A distinguishing feature of PostmarketOS is its commitment to a unified environment. Device-specific components are neatly packaged, allowing for identical builds across diverse devices. The release caters to a broad spectrum of user preferences with main user shells such as KDE Plasma Mobile, Phosh, GNOME Mobile, and Sxmo. Moreover, users have the flexibility to install other environments like MATE and Xfce.
But apart from bringing such an interface, along with updates, to devices such as Google Chromebooks and PINE64 phones, there is even support for really old phones like the Samsung Galaxy S III (GT-I9300 and SHW-M440S). Supposedly, this OS boots on over 54 devices.
The “downside” for many will be that it does not install Android apps “out of the box”. In fact, native apps are installed from the command line. But Waydroid can be installed, which should allow many Android apps to be installed. There is actually a GUI installer for GNOME software, and for Plasma’s Discover.
An extra perk is that postmarketOS can also be dual booted from an SD card, and many Linux Flatpak packages will also install.