XDA Developers

A developer purchased a carrier-locked Moto G Power 2024 for $50, bypassing its phone use entirely to run Linux via Termux and XFCE with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The setup runs full Linux apps like GIMP and Shotcut at reasonable speeds, offering a surprisingly capable low-cost computing alternative amid rising PC component prices. A step-by-step guide and code are available on the author's blog.

Someone turned a $50 smartphone into a Linux laptop, and it works better than you'd think

It's cheap, it's somewhat practical, and it's really cool

Actually, make home server from old phone is much better solution than make it from your old laptop…it is small, quiet, power saving, but powerful at the same time 🚀

I wonder how it fairs when compiling C, Rust, Go?

well todays phone are really capable of running full desktop os, look at Mackbook Neo though its limited to 8gb ram because of its chip while android chip has even 16gb ram support. So our phone is just limited by the software.