A big part of Broadcom’s current business model seems to be:
I did forget to mention something, provider support.
USA: Verizon doesn’t work due to Verizon whitelisting devices. From what I have heard, AT&T and T-Mobile both work.
Australia: The situation is quite complicated. Due to the ECS determination, MNOs and MVNOs need to block phones that they can’t verify can make calls to emergency services via VoLTE. As a result, Optus and MVNOs that use Optus have started blocking FLX1 phones. Telstra definitely still works, with multiple MVNOs confirmed to be working. But who knows for how much longer. Not sure if Vodafone (Australia) works or not. This mess in Australia is solely thanks to the Australian government. I do have faith that it will either continue to function on Telstra or, if blocked, can be made to work again in future.
Not sure about any other countries at this point, these two seem like the biggest concern at the moment from what I have read in the Telegram and forum.
For me personally, there are two main things preventing it from being a daily driver. First is instability of the waydroid container (I am having to restart waydroid multiple times per day currently) and second is that dual SIM currently isn’t functional in software.
There are also a few general bugs and usability improvements to be made. Most of the modem bugs were fixed in the latest update, but I still rarely have an issue where mobile data just won’t work for a while. Sometimes receiving calls is a bit glitchy too.
Some general usability things I have noticed that could be improved include UI/UX improvements and improved OOTB configs. For example, I needed to manually change pulseaudio config to enable USB audio devices. It also still doesn’t automatically change to headphones when plugged in, but I think this could be enabled in pulseaudio config.
Ultimately, if you don’t need to use Android apps at all and don’t need a second SIM, you could probably daily drive as is right now with the latest update. It would take some getting used to though due to some of the UI/UX quirks (probably impacting upstream phosh too, but I don’t have another device to test stock phosh).
I have an FLX1 and it is getting really close to being ready to use as a daily driver.
You may be able to root the LG TV and use https://github.com/webosbrew/youtube-webos, which supports ad blocking and sponsorblock. Or you could install it with developer mode, but developer mode has a limited session time.
In my experience using an older android phone for self-hosting, the downside was a lack of ports and I/O. Being stuck with a single USB 2 interface and wifi was less than ideal for my use case.
I ran a Minecraft server on termux and (IIRC) AnLinux once. It worked surprisingly well.
If I am remembering correctly, Australia also has laws that allow the government to force private companies to build backdoors. I think it was the Ass Access Act.
Most public schools wouldn’t have the budget to allocate a staff member to create and maintain such a distro. It would also take quite some time to flash to all of the devices.
The management tools built into chromeOS are also mature and very compelling to schools. Most schools don’t see the value of reinventing the wheel when a mostly ok solution that takes no extra effort is already available.
I think you are forgetting that most home-labbers probably can’t afford to get a fur suit due to their homelab.
Source: Am home-labber