Mecha Comet looks like a fun little modular Linux handheld

If this thing could also make phone calls out of the box without an external attachment I'd buy it and ditch my old Android phone in a heartbeat.


Last edited by Drakker on 10 Jan 2025 at 1:53 pm UTC

This device reminds me of the Nokia Linux mobile phones - The N900 running Maemo Linux and the N9 running Meego Linux. Those phones came out at approximately the same time as the first Android and Apple phones. They were doing really well and a hit with users, and had capabilities above Android and Apple phones of that era. However Steve Elop (who used to work for Microsoft) was taken on at Nokia as the new CEO, and he pushed Windows phones as the prime directive. This split up the company, ruining Nokia going forward, and the wonderfully-capable Linux phones got abandoned. Windows phones ended up failing and competing poorly against Apple and Android devices. Nokia became a shell of its former self. A splinter-group of ex-Nokia staff put together the Jolla company and have Linux phones running their own SailfishOS (but they are way behind the tech giants Apple and Google).

In recent years I have become better informed about the privacy invasions which Big Tech companies (Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, etc) are inflicting on society. Apple and Google's phones are designed to snoop on users and collect loads of information. Each person gets profiled, targeted, and ultimately manipulated. I go out of my way to prevent data collection, to conserve my privacy. (There are lots of ways to do this, e.g. Using Firefox or Brave browser, using Ublock Origin tracker blocking, using privacy search engines/not Google search, using Linux desktop, and using Degoogled Phones.)

Currently I run a selection of custom firmwares on Android phones. Some firmwares are replacing Android with Linux. Some firmwares replace 'stock' Android (as provided by the phone manufacturer) with AOSP firmwares (Android Open Source Project, the base operating system before Google adds their spying proprietary components).

Some Linux firmwares (that can be used on specific Android phones): Droidian, Ubuntu Touch, SailfishOS, PostmarketOS.

Some decent degoogled Android operating systems: GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, LineageOS, e/OS (E Foundation), DivestOS, LMODroid.

As with the Pilet - i somehow really want one, but i just can't justify it/imagine enough stuff to do with it to justify the purchase

and it has an ethernet port! Woooo!!!!

but boooo kickstarter yet again

I'll keep an eye on it though and see if it makes it to proper market.

Having ethernet and USB ports makes the device useful for people working in the auto industry as well as those working in networking. Smart idea.

Having ethernet and USB ports makes the device useful for people working in the auto industry as well as those working in networking. Smart idea.

Network architect's dream. I didn't have an ethernet tester when we were building our home, so I was just walking around the house with the electrician to every room with my heavy ass laptop with a usbc->eth adapter dangling off of it, and perching in mid air to connect to the wall socket and test it. This device would be perfect for that!

Both this and pilet look insanely cool

I do like the discussions around how cool it'd be to have a little open source linux phone

Had my midrange phone about 6 years and needing an upgrade, mostly because it's battery is starting to go but honestly would love something more open-source

Same reason I never bought a tablet, not a big fan of how closed down they are, so I'd love a little open source tablet like the pilet as well

I would do unspeakable things for a linux phone that could be used as a daily driver. Unfortunately this does not exist, and it doesn't look like it'll be existing anytime soon either. Sad.

The Pinephone is getting there, but its specs are anemic at best. At least this thing makes up for the low specs with its wonderful connectivity, which makes it more desirable in my opinion.


Last edited by Drakker on 11 Jan 2025 at 12:03 am UTC

I was just walking around the house with the electrician to every room with my heavy ass laptop with a usbc->eth adapter dangling off of it

You and me both, that was exactly my painful experience too. However, I do think the eth, while awesome, is overkill here. A little usb->eth dongle would suit me.

Edit to add, I went back to look at the Pilet again and while both are appealing (particularly the larger Pilet model), I have to say this Mecha is waaaay more stylish. And I love the modular keyboard and gamepad options. Just a shame these are Kickstarter projects. Got a wait on hands, I guess.


Last edited by scaine on 10 Jan 2025 at 11:17 pm UTC

I would do unspeakable things for a linux phone that could be used as a daily driver. Unfortunately this does not exist, and it doesn't look like it'll be existing anytime soon either. Sad.

Fret not, I'm here to get you into big BIG trouble.

I've thought a lot about this lately and there are some solutions.

Option 1. You root any Thin Small Android Cellphone with LineageOS, and literally don't use it -- you can optionally remove the cameras, microphone if you so desire and install literally nothing on it. You build it into the same case as a Linux Phone and tether the Internet connection and tunnel the whole thing over VPN. It'll be slightly larger, but have access to popular cellular network without exposing much data to Android.

Option 2. The return of the car-phone. You add a extra battery to your car trunk and attach it to a Linux Car Server that is attached to a StarLink Mini Roam dish ($50/mo) mounted on your car. You also broadcast Wifi from the car and connect a Linux device such as this. The car computer can have a mod screen in the middle and double as a music, video, game, and entertainment center on the go. You heard a truck carrying hard drives driving down the road has more throughput, don't let your dreams be dreams.

Option 3. You wait for StarLink Direct to Cell and either use a officially supported device, or you hope one of us makes a "Modem Wifi Brick" like in Option 1.

--

With these options in mind -- it really is daft that we are carrying around these non-Linux devices. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some people make this in the modder community in the next year. Using Stock Android is miserable. The sooner we cross this bridge the better.

Edit: Just to comment more on Option 2 -- it's much easier to give a car computer a stronger CPU and GPU too, so if you stream to the phone or screen you could probably achieve some pretty impressive results in terms of speed. Like imagine playing AAA games broadcasted from your car. It's doable. Maybe you have a old LCD Steam Deck laying around too -- might make a pretty decent car computer with a more specialized distro installed. Disconnect the left and right daughterboards, put it in a metal case or whatnot -- 15-30 watts isn't too bad.


Last edited by ElectricPrism on 11 Jan 2025 at 1:44 am UTC

I was hoping for a headphone jack cuz it looks like it could be a portable hifi mp3 player with portable DAC potential.

It's giving future palm pilot vibes tho.

The Pinephone is getting there...

Is it though? I watched closely for the Pine company to deliver for years now and all the energy seemed to dissipate in the last couple of years. They can't even bring themselves to make a monthly newsletter a yearly occurrence. Such a shame.
I own couple of their products and the support for Pinebook Pro is meh at best - sleep functionality is broken still and no news about it being fixed apart from some obscure hacks that ultimately don't work. Same should be true with the second Pinephone, which has the same hardware, basically.
But I'm not here to badmouth and the question is legit - are they doing something, anything really with the Pinephone (the original or the second one)?

Regarding the earlier comment about Linux phones not being ready to use as a daily driver, I feel that this isn't the case. Here's some of my experience on this:

Droidian, Ubuntu Touch, and SailfishOS each provide good interfaces for touchscreen phone use. All the basic functionality is available: Camera, Phone Calls, SMS Messaging, Internet Browsing, Media Players, Photo Gallery, Calendar, Contacts Manager, Local Weather, Ebook Readers, Calculator, and other basic software.

A lot of Android apps are just web-apps and can be replaced by engaging with a website rather than an app. As such you don't need to install certain Android apps to have access to that functionality.

But there is also something known as Waydroid. Waydroid can run Android (AOSP) inside a container on top of the Linux phone OS. This means you *can* install regular Android Apps onto a Linux phone (i.e. the OSes I listed above) and use most of them. For instance, I've installed the "Open Camera" Android App on Ubuntu Touch and Droidian, and then used that Android Camera App to take photos on a Linux phone. You won't be able to run every Android App like this, but plenty work just fine.

As such, I feel that this functionality is certainly good enough for many people to use as a daily driver (particularly if that person is already good at using Linux, on the desktop).

Oh, one more thing: Having Linux on a mobile phone gives you a lot of advantages compared to Android. You can use partitions how you'd like (e.g. SD cards), you can "rsync" files from your computer to your phone. You can "ssh" into your phone from your home network. You can run bash and python scripts, use the phone as a proper desktop (connected to a monitor over usb-c). You can run lots of desktop Linux software on the phone (e.g. desktop Thunderbird, desktop Firefox), or terminal Linux software (e.g. sshfs, nmap, tcpdump, wget).