Break Away From Android and iOS: 7 Free Open-Source Mobile OSes

Silicon Valley has long preached that technology, not truth, will set you free. The jury is still out on that. For instance, although smartphones have dramatically changed our world, they come with some serious drawbacks. Centralized app stores mean that useful apps can vanish in a heartbeat, while apps themselves use the sensors on these devices to monitor much of our lives. Perhaps worst of all, most of these devices cost plenty, yet they aren’t expected to function for more than a few years.

- MAX EDDY, BEN MOORE

WHY MAKE THE SWITCH TO AN ALTERNATIVE MOBILE OS?

If you’re looking to improve your privacy dramatically or to take control of your personal information, or you just want to keep using your perfectly good Nexus 5 for a few more years, the answer may be replacing your phone’s operating system with a free, open-source alternative. It’s easy to think of the world in terms of Android and iOS, but there are many alternatives, with varying degrees of usability.

Some words of warning: None of these OSes offer the same kind of experience that Android and iOS users are accustomed to. Some have wildly different navigation schemes. Most won’t have access to all (or any) of the apps you use— those live nearly exclusively on the Google Play store and the Apple App Store. At least for Android-based devices, there are some alternative app stores and repositories, such as Amazon’s AppStore, APKMirror, and F-Droid. You do need to be careful when installing apps not specifically vetted by Google or Apple, however, so proceed at your own risk.

You also won’t enjoy the customer support you get with a mainstream device. You’re likely to get some strange looks if you show up at the Verizon store asking if they can help with Ubuntu Touch. Even getting these OSes onto your phone may be more of a DIY task than most people are willing to undertake.

GETTING STARTED WITH AN OPEN SOURCE MOBILE OS

Our goal isn’t to rigorously test all of these OSes to the same extent we do Android and iOS but rather introduce you to the world of alternative mobile experiences. We didn’t test every one of these systems for ourselves, but we highly recommend looking up videos that show the latest builds of these OSes running on various types of hardware to get a better idea of what to expect.