Finnish company Jolla’s Sailfish OS started its life as an effort to pick up where Nokia left off when it ceased development of the Linux-based MeeGo operating system for smartphones.

After launching a few Sailfish-powered smartphones, failing to fully deliver on the promise of a Sailfish tablet, and dealing with financial, issues, the company has largely shifted its focus to licensing Sailfish OS for use on third-party devices and selling a version called Sailfish X that can be installed on select Sony smartphones.

With that in mind, this week the company launched the first build of Sailfish 3. It’s unclear if or when you’ll be able to get your hands on it, but it’s nice to see that the project is still alive.

Sailfish 3 is designed with a “regional licensing strategy” in mind and features new security features aimed at corporate and other organizational customers.

Among other things, it includes support for mobile device management, VPN, enterprise WiFi, and data encryption. Right now Sailfish 3 supports encrypting SD cards. In the future you’ll also be able to encrypt on-device storage.

Other changes in Sailfish OS 3 include support for USB on-the-go storage, the ability to switch keyboard layouts with a gesture, a new quick settings and shortcuts menu that can be accessed from any screen, and an option to view the camera roll without unlocking the device so you can review photos you just snapped without unlocking.

Jolla says Sailfish 3 also brings performance improvements that should be noticeable for corporate or individual users.

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5 replies on “Jolla releases Sailfish 3 smartphone OS (with an eye on business users)”

    1. What they say is that they’re expanding Sailfish X to include Sony XA2 models. Previously only the Sony Xpera X had been supported.

      It’s not explicitly stated that Sailfish X is being updated to Sailfish 3 on Nov 8th, and it’s also only available in select countries (clicking the purchase link in the US takes me to a page that says it’s not available here).

      That’s why I wrote it’s unclear if/when readers of this site will be able to use Sailfish 3.

      1. I’ve used it briefly when it was in alpha stage….I wonder if the OS has finally matured from beta?

        Anyone here who has recent experience with Jolla? How does it compare to say, an iPhone 6S (iOS 12) or AndroidOne (Nokia 7 Plus)? Cheers in advance!

      2. Sailfish X is a marketing term for the SailfishOS for the Xperia devices.
        Of course Xperia X users will get SailfishOS 3 and the images for new users will be updated to version 3.0.0.x
        I have 3.0.0.5 running already as EA member on my Xperia X without a problem.

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