Hello 
I have owned my first smartphone for half a hear now (Moto E XT1021) but when it comes to smartphones I'm a noob. I have been using PC for over 15 years now. I have been dual booting on my PC for a few years now. I have tried several Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro) along with Windoze for gaming. I have rooted my phone to remove bloatware and use some software which requires root permissions.
I have a few questions:
1. Why can you brick your smartphone when you can't as easily do that to your PC? Yes well you can "brick" your motherboard by flashing wrong bios or by doing it incorrectly but most mobos have dual bios to recover from that. You can also "brick" your GPU by flashing bios but you can reflash it as long as you have another GPU so that your system boots. Now why are phones so prone to this?
2. What is the difference between OS and ROM? I have found some conflicting information and some say it's the same thing other say it's not?
3. Can you format your phone's internal memory and install a different OS just like you would on PC without resorting to 3d party tools and emulators and inconsistent stuff like that? I imagine you would go to your BIOS select boot device (SD card, USB) and boot from the install image and install it using either command line or GUI installer. I haven't tried to install a different ROM like CyanogenMod or OS like Firefox OS or are they just different operating systems and this confusing "ROM" term needs to die? I was afraid to render my phone useless because of all the scary stuff on the internet.
4. Is it safe to install Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, Tizen, Ubuntu Touch OS, CyanogenMod or however many other OS are there? I imagine there could be hardware incompatibilities just like with Linux distros (wireless adapter not working, etc.) But couldn't you just reinstall Android (provided you can even download a new release).
5. Are there drivers for hardware? Sorry I am a noob when it comes to smartphones I don't really understand how it works.
6. Are there distros of android or other OS? Is there a distro watch for smartphones?
7. How would you compare these OS and perhaps some others I am not aware of: Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, Tizen, Ubuntu Touch OS, CyanogenMod.
8. How come I can't find any official download links for said operating systems (except for CyanogenMod)? Do they only come preinstalled?
9. Does Android always update when a new release rolls out? Do old phones get updated? Are there any rolling release distros, so that you can keep up with bleeding edge software without reinstalling OS?
And I want to add that I absolutely hate the vendor locked **** on different phones. I wish we had Linux distros, running on efficient x86_64 chips or perhaps very powerful ARM chips. I wish I could configure my phone just like on Arch linux, I wish I could pick my "desktop environment" etc. And I really hope Phoneblocks/Project Ara succeeds so we can build PC like, fully modular phones.
I have owned my first smartphone for half a hear now (Moto E XT1021) but when it comes to smartphones I'm a noob. I have been using PC for over 15 years now. I have been dual booting on my PC for a few years now. I have tried several Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro) along with Windoze for gaming. I have rooted my phone to remove bloatware and use some software which requires root permissions.
I have a few questions:
1. Why can you brick your smartphone when you can't as easily do that to your PC? Yes well you can "brick" your motherboard by flashing wrong bios or by doing it incorrectly but most mobos have dual bios to recover from that. You can also "brick" your GPU by flashing bios but you can reflash it as long as you have another GPU so that your system boots. Now why are phones so prone to this?
2. What is the difference between OS and ROM? I have found some conflicting information and some say it's the same thing other say it's not?
3. Can you format your phone's internal memory and install a different OS just like you would on PC without resorting to 3d party tools and emulators and inconsistent stuff like that? I imagine you would go to your BIOS select boot device (SD card, USB) and boot from the install image and install it using either command line or GUI installer. I haven't tried to install a different ROM like CyanogenMod or OS like Firefox OS or are they just different operating systems and this confusing "ROM" term needs to die? I was afraid to render my phone useless because of all the scary stuff on the internet.
4. Is it safe to install Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, Tizen, Ubuntu Touch OS, CyanogenMod or however many other OS are there? I imagine there could be hardware incompatibilities just like with Linux distros (wireless adapter not working, etc.) But couldn't you just reinstall Android (provided you can even download a new release).
5. Are there drivers for hardware? Sorry I am a noob when it comes to smartphones I don't really understand how it works.
6. Are there distros of android or other OS? Is there a distro watch for smartphones?
7. How would you compare these OS and perhaps some others I am not aware of: Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, Tizen, Ubuntu Touch OS, CyanogenMod.
8. How come I can't find any official download links for said operating systems (except for CyanogenMod)? Do they only come preinstalled?
9. Does Android always update when a new release rolls out? Do old phones get updated? Are there any rolling release distros, so that you can keep up with bleeding edge software without reinstalling OS?
And I want to add that I absolutely hate the vendor locked **** on different phones. I wish we had Linux distros, running on efficient x86_64 chips or perhaps very powerful ARM chips. I wish I could configure my phone just like on Arch linux, I wish I could pick my "desktop environment" etc. And I really hope Phoneblocks/Project Ara succeeds so we can build PC like, fully modular phones.
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