[TriLUG] Linux phone OS?

[Michael Wright]

On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 8:47 AM, Tim Jowers <timjowers at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Here's a case in point, I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10". Over the last 2
> months it has behaved worse and worse. Regularly the keyboard input no
> longer is processed for 5 seconds. Sometimes I even have to reboot to get
> keyboard input to work at all (in various apps including Android Browser).


That sounds like a pretty awful experience. I'm happy to look at a
bugreport to try and pinpoint what the issue is, but it's unlikely to
result in an actionable fix.

> Similarly for Android Browser
> and Chrome browser not supporting HTML5 datalist and Android Browser on
> most current Samsung devices making a mess of the input type="number".


Chrome has supported the datalist element for quite awhile now; I'd
make sure that you're running the latest version from the Play Store.
I can't speak to the Android Browser because it's been deprecated and
unsupported for a few years now.  You can always try running Firefox
and seeing if that suits your needs better than Chrome or Android
Browser.

> These are simply Android-specific problems which do not exist in Linux. Its
> not clear at all why Google/Android/Samsung would introduce these bugs/not
> support these HTML5 features and, as a user, gives me an unsure footing
> when trying to use the phone/tablet as a general use computing device.

To be fair, this stuff is tricky to get right. We don't intentionally
put these bugs in to the system, they happen when we're trying to do
things like add new HTML5 features, and they just don't get caught
before we ship. We feel the pain too, we use these devices day in and
day out, and we're actively working to make things better. It takes
time though.


As for things you can do now:

* Make sure your Chrome is up to date or try Firefox. Both should
support the datalist element.
* Assuming your keyboard problems are with an on-screen keyboard, try
a different one. Neither the Swype nor the Google Keyboard have had
any similar issues in my experience (though the problem sounds like
general memory pressure, not something specific to the keyboard).
* Try installing Cyanogenmod, or another alternative ROM. They tend to
be more frequently updated and you can give more direct feedback when
you do run into problems (yay, open source!). You can also make the
choice about whether you want GApps or not.

None of these are great solutions for someone who isn't tech-savvy,
and we *should* be doing better, but I hope they help you in this
case.

Michael