Phones

Smartphones

Personal tracking devices. While it is highly recommended you don't use cell phones, this guide will help you find a phone if you choose to use it.

Operating Systems

Android

In Android, a Java based VM named Dalvik is running on top of the Linux kernel. In ~2013 Google introduced ART (Android Runtime), which is the successor to Dalvik. ART Includes many enchancements, including AOT (Ahead-of-time compilation) and JIT (Just-in-time compilation), while Dalvik only had JIT. Android comes with Google if you don't set it free. Needs some debloating but still the best bang for buck. See Android ricing for unlocking and tweaking. /g/ seems to favor a couple in particular.

• Google Nexus Google's reference design line that comes with OTA updates as soon as they are released. Its ROM comes straight out of Google's official source tree with next to no bloat and its inner workings are open, very popular among developers, extremely riceable and with lots of aftermarket software mods. Mid-range phone starting at $350. Note: Certain phone models like the Google Nexus 5X are known to suffer from spontaneous irrecoverable bootloops, so be careful.
• Samsung Galaxy S/Note series Samsung's flagship series. They are expensive, for at least $700 in the US and up to $1000 US dollars in other countries, but they are also very powerful. Stock ROM is extremely bloated (in some cases it's literally heavier than Windows 8) but most of that bloat can be removed by flashing a custom ROM like CyanogenMod or Replicant. Not as open as the Google Nexus series but its popularity makes it get almost as much software mods. On most new models the bootloader will be impossible to unlock without paying a pajeet a hefty $100+ usd fee.
• Motorola Moto G Popular starter android that goes for cheap. Gets OTA updates very quickly. Latest generation retails for $200. Note: Some Moto phones by AT&T and Verizon have their bootloaders hard locked, so buyer beware.
• Motorola Moto X A higher-end alternative to the Moto G. Features faster hardware, a slightly larger display, and some extra features such as Active Display. Also gets OTA updates very quickly. Note: Some Moto phones by AT&T and Verizon have their bootloaders hard locked, so buyer beware.

iPhone

iPhone is Apple's dumbphone. The firmware is locked down, as is the operating system that runs on all iPhones, iOS. Because of the proprietary nature, and the controlling and censorship that Apple maintains it is strongly recommended to not own one of these devices. They will cause you nothing but harm. If you still wish to use one, you might consider jailbreaking it, there are several ways to do this, some are listed here:

• Jailbreak the Unix-based iOS with evasi0n.

Jailbreaking basically opens up iOS a little, so you're able to install custom applications without going through the appstore, etc. There are many cool things you can do with after jailbreaking, things like installing a new theme (which Android supports natively, mind you).

However, according to some sources, it is not recommended to jailbreak, as it could make your device less secure, and probably more prone to getting tracked/spied on by NSA.

Jolla

Jolla is the recent phone running Sailfish OS, a partially (the underlying is opensource, the UI is partially proprietary) open source operating system based on Meego and build on Qt, developed by fired Finns after Microsoft acquired Nokia. Meego in turn was based on Maemo, the Debian-based N900 OS. Capable of having Android apps installed. Sailfish OS. Sailfish OS can be installed on Android devices, N9 and the N950.

A startup is working on resurrecting the legendary N900 into the FLOSS Neo900, so fund it!

Firefox

Fully open source OS made by Mozilla, and based on Firefox/Gecko (the rendering engine). It uses the same kernel used by Android.

• As of version 2.6, it is dead (unless you have a new Panasonic UHD TV)

There are some phones running it, officially:

• Alcatel OneTouch Fire
• Geeksphone

Windows Phone

Mostly Lumia by Nokia. The App Store doesn't contain as much software as Android or iOS.

Don't buy anything but the Nokia phones - every other Windows Phone is second class.

Windows Phone 8.1 brings a lot of functionality improvements, and the app gap is being closed.

Windows Phone has been dead since 2017 due to lack of market-share. When it did exist, it was terrible, and not even actually Windows. Then they made true-Windows run on it. It was gross.

Tizen

Soon to come Meego fork by Intel on Samsung phones.

Ubuntu Touch

Opensource operative system developer by Canonical, created to have the same look&feel as Unity on the desktop. While it used to share the kernel/graphical stack with Android, now it uses it's own stack, sporting Mir as the graphical system (instead of SurfaceFlinger). They want to unify the desktop and phone.

It currently runs, albeit buggy/glitchy, on some Android phones/tablets, like the Galaxy Nexus, the Nexus 4, the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10.

Ubuntu Touch is famous for being the operative system of the Ubuntu Edge, the phone for which Canonical had an indiegogo campaign. While the campaign failed, Ubuntu Touch is still actively developed.

Tutorial on how to install it