[LAU] Sorta-OT: Linux phones?

[Ken Restivo]

It's sorta-off-topic, but my Sprint contract ends next month, and I'm looking to shake up my phone/mobile-network situation. I'm looking at other providers (and I refuse to use Verizon on principle, becuase they are unscrupulous thieves, but that's a different story). 

Well maybe it is on topic, because I would LOVE a smartphone that runs linux and has a hardware QWERTY keyboard, and even better if it could at least theoretically run fluidsynth and jackd and aseqnet.

The perfect phone to get seems to be the N900, since Linux runs on it explicitly with manufacturer support and usability, but it is very expensive (US$300 used).

There are, however, very many used smartphones on Craigslist for a third or less of that price. I'd prefer going that route. But which run Linux? It's a zoo. There doesn't appear to be any nice clean table anywhere showing what phones can or can be made to run Linux and to what degree they actually work.

Any advice? I'm told some of the older HTC's out there have been made to run Linux, but the documentation on that hasn't been too encouraging.

It's a cost-versus-risk thing. If I can find a US$30 phone with sort-of-might-work-on-linux, then I'll take the gamble and try to get it running, and just resell it if I can't. If I'm going to spend US$100, I need the thing to pretty much be guaranteed to work. And if I've got to spend much more than that, I might just keep saving up for a while and get an N900.

Thanks.

-ken