4 ms·

PinePhone's $150 currently does not finance the software development in any way, and will bring just around $10 per device in the future to external software te

by padok 7y ago

PinePhone's $150 currently does not finance the software development in any way, and will bring just around $10 per device in the future to external software teams (and I believe the price of the final batch is supposed to increase a bit). Librem 5's price, on the other hand, finances a whole team of software developers that develop things people can (and already do) also use on their PinePhones. It also helps to move the SoC support forward, as PinePhone mostly relies on already existing sunxi efforts. If you can't afford a Librem 5, get a PinePhone, but if you're explicitly about getting "closer to your dream" then Librem 5 seems like a much better option when it comes to showing support.

darau1 7y ago
$750 is still steep for a phone that's "a hassle to use" and never available when I need to use it. Isn't there some way I can directly support one or both of these teams?
m4rtink 7y ago
In the end I think Pine Phone actually does more for open mobile software development than Purism. Rather than sponsoring a new mobile OS effort built mostly from scratch (Pure OS) financed from selling a limmited number of expensive devices, the Pine Phone provides a cheap and accessible platform for all the existing mobile OS efforts (Sailfish OS, Ubuports, Plasma Mobile, Maemo Leste, etc.). As far as I can tell as being part of the Sailfish & Maemo community, this is working quite nicely with a lot of interest and work being done by community members to get Sailfish OS and Memo Leste running on the Pine Phone (and also the Fxtec Pro, another nice new reasonably open device with a hardware keyboard).
- seba_dos1 7y ago
  > a new mobile OS effort built mostly from scratch (Pure OS) I'm not sure where does that come from. PureOS is a very lightweight Debian derivative which is built around regular GNOME. Majority on the work happens directly on upstream and benefits everyone even on desktops. Even parts that were actually built from scratch, like phosh, are being built with interoperability and reuse in mind (you can run phosh on any layer-shell compatible Wayland compositor, like sway; and run phoc with other shells as well, such as MATE). Also, libhandy is meant to augment existing Gtk widgetset, as opposed to some other efforts like UBports or Plasma Mobile that require you to completely rewrite your applications to use new QtQuick frameworks, as there's no effort being made to make regular Qt Widgets usable on phones. Vast majority of the work put into mobile PureOS is just improving Debian and GNOME to work well on mobile. (PS. Just today I've seen a community member sharing a video of Maemo Leste running on the Librem 5 on Matrix... ;) postmarketOS with various shells, including Plasma Mobile, also works already, and UBports developers already received their devices, so we may see it running there soon as well)
  - m4rtink 7y ago
    Sure, there are many base libraries Pure OS on the Librem 5 uses, but most of them have never really been used on mobile devices and as you mention require qite signifficant enahancements. Then in comparison, there are libraries that have been used on mobileLinux devices for a while and even open source native applications (mostly on Plasma Mobile & Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS apps are still sadly mostly closed source). Not making use of and extending all the mobile friendly software almost seems like starting from scratch to me. BTW, what telephony midleware is Pure OS using ? Ofono, FSO or something else ?
    - seba_dos1 7y ago
      Well, I've seen the effort needed in the past to lay the foundations (when working on SHR and FSO) and see what's needed now (when working on PureOS). The difference is massive - turns out that thanks to things like always-connected 2-in-1 laptops with mobile broadbands and hidpi touchscreens, lots of things that you simply had to make "mobile specific" in the past can be just reused from the desktop now; and improving them makes things better for all GNU/Linux users, not just mobile ones. The telephony middleware is a great example of that - it uses ModemManager, which is a part of a regular desktop stack and already well-integrated in GNOME (and other DEs) for many years. Thanks to that, you can just plug a USB 3G/4G stick to your laptop, install Chatty and start SMSing - just like that, plug'n'play (you may even be able to make calls if your modem exports audio over USB, but it's rare).

by padok 7y ago

darau1 7y ago

$750 is still steep for a phone that's "a hassle to use" and never available when I need to use it. Isn't there some way I can directly support one or both of these teams?

m4rtink 7y ago

In the end I think Pine Phone actually does more for open mobile software development than Purism. Rather than sponsoring a new mobile OS effort built mostly from scratch (Pure OS) financed from selling a limmited number of expensive devices, the Pine Phone provides a cheap and accessible platform for all the existing mobile OS efforts (Sailfish OS, Ubuports, Plasma Mobile, Maemo Leste, etc.). As far as I can tell as being part of the Sailfish & Maemo community, this is working quite nicely with a lot of interest and work being done by community members to get Sailfish OS and Memo Leste running on the Pine Phone (and also the Fxtec Pro, another nice new reasonably open device with a hardware keyboard).

seba_dos1 7y ago
> a new mobile OS effort built mostly from scratch (Pure OS) I'm not sure where does that come from. PureOS is a very lightweight Debian derivative which is built around regular GNOME. Majority on the work happens directly on upstream and benefits everyone even on desktops. Even parts that were actually built from scratch, like phosh, are being built with interoperability and reuse in mind (you can run phosh on any layer-shell compatible Wayland compositor, like sway; and run phoc with other shells as well, such as MATE). Also, libhandy is meant to augment existing Gtk widgetset, as opposed to some other efforts like UBports or Plasma Mobile that require you to completely rewrite your applications to use new QtQuick frameworks, as there's no effort being made to make regular Qt Widgets usable on phones. Vast majority of the work put into mobile PureOS is just improving Debian and GNOME to work well on mobile. (PS. Just today I've seen a community member sharing a video of Maemo Leste running on the Librem 5 on Matrix... ;) postmarketOS with various shells, including Plasma Mobile, also works already, and UBports developers already received their devices, so we may see it running there soon as well)
- m4rtink 7y ago
  Sure, there are many base libraries Pure OS on the Librem 5 uses, but most of them have never really been used on mobile devices and as you mention require qite signifficant enahancements. Then in comparison, there are libraries that have been used on mobileLinux devices for a while and even open source native applications (mostly on Plasma Mobile & Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS apps are still sadly mostly closed source). Not making use of and extending all the mobile friendly software almost seems like starting from scratch to me. BTW, what telephony midleware is Pure OS using ? Ofono, FSO or something else ?
  - seba_dos1 7y ago
    Well, I've seen the effort needed in the past to lay the foundations (when working on SHR and FSO) and see what's needed now (when working on PureOS). The difference is massive - turns out that thanks to things like always-connected 2-in-1 laptops with mobile broadbands and hidpi touchscreens, lots of things that you simply had to make "mobile specific" in the past can be just reused from the desktop now; and improving them makes things better for all GNU/Linux users, not just mobile ones. The telephony middleware is a great example of that - it uses ModemManager, which is a part of a regular desktop stack and already well-integrated in GNOME (and other DEs) for many years. Thanks to that, you can just plug a USB 3G/4G stick to your laptop, install Chatty and start SMSing - just like that, plug'n'play (you may even be able to make calls if your modem exports audio over USB, but it's rare).