>sounds great at first until you need to make a call and it suddenly drops.

Agreed, I had an N900 running maemo long ago. It was a novel idea to have a Linux device in my pocket, and being able to just drop in to a terminal or do some X11 forwarding over ssh was kinda neat.

But when you start missing phone calls because the screen becomes unresponsive, or the camera is failing to save a picture due to some driver bug, it's a little hard to convince yourself it's worth it.

A couple of years after the N900 launched and WhatsApp had taken over the (European) world, suddenly the lack of support elevated from minor annoyances to full blown disappointment and having awkward conversations about why I couldn't join the group chat. The much cheaper Nexus 4 would replace it with a much better experience all round.

Though I still have a soft spot for that slide out keyboard.

>Linux on the phone sounds great at first until you need to make a call and it suddenly drops.

You must be holding it wrong.

Hah but it seems nobody actually wants a Linux phone with RHEL stability, they want the newest thing and absolutely can't wait a single day for an update, even if it's completely untested and will break core functionality.

I can't agree more!

Don’t you need an Apple ID to update anything on the iPhone?

No, unless you want the App Store. Software Updates can be downloaded unauthenticated.

This is indeed true. Just stock applications. It keeps my distractions to a minimum.

Since you don't sign in with an Apple ID how do you download apps? Or do you only use the stocks ones?

I just use the stock applications. Mail, calendar / contacts through webdav / carddav, phone / text, and the browser. I've found I don't need anything more on a phone.

RedHat patches breaks the applications running on it several times a year.

I am with you about the Linux desktop, iPhone thing though.