Phosh, I still have to recommend Manjaro over Mobian at this time for the sole reason of Mobian still being on the 1.14 branch of ModemManager, which is much less reliable than the current 1.16 branch that Manjaro carries. Once Mobian (or rather Debian sid because that's what's holding Mobian back) catches up and packages MM 1.16 then definitely switch with Mobian.
There's also sxmo, inspired(?) by the suckless guys; you might want to look into that too since you said you hate bloat. I've no experience with it myself though so I can't comment.
About which software to install:
If you're familiar with Android then Plasma is quite similar and actually quite pleasant to use. The caveat here is that it's not exactly complete or ready for day-to-day use. If you know your way around the GNOME desktop then you'll feel right at home with Phosh, it's "based on GNOME technologies".
If you go with Plasma, then Manjaro is pretty much your only choice here (and if you're waiting for the Beta Edition of the PinePhone then that's what pre-installed anyways). If you decide to go with Phosh, I still have to recommend Manjaro over Mobian at this time for the sole reason of Mobian still being on the 1.14 branch of ModemManager, which is much less reliable than the current 1.16 branch that Manjaro carries. Once Mobian (or rather Debian sid because that's what's holding Mobian back) catches up and packages MM 1.16 then definitely switch with Mobian.
There's also sxmo, inspired(?) by the suckless guys; you might want to look into that too since you said you hate bloat. I've no experience with it myself though so I can't comment.
