nowfound

Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

AM

24 alternatives to A modern port of Linux to a ten-year-old QWERTY phone

I ported modern Linux to a ten-year-old HTC QWERTY phone as a handheld terminal. I wrote it up here: https://tmzt.github.io/blog/a-modern-port-of-linux-to-a-ten-... You can see the code here: https://github.com/tmzt/linux-stable-msm-dtsi

This project brings modern Linux to a decade-old HTC QWERTY phone, transforming it into a handheld terminal device. It is for developers and retro computing enthusiasts interested in running current Linux on legacy… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    Finally got my hobby OS up and running on real hardware. I love the old IBM thinkpads, so thought it was the perfect machine to get it working on. Been working on it for quite some time now, but this has been a big milestone!

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Not sure if I would post this for the last day of #marchintosh OR wait for tomorrow the 1st of April. Both apply equally. Anyway, here's a pet project of mine, I made it as a glued on for another pet project of mine, but it developed a life of it's own now and can soar skyward toward success, fame, and glory.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3
  4. 4HN

    (TL;DR: http://i.imgur.com/LuPHqiN.png) While digging around in drawers that hadn't been touched for decades, I found a wonderful piece of history. The Palm Treo 600 [1] was the Mercedes-Benz of the cellphone 10 years ago, and I was lucky enough to rediscover one.[2] So I decided to restore it to working order, slapping in a T-Mobile SIM[3] and a fresh battery. It worked! It could browse the Internet[4], send/receive text messages[5], make phone calls...[6] The onboard browser even passed Acid1[7,8] and could do some level of JavaScript![9] Unfortunately, most websites…

    2015 · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Use your tablet as graphic tablet/touch screen on your computer. - H-M-H/Weylus

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6AM
  7. 7

    A Linux kernel driver that turns a rotary phone dial into an evdev input device. You might be interested in this driver if you - prefer the slow pace of dialing over typing numbers with your numpad, - want to bring your old rotary phone into the digital era, - are an educator looking for a simple example driver with a VM-based end-to-end development & test environment (no real hardware needed) - have another creative use case in mind! This driver was my introduction to embedded Linux years ago—and ultimately led to my career. However, it remained unfinished and unpublished until now.…

    2025 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8IR

    My pandemic project was to find, restore and organize scattered and archived remnants of Palm/HP's mobile webOS platform to help keep these delightful little devices alive.

    2022 · webosarchive.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    udoq▲80

    The first docking station for all mobile devices

    2016 · kickstarter.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hi HN, As a weekend project, I hacked together a physical phone, a Raspberry Pi running Asterisk and Twilio, to let toddlers safely make international calls. I’ve documented the setup in this write-up and published the code + Ansible playbooks on GitHub so others can replicate it. I built this so kids of expats can easily stay in touch with family on other continents. Would love feedback from anyone who’s worked on something similar or tries building this themselves! writeup: https://wip.tf/posts/telefonefix-building-babys-first-intern... github repos: -…

    2025 · wip.tf · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    I recently brought Infocom's original UNIX z-machine source code back to life on modern systems. The modified source code, instructions on usage, a build of the z-machine, and examples of embedded game executables are available. There is also a detailed write-up about the state of the original source code, the porting process, and the invaluable role Justine Tunney's Cosmpolitan project played in bringing the Zork trilogy (and more) to Windows/Mac/Linux/bsd for arm/x86 machines over the course of a lazy Sunday.

    2025 · christopherdrum.github.io · its alternatives →

  12. 12
    Ocean▲205

    Linux server you can fit in your pocket.

    2016 · getocean.io · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Hi HN, To truly understand how operating systems and network protocols work, I decided to combine two classic learning tools: the xv6 teaching OS and a from-scratch TCP/IP stack. I'm excited to share the result: my own from-scratch TCP/IP networking stack running directly inside the xv6-riscv (https://github.com/pandax381/xv6-riscv-net) kernel. The project uses a modern virtio-net driver, allowing it to run seamlessly in QEMU and communicate with the host machine. Key features: - From-Scratch Stack: The core is powered by microps…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14TT
  15. 15

    MobileGym is a verifiable and highly parallel simulation platform for mobile GUI agent research — programmatic state verification, structured state snapshots, identical-state replication, and scalable online RL across 28 mobile apps.

    May 2026 · mobilegym.dev · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    To try it out, simply build the project yourself from source, or use attached bootable ISO image of the system (in Releases on Github) and run it in QEMU. https://blog.vxn.dev/rou2exos-rusted-edition

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Z80-based CP/M emulator, in golang. Happily runs Zork, Microsoft BASIC, Turbo Pascal, Wordstar, etc. - skx/cpmulator

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    This project contains no code from Linux, BSD, Minix, or any other OS. Everything up until this point is written entirely from scratch, including a pure microkernel (that only implements multiprocessor priority scheduling, memory management, and interprocess communication), a work-in-progress implementation of the standard C library, and a variety of servers that provide drivers and other essential OS functionality. At the time of writing this post, the servers provide drivers for the keyboard, NVMe SSDs (that works on real hardware), a Unix-like virtual file system (with a single root…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19AS
  20. 20

    Linux-based CPE for Telia's (AS3249) "Koduinternet" service - tonusoo/koduinternet-cpe

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    A mashup for finding repairable smartphones that are supported by custom Android ROMs.

    2020 · sustaphones.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    An alternative android OS

    2013 · jolla.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    A modern GUI frontend for libinput-gestures

    2018 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →

Also compare

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →