9 ms·

End of Year Librem 5 Update

137 points by mikenew 8y ago

4d66ba06 8y ago
Happy to see lots of progress in this update. Each month I'm saving towards purchasing the Librem 5 after I hear confirmation that it works on T-Mobile networks in the US.
- dx87 8y ago
  Same, my current Nexus phone is pretty busted up and literally held together with scotch tape, I'm just hoping the Librem 5 releases before I have to buy a new phone.
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  I'm sitting in the same boat, but for Verizon. This blog post actually comes with some hope, with the specific statement that the SIM7100E is supported. Verizon has already approved another SimCom chip, the 7500V: https://opendevelopment.verizonwireless.com/design-and-build/approved-modules/module/6073 https://opendevelopment.verizonwireless.com/design-and-build... One could hope that the code used to support the former could be adapted to support the latter. And as long as the Librem 5 is able to support an already-approved Verizon module, it shouldn't be a problem to activate the phone on Verizon.
- dmos62 8y ago
  This struck a chord with me, since I find the price a bit high as well. My consumer thinking is that if it's expensive enough that I'd have to save for it, and there's no important reason to buy it over something cheaper, it's a waste of money. Of course, thinking this way, I don't end up having the hip new stuff; is it about that?
_red 8y ago
One thing that I think is a strategic mistake, they should've used UBports for the OS, instead of also developing their custom OS for the device. This market is too small and fragmented to have the wasted effort. Its difficult enough to build the open hardware device, no need to split energy / IQ by also worrying about the OS.
- mikenew 8y ago
  They're working with UBPorts and KDE to get Ubuntu Touch and Plasma Mobile running on the phone. PureOS is where they do their work, but they're made a point of trying to upstream everything. They're doing it right.
- calvinmorrison 8y ago
  They're not building their own OS, they're building a few apps and dealing with hardware specific driver issues - but otherwise a lot of stuff is projects that already existed and needed improvements (which they have done upstream) or working directly with those upstream projects.
  - abrowne 8y ago
    And updating libraries so they can re-use existing apps in a phone context, like GNOME Contacts and Web.
    - eudora 8y ago
      I LOVE this approach. Responsive gnome. It seems essential to me anyway, allows for tablets and any form factor you like. That, and they take advantage of decades of work put into GNOME. Collaboration!
  - Vinnl 8y ago
    To emphasise, I think this is far less work than it would be to actually get UBPorts to a point where you could reasonably ship it on your device to match customer expectations.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
  I think skipping UBports was the right call. UBports is too design constrained and they shell they've been working on in its place uses much better design and should support a much wider variety of applications OOTB. Full disclosure: I am the maintainer of a critical open-source component that influenced this design decision.
calvinmorrison 8y ago
2019, the year of an open source phone. I almost can't believe it. I'm super happy they're not reinventing the entire wheel and are using an ecosystem that already exists (GNOME). Much of the non librem specific work is being done upstream which is great.
- NedIsakoff 8y ago
  Isn't 2019 the year of Linux on the desktop? :) I'm willing to put up 100CAD that it won't ship this year.
  - scns 8y ago
    If you lose you should Sonate the money to them
    - NedIsakoff 8y ago
      If they ship a final product by 2019-12-31, I'll donate 500CAD to any charity they pick
      - georgyo 8y ago
        To quantify this now. Are you counting a final product as them going GA, allowing anyone to buy and get one? Or are you counting a final product one that you do not consider beta. The latter is very open to interpretation.
        NedIsakoff 8y ago
        Going GA and shipping to customers.
      - socceroos 8y ago
        How about you commit to buying their device if they do ship it this year. I'd read those blog posts about your experience - along with any doses of humble pie you ~may~ have to eat.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
turblety 8y ago
The work puri.sm are doing and the way they are doing it is just fantastic. I really hope they manage to get the phone out sometime this year. If they can make a project as big as this work, then it could really show the industry that you don't need to make restrictive, secret, proprietary software to make a success.
aesu7 8y ago
so some of the "hurt" GNOME used to introduce on major versions will pay off in user friendliness in a hybrid user story on handheld devices? the long con ! - I wish them luck, the presentations are impressive. So too the kde-neon folks had a convincing technological argument last I checked them out end of 2018. Smartphones always were a downer to me. Having flashed some devices and using f-droid exclusively I sure saw good apps by good folk, but "desktop computing" always felt friendlier. The slick Apple and Google ecosystems never attracted me - and with the breaking-news stories on whatnot App SDK had some data sending somewhere I think the browser is a better sandbox for some companys and use-cases than deeper OS integration. Not that it is benign, but still. I'm incredibly thankful to the people driving the GNU/Linux effort and foss ecosystem, offering their ingenuity for inspection by a wide audience. Computing got actually simpler as I got older and discovered tools sometimes made before my time. I never had that feeling with handhels - but this might change soon.
sir_brickalot 8y ago
Anybody knows if this phone is "fair" as well? (Eco-friendly/fair worker conditions.)
- dmos62 8y ago
  Eco-friendliness and fair-trade would hike up the price and would require more work, unfortunately. If it were those things, they would probably actively advertise it. On the bright side, this work, since it's opensource, might facilitate a similar future projects that could aim for higher responsibility standards. Personally, this platform caught me a bit off guard, and I'm currently ecstatic with the possibilites.
- Vinnl 8y ago
  It's very unlikely to be. The Fairphone is one of the only phones making an effort, and it's a lot of work [1] and even then they're still long ways of from being actually fair. I can't imagine Purism to have the time to invest in this, nor to do that without even so much as mentioning it. [1] https://www.fairphone.com/en/blog/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/blog/
  - acct1771 8y ago
    Indeed. Hopefully one day two projects in these spaces can converge once they've learned all they need to for each niche.
adsche 8y ago
I'm very compelled to pre-order one but has anybody heard any news about the touchscreen or the CPU issue? I worry that there is no word on either in the recent update (like what is being done, what is missing...?)

137 points by mikenew 8y ago

Happy to see lots of progress in this update. Each month I'm saving towards purchasing the Librem 5 after I hear confirmation that it works on T-Mobile networks in the US.

dx87 8y ago
Same, my current Nexus phone is pretty busted up and literally held together with scotch tape, I'm just hoping the Librem 5 releases before I have to buy a new phone.
ocdtrekkie 8y ago
I'm sitting in the same boat, but for Verizon. This blog post actually comes with some hope, with the specific statement that the SIM7100E is supported. Verizon has already approved another SimCom chip, the 7500V: https://opendevelopment.verizonwireless.com/design-and-build/approved-modules/module/6073 https://opendevelopment.verizonwireless.com/design-and-build... One could hope that the code used to support the former could be adapted to support the latter. And as long as the Librem 5 is able to support an already-approved Verizon module, it shouldn't be a problem to activate the phone on Verizon.
dmos62 8y ago
This struck a chord with me, since I find the price a bit high as well. My consumer thinking is that if it's expensive enough that I'd have to save for it, and there's no important reason to buy it over something cheaper, it's a waste of money. Of course, thinking this way, I don't end up having the hip new stuff; is it about that?

_red 8y ago

One thing that I think is a strategic mistake, they should've used UBports for the OS, instead of also developing their custom OS for the device. This market is too small and fragmented to have the wasted effort. Its difficult enough to build the open hardware device, no need to split energy / IQ by also worrying about the OS.

mikenew 8y ago
They're working with UBPorts and KDE to get Ubuntu Touch and Plasma Mobile running on the phone. PureOS is where they do their work, but they're made a point of trying to upstream everything. They're doing it right.
calvinmorrison 8y ago
They're not building their own OS, they're building a few apps and dealing with hardware specific driver issues - but otherwise a lot of stuff is projects that already existed and needed improvements (which they have done upstream) or working directly with those upstream projects.
- abrowne 8y ago
  And updating libraries so they can re-use existing apps in a phone context, like GNOME Contacts and Web.
  - eudora 8y ago
    I LOVE this approach. Responsive gnome. It seems essential to me anyway, allows for tablets and any form factor you like. That, and they take advantage of decades of work put into GNOME. Collaboration!
- Vinnl 8y ago
  To emphasise, I think this is far less work than it would be to actually get UBPorts to a point where you could reasonably ship it on your device to match customer expectations.
Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
I think skipping UBports was the right call. UBports is too design constrained and they shell they've been working on in its place uses much better design and should support a much wider variety of applications OOTB. Full disclosure: I am the maintainer of a critical open-source component that influenced this design decision.

calvinmorrison 8y ago

2019, the year of an open source phone. I almost can't believe it. I'm super happy they're not reinventing the entire wheel and are using an ecosystem that already exists (GNOME). Much of the non librem specific work is being done upstream which is great.

NedIsakoff 8y ago
Isn't 2019 the year of Linux on the desktop? :) I'm willing to put up 100CAD that it won't ship this year.
- scns 8y ago
  If you lose you should Sonate the money to them
  - NedIsakoff 8y ago
    If they ship a final product by 2019-12-31, I'll donate 500CAD to any charity they pick
    - georgyo 8y ago
      To quantify this now. Are you counting a final product as them going GA, allowing anyone to buy and get one? Or are you counting a final product one that you do not consider beta. The latter is very open to interpretation.
      - NedIsakoff 8y ago
        Going GA and shipping to customers.
    - socceroos 8y ago
      How about you commit to buying their device if they do ship it this year. I'd read those blog posts about your experience - along with any doses of humble pie you ~may~ have to eat.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

turblety 8y ago

The work puri.sm are doing and the way they are doing it is just fantastic. I really hope they manage to get the phone out sometime this year. If they can make a project as big as this work, then it could really show the industry that you don't need to make restrictive, secret, proprietary software to make a success.

aesu7 8y ago

so some of the "hurt" GNOME used to introduce on major versions will pay off in user friendliness in a hybrid user story on handheld devices? the long con ! - I wish them luck, the presentations are impressive. So too the kde-neon folks had a convincing technological argument last I checked them out end of 2018. Smartphones always were a downer to me. Having flashed some devices and using f-droid exclusively I sure saw good apps by good folk, but "desktop computing" always felt friendlier. The slick Apple and Google ecosystems never attracted me - and with the breaking-news stories on whatnot App SDK had some data sending somewhere I think the browser is a better sandbox for some companys and use-cases than deeper OS integration. Not that it is benign, but still. I'm incredibly thankful to the people driving the GNU/Linux effort and foss ecosystem, offering their ingenuity for inspection by a wide audience. Computing got actually simpler as I got older and discovered tools sometimes made before my time. I never had that feeling with handhels - but this might change soon.

sir_brickalot 8y ago

Anybody knows if this phone is "fair" as well? (Eco-friendly/fair worker conditions.)

dmos62 8y ago
Eco-friendliness and fair-trade would hike up the price and would require more work, unfortunately. If it were those things, they would probably actively advertise it. On the bright side, this work, since it's opensource, might facilitate a similar future projects that could aim for higher responsibility standards. Personally, this platform caught me a bit off guard, and I'm currently ecstatic with the possibilites.
Vinnl 8y ago
It's very unlikely to be. The Fairphone is one of the only phones making an effort, and it's a lot of work [1] and even then they're still long ways of from being actually fair. I can't imagine Purism to have the time to invest in this, nor to do that without even so much as mentioning it. [1] https://www.fairphone.com/en/blog/ https://www.fairphone.com/en/blog/
- acct1771 8y ago
  Indeed. Hopefully one day two projects in these spaces can converge once they've learned all they need to for each niche.

adsche 8y ago

I'm very compelled to pre-order one but has anybody heard any news about the touchscreen or the CPU issue? I worry that there is no word on either in the recent update (like what is being done, what is missing...?)