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GeezerVison is showing en.wikipedia.org — Sailfish OS - Wikipedia
 Sailfish OS is an operating system for mobile phones developed by Jolla. It is Linux-based with AppSupport, a proprietary compatibility layer for Android and custom user interface by Jolla. The OS first shipped with the original Jolla Phone in 2013; while its sale stopped in 2016, it was supplied with software updates until the end of 2020. It also shipped with Jolla Tablet in 2015[6] and from other vendors licensing the OS.[7] Since 2026 Sailfish is shipped with the Jolla Phone (2026). The OS is ported by community enthusiasts to third-party mobile devices including smartphones[8] and tablet computers.[9] Sailfish OS is mostly used for mobile phones and tablets. History and developmentThe OS is an evolved continuation of the Linux MeeGo OS previously developed by Nokia and Intel which itself relies on combined Maemo and Moblin. This base is extended by Jolla with a custom user interface and default applications.[10] The User Interface is highly based on gestures and pulley menus.[11] Software architectureThe Sailfish OS and the Sailfish software development kit (SDK) are based on the Linux kernel and a standard Linux stack.[12][13][14] Sailfish OS includes a multi-tasking graphical shell called "Lipstick" built with Qt by Jolla on top of the Wayland display server protocol.[15] It uses standard Linux middleware like Systemd, Pulseaudio and Qt. Glibc is the included C Library.[16] The first Jolla Phone in 2013 used Btrfs for the filesystem, afterwards Ext4 has been used. RPM is used as a package manager[17] with PackageKit and Zypper for dependency resolving. For connectivity ConnMan is used to manage network connections.[18] wpa_supplicant is used for wifi[19] while Bluez is used for Bluetooth.[20] oFono is used for telephone calls[21] with VoLTE available only for the Sony Xperia 10 II and III and Jolla Phone (2026).[22] Positioning is provided for with GPS and geoclue/beaconDB[23][24]. For command-line access, Dash from BusyBox is installed by default, while Bash is also available. For remote access, SSH can be enabled in the settings, while root access is also possible. For development, there is GCC,[25] LLVM,[26] Autotools,[27] Make[28] and Meson.[29] Included languages are Python,[30] Ruby,[31] Perl[32] and Rust.[33] For Game development, SDL is available.[34] The default IDE is Qt Creator.[35] Jolla uses free and open-source graphics device drivers while the Hybris library allows use of proprietary drivers for Android.[36][37] Theming is done with Ambiences, which support images, colors and optionally ringtones. The Gallery app can create an Ambience from a single image.[38] Some key components of Sailfish OS have been licensed proprietary by Jolla from the start and ever since (as of Sailfish OS 5.0 in February 2025). Since September 2025 some closed parts of Sailfish OS have been open sourced, with the announcement that more parts are to be followed.[39] Firejail (Sailjail) is used for security sandboxing of native applications since version 4.0.1 in 2021.[40] Sailfish OS can run some Android applications through a proprietary compatibility layer.[41] It is running in an LXC container since Sailfish OS 3.0.1 from January 2019. Passthrough support for audio and bluetooth (since Sailfish 5.1 from 2026[42]) is available. Targeted device classesSailfish is targeted at mobile devices.[43] Sailfish can be used as a complete general-purpose Linux OS on devices including in vehicle infotainment (IVI), navigation, smart TV, desktops and notebooks, yachts, automotive, e-commerce, home appliances, measuring and control equipment, smart building equipment, etc. See the Devices section for devices that run the Sailfish OS. Sailfish OS SDKThe Sailfish OS SDK was announced at the Slush Helsinki conference in 2012, and the alpha was published in February 2013.[44] The SDK, installation and coding tutorials are available for free download from the Documentation website[45] despite the overall license not being open source.[1] Sailfish SDK uses Qt with the Qt Creator IDE for development. It uses Virtualbox for the build engine, while there is also emulation available. It's available for Linux, MacOS and Windows hosts (all 64bit). Docker can be used instead of Virtualbox, but is only available for a Linux host. Targets for building are ARM in 64bit (aarch64) and 32bit (armv7hl) and Intel in 32bit (i486). For hardware development there is a Platform SDK[46] and a Hardware Adaptation Development Kit.[47] Application programming interfacesSailfish OS uses open source Qt APIs (Qt 5, QtQuick 2 etc.) and a proprietary Sailfish Silica for the UI. Standard Linux APIs are provided.[48] Sailfish Browser is the default web browser based on Gecko and using embedlite, a lite-weight embedding API from Mozilla. It's available under the MPL-2.0 license.[49] Software overviewUI supported human languagesOfficially Jolla declares supporting the following 14 languages for the user interface: Danish, German, English (UK), Spanish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish, Russian, Chinese (mainland), and Chinese (Hong Kong). For each of them, the OS has a dedicated keyboard. There are a few more languages which are unofficially supported by community freelancers not under control by Jolla, hence more than 20 languages are supported in total. Additional languages can be installed by skilled users due to the Linux architecture.[50] Public "Early access" for beta testers and developersAfter positive experiences with pushing early updates to a small group of opt-in users for Sailfish Update 9 and for the connectivity hotfix, Jolla has allowed all interested parties to try a new version of Sailfish OS about 1–2 weeks before official release, in a program called "Early access". It is expected to be useful for developers and technically minded users, and a step towards more community integration into the Sailfish release process, including improvement of quality by identifying critical issues which only show up in certain environments or device setups, before rolling the update out to the wider user audience. As an added bonus, it provides a window for developers to test their applications on new releases of Sailfish OS. Basic details about the early access update:
Version historySailfish OS has three naming conventions: version number, update number and version name.
Stop releasesWhen updating an installed Sailfish OS from an earlier release, for example after a device factory reset, there are several stop releases[65] which must not be skipped and have to be installed before continuing on the path to subsequent releases. These releases provide new functionality that is not compatible with previous releases and have to be traversed in order not to put the Sailfish OS installation into an unstable state.
App StoresJolla maintains an App Store at harbour.jolla.com.[70] On a Sailfish device, there is an app for the Jolla Store for installing and updating packages. There is no web interface. In addition, there is OpenRepos.[71] This is an App Store maintained by the community that already existed at the time of Linux tablets and phones at Nokia. Besides a web interface, there is also the on-device app Storeman, with which apps can be installed and updated. Apps are uploaded as binary rpms, with source code often available on a source repository. Since 2021 there is also Chum.[72] It builds packages from source with the help of an OBS. For on-device installs and updates, there is the app Chum Gui. Using Android software running on Sailfish OSIn addition to its native applications, Sailfish can run some Android applications by installing them from an application store[73] or directly through an APK file. Supported Android version is 4.1.2 on the original Jolla phone while Android 4.4.4 is supported on the Jolla C, Jolla tablet and Xperia X. Android 13 is supported on the Xperia XA2, Xperia 10, Xperia 10 II, Xperia 10 III, Xperia 10 IV, Xperia 10 V, Jolla C2 and Jolla Phone (2026) since Sailfish 5.0.0.76.[74][75] Sailfish OS uses Alien Dalvik, a proprietary Android compatibility layer. It does not emulate Android, but instead implements its APIs by adapting the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code to run as an application. Android applications can thus run at native speed without any perceivable slow-down. Sailfish can run both native Sailfish and Android software simultaneously, with the user switching between them on the fly.[76] Starting with Alien Dalvik 8.1 (also called "Android App Support" since then), it uses LXC[77] to improve security by better isolation, in the same way the open source Android compatibility layer Anbox is doing. Hardware overviewSailfish OS can be used on any hardware with Linux-kernel support and compatible with the middleware. Community enthusiasts have ported Sailfish OS to a number of devices this way.[78]
Jolla devicesJolla has created hardware specifically designed for use with Sailfish.
Devices from other vendors licensing Sailfish OSManufacturers can provide mobile equipment with a licensed Sailfish OS. It is also possible to flash Sailfish OS on supported (by Jolla) hardware.
Community enthusiasts' ports to devices from other vendors
Due to the relative ease of porting and the open source license, Sailfish OS has also been unofficially ported[86] to other 3rd-party devices. The Hardware Adaptation Development Kit for porters has been published and is free.[87] These ports are mostly published on the Maemo and XDA Developers forums, and in the Mer wiki a list of the ports is compiled.[88] Due to license restrictions, proprietary parts or extensions such as the Alien Dalvik compatibility layer for Android apps are not included. However they can be added, e.g. when a manufacturer or distributor turns it from the community version into an officially supported version for a particular device. From the originally more than 80 ports, there are about 19 ports that are still in active development – as of March 2019 – meaning they have been updated to Sailfish 3:
To display the ease of porting Sailfish OS to other devices, Jolla showed created ports and community ports at events like the Mobile World Congress, Slush and FOSDEM:
OS development statusSailfish OS is promoted by Jolla and supported by the open Sailfish Alliance established in 2011, a group established to unite OEM and ODM manufacturers, chipset providers, operators, application developers and retailers.[119] On 16 August 2012, the user interface was reported to be ready for release. Jolla's CEO Jussi Hurmola stated in a ZDNet interview, " ... Our UI is ready now, we haven't released it yet, we will save it for the product launch and the platform is getting up now so the project looks pretty nice".[120] The next day, Jolla's CEO Marc Dillon wrote on Twitter that the company had reached the first development target. Sailfish was debuted by the Jolla team, including a worldwide internet stream, as a demo of the OS, and the UI and SDK during the Slush event in Helsinki, Finland, on 21–22 November 2012. The alpha stage of Sailfish OS SDK was published at the end of February 2013 and was made available for free download. On 16 September 2013, Jolla announced that its OS had been made compatible with Android applications and hardware. The first telephone to use it was launched on 27 November 2013 at a pop-up DNA Kauppa shop in Helsinki. The first 450 telephones were sold at this event, while the rest of the preordered devices were shipped shortly after.[121] In August 2015, version 1.1.9 "Eineheminlampi" was released, which added the main elements of the revamped Sailfish OS 2.0 user interface. Sailfish OS 2.0.0 was launched with the Jolla Tablet, and existing devices, both smartphones and tablets, from Jolla's official distribution channels are supported with upgrade to Sailfish OS 2.0.0 and following updates. In May 2016 Jolla announced the Sailfish Community Device Program, supporting developers and members of Sailfish OS community.[122] Aurora OSMain article: Aurora OS (Russian mobile platform)
Jolla staff met with members of the Russian technology community to break ground on the new software and promote Sailfish OS, as part of Jolla's BRICS strategy. As a result of those efforts, on 18 May 2015 the Russian minister of communications Nikolai Nikiforov announced plans to replace Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms with new software based on Sailfish. He intends it to cover 50% of Russian needs in this area during next ten years, in comparison to the 95% currently covered with western technology.[123][124] The Russian version is currently being developed under the brand name Mobile OS "Aurora" (мобильная ОС «Аврора»),[125] before 2019 as "Sailfish Mobile OS RUS".[126][127] The Chinese multinational technology company Huawei was in talks with the Russian Ministry of Communications to install Aurora OS on tablets for Russia's population census by August 2020.[128] Jolla has cut business ties with Russia in 2022.[129] Sailfish AllianceSailfish Alliance was the open alliance established in 2011 by Jolla company to support the MeeGo ecosystem with new products, services and business opportunities around or using Sailfish OS. The alliance was seen as a competitor to other groups like Android's Open Handset Alliance.[130] The aim of the Alliance was to offer unique differentiation opportunities and sustainable competitive advantage for OEM and ODM manufacturers, chipset providers, operators, application developers, retailers and other interested in sides.[131] Sailfish SecureSailfish Secure was announced in 2015 as an open and secure mobile phone platform, based on Sailfish OS. It was introduced publicly in Barcelona, Spain at the Mobile World Congress on 2 March 2015 where plans for Sailfish Secure were presented. It was based on a security-hardened version of Sailfish OS 2.0 and SSH's communication encryption and key management platform. It was developed by Jolla (the Sailfish OS designer and developer) together with SSH Communications Security (the inventor of Secure Shell SSH protocol). See alsoReferences
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