4 ms·

The Essential phone does nothing fundamentally new. The Librem 5, on the other hand, will if it gets crowdfunded: it'll be the first phone to not lock its users

by gue5t 9y ago

The Essential phone does nothing fundamentally new. The Librem 5, on the other hand, will if it gets crowdfunded: it'll be the first phone to not lock its users into the shitty app store paradigm where you rely on the manufacturer for a max of 2-3 years of support/security-updates while renting siloed closed-source programs that sell your usage data and show you ads. The Librem 5 will run regular Linux that keeps working until the hardware falls apart (and then some), that can be updated by anyone, not just the manufacturer, will have its kernel kept up-to-date via efforts of the entire community of Linux kernel developers, and will run applications that aren't rented and that respect their users. The Librem 5 will have open-source drivers and a non-Android operating system running a mainline Linux kernel (atop which Android compatibility is trivial if folks want to run that). Lots of HN readers have tech jobs and can afford to make history by crowdfunding: https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

5ilv3r 9y ago
I would but I can't tell if it makes phone calls or not. They only talk about "matrix", which sounds like some kind of tor phone thing.
- gue5t 9y ago
  The copy could state more explicitly that it does work as a regular phone with your number and SIM, but it is explained under the section "A No-Carrier Phone?": The Librem 5 can be used in any of three ways: - With a cellular carrier provided phone number, data plan, and WiFi - With a cellular carrier data plan, and WiFi - With no carrier, and using only WiFi WiFi calling and VoIP calling will be able to be provided in WiFi or data plan modes. We expect to offer call-out, and call-in with phone numbers in all of these plans as well. If you still require a “traditional” phone number through a carrier and want to make unencrypted phone calls or messaging, it will be an option you can choose, but is not required (we recommend avoiding unencrypted phone calls).
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - 5ilv3r 9y ago
    I gotta say, I agree with that alex dude's reply on the supply being out of touch. The focus is all on the wrong stuff. I've specced out my own phone to build from scratch and these are the requirements I came up with: Make and receive calls Send and receive text messages Wifi hotspot If you put a goddamn rad camera on it, it would be a winner.
- userpass 9y ago
  >Will I be able to communicate from my Librem 5 to other phones? >Yes, you will be able to make regular unencrypted phone calls to any phone number. You will also be able to communicate securely by using the phone dialing application and messaging application, that can run on the Librem 5 phone, Android based phones, and iOS based phones, and any computing device. The FAQ is at the bottom of the kickstarter.
metalliqaz 9y ago
But can it run smooth full-screen YouTube?
- gue5t 9y ago
  If you have trouble with that on your current phone, try https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.xyz.mpv https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.xyz.mpv which is the Android port of mpv, successor to mplayer/mplayer2 and what I use on every one of my machines to play smooth full-screen video from youtube and everywhere else.
  - metalliqaz 9y ago
    I use the YouTube app.
alexblumel 9y ago
Jesus Christ, HN and the creators of this (ugly, toy-like)phone seem to never get basic, rudimentary supply and demand in action that anybody running a business should already understand. People don't care about being tracked and they certainly don't care about running some obscure Linux distro on their damn phone. A million people showing dislike on how the market works won't magically change how it works. People buy fast, sexy, bleeding edge smartphones with GREAT CAMERAS (not surprised the whole website decided to omit this, it's probably terrible). Companies that make these phones thrive (see: Apple, Samsung, etc. ) while companies that focus on things only a handful of programmers like (for free)wither away into obscurity, see: the Ouya, Firefox OS, opensolaris, etc.
- gue5t 9y ago
  I'm demand, trying to find and coordinate with other demand for the same product in order to ensure that there is a supply. Please don't treat economics as normative when it is, at best, a descriptive science. Please don't shit on me for trying to find other people who have the same ideals and want to see them become reality. It's really discouraging and runs counter to the "anything is possible" spirit of hacking. There are specific reasons the Ouya and FxOS didn't make sense: an open game-console is already rather quixotic when all the games people want to play are closed-source and open non-games devices exist. FxOS was based on web technologies (huge mistake, given that they're garbage and inefficient), targetted at "emerging markets" (read: poor people, who for some reason are assumed to care less about their phones being slow and not having app compatibility?), and didn't make driver promises. If they had at least gotten calls to happen on a mainline kernel once I would have been convinced, but the real goal of FxOS was market share, not advancing user freedom (where hardware support, not userspace/apps, is the bottleneck). I don't know much about OpenSolaris.
- Synaesthesia 9y ago
  Sure that’s what marketing has taught us to desire but if people were educated about freedoms, rights and scary things like PRISM which we can do nothing about, I think this could be a promising start.
- as1mov 9y ago

by gue5t 9y ago

5ilv3r 9y ago

I would but I can't tell if it makes phone calls or not. They only talk about "matrix", which sounds like some kind of tor phone thing.

gue5t 9y ago
The copy could state more explicitly that it does work as a regular phone with your number and SIM, but it is explained under the section "A No-Carrier Phone?": The Librem 5 can be used in any of three ways: - With a cellular carrier provided phone number, data plan, and WiFi - With a cellular carrier data plan, and WiFi - With no carrier, and using only WiFi WiFi calling and VoIP calling will be able to be provided in WiFi or data plan modes. We expect to offer call-out, and call-in with phone numbers in all of these plans as well. If you still require a “traditional” phone number through a carrier and want to make unencrypted phone calls or messaging, it will be an option you can choose, but is not required (we recommend avoiding unencrypted phone calls).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- 5ilv3r 9y ago
  I gotta say, I agree with that alex dude's reply on the supply being out of touch. The focus is all on the wrong stuff. I've specced out my own phone to build from scratch and these are the requirements I came up with: Make and receive calls Send and receive text messages Wifi hotspot If you put a goddamn rad camera on it, it would be a winner.
userpass 9y ago
>Will I be able to communicate from my Librem 5 to other phones? >Yes, you will be able to make regular unencrypted phone calls to any phone number. You will also be able to communicate securely by using the phone dialing application and messaging application, that can run on the Librem 5 phone, Android based phones, and iOS based phones, and any computing device. The FAQ is at the bottom of the kickstarter.

metalliqaz 9y ago

But can it run smooth full-screen YouTube?

gue5t 9y ago
If you have trouble with that on your current phone, try https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.xyz.mpv https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.xyz.mpv which is the Android port of mpv, successor to mplayer/mplayer2 and what I use on every one of my machines to play smooth full-screen video from youtube and everywhere else.
- metalliqaz 9y ago
  I use the YouTube app.

alexblumel 9y ago

Jesus Christ, HN and the creators of this (ugly, toy-like)phone seem to never get basic, rudimentary supply and demand in action that anybody running a business should already understand. People don't care about being tracked and they certainly don't care about running some obscure Linux distro on their damn phone. A million people showing dislike on how the market works won't magically change how it works. People buy fast, sexy, bleeding edge smartphones with GREAT CAMERAS (not surprised the whole website decided to omit this, it's probably terrible). Companies that make these phones thrive (see: Apple, Samsung, etc. ) while companies that focus on things only a handful of programmers like (for free)wither away into obscurity, see: the Ouya, Firefox OS, opensolaris, etc.

gue5t 9y ago
I'm demand, trying to find and coordinate with other demand for the same product in order to ensure that there is a supply. Please don't treat economics as normative when it is, at best, a descriptive science. Please don't shit on me for trying to find other people who have the same ideals and want to see them become reality. It's really discouraging and runs counter to the "anything is possible" spirit of hacking. There are specific reasons the Ouya and FxOS didn't make sense: an open game-console is already rather quixotic when all the games people want to play are closed-source and open non-games devices exist. FxOS was based on web technologies (huge mistake, given that they're garbage and inefficient), targetted at "emerging markets" (read: poor people, who for some reason are assumed to care less about their phones being slow and not having app compatibility?), and didn't make driver promises. If they had at least gotten calls to happen on a mainline kernel once I would have been convinced, but the real goal of FxOS was market share, not advancing user freedom (where hardware support, not userspace/apps, is the bottleneck). I don't know much about OpenSolaris.
Synaesthesia 9y ago
Sure that’s what marketing has taught us to desire but if people were educated about freedoms, rights and scary things like PRISM which we can do nothing about, I think this could be a promising start.
as1mov 9y ago