5 ms·

Librem 5 Is Calling

68 points by yepthatsreality 7y ago

dogma1138 7y ago
So it’s capable of doing the bare minimum required for a device to be called a phone?
- Guest42 7y ago
  Yes, and that’s a large accomplishment given the important constraints that were placed upon this project.
- brnt 7y ago
  On the one hand, I thought the same. On the other, this is area is a minefield of proprietary non standards and walled off chips and protocols. Embedded is bad, communication even worse. Having an open source phonecall is a real achievement and a testament to the endurance of the people working on it. Its impressive and not at all, at the same time.
- xrd 7y ago
  You are right! Most other phones do so much more, like sending all your data to a big corporation with almost no need for you to worry about it. I'm writing this from my Android phone and hope Google isn't going to be angry with me.
- winslow 7y ago
  ~12 years ago Android and iOS were at the bare minimum to be considered a phone by making a call and having the basic necessity apps. It takes time to build something from scratch. Especially the way Purism is building it without proprietary hardware and firmware blobs. Maybe we should discourage everyone from learning programming when they first print "Hello World"?
winslow 7y ago
Awesome progress by the purism team!
stamps 7y ago
Maybe the majority of people who pre-ordered these brick sized devices will finally start to received them after they've been "shipping" for 9 months after already being more than a year late. Thankfully there's more competent companies like Pine64 pushing alternative devices.
- fsflover 7y ago
  You do not seem to acknowledge the huge task they untertook. The internal Dogwood batch has already come to Purism [0], so the progress is made all the time. [0] https://social.librem.one/@purism/103968824971000879 https://social.librem.one/@purism/103968824971000879
tracnar 7y ago
This is what I hoped the Ubuntu Phone would be: a full-featured Linux distribution running on a phone! It also suffers from not capturing the Android app ecosystem, but at least it might drive Gnome to get responsive/phone-ready apps. Plus using the same base could enable some nice computer-phone integration.
- zerocrates 7y ago
  I'd rather Gnome focus on computer-ready apps a little more rather than chasing a phone future that will likely never come to pass. I don't mind Gnome 3 but it has taken, in my opinion, too many steps toward mobile already.
  - tracnar 7y ago
    While I would tend to agree, it's now already pretty much phone/touch ready, so it might as well make use of it. I feel like Gnome's UI is finally getting some consistency after having a lot of random changes from version to version in the past years. I don't really use many of the Gnome apps as I'm mainly in the browser or terminal, but various things like the video player, image viewer, document viewer, recorder, webcam app, process monitor, all seem to have converged to being very narrow focused and simplified. I usually like the simplicity, and if I need more I turn to specialized software.
    - zerocrates 7y ago
      Actually I'd agree that changes have mostly been positive in the last several versions.
freedomben 7y ago
I really do hope the Librem 5 is a success, and I'm extremely grateful to Purism for moving forward with this. I will absolutely make Librem my primary phone provided it has a reasonable price tag for good hardware specs and is usable. That said, a little while ago I looked into developing some apps for the Librem, and I don't think they intend to either now or in the future provide any sort of a paid app store. This is a massive problem IMHO. I write lots of open source and will continue to do so, but without a means of funding it will never take off like the other major platforms. I would love to see free-as-in-speech app store that also allows payment. As has been repeated ad nauseum, free-as-in-speech doesn't have to also mean free-as-in-beer. That said also, I don't actually think Purism needs to do this themselves. In fact it may be a lot better if they don't and we had an independent org running the "app store." It would obviously require some collaboration with Purism tho, so I hope I'm wrong about their apathy toward the idea. In related news I have the PinePhone Braveheart edition and am super pleased with it. Hopefully between the different companies going for it, we'll have some fully open alternatives to Android/iOS soon!
- exolymph 7y ago
  > I would love to see free-as-in-speech app store that also allows payment. The problem here is payment processors, and the problem with payment processors is pressure from banks, and the pressure on banks comes from regulators. So it's not really a problem that Purism / Librem can solve.
  - haydn3 7y ago
    Um, bitcoin, anyone?
    - exolymph 7y ago
      The problem with BTC is that demand to spend it on normal commerce is close to nil. Most people don't have it, and the ones who do are HODLing.
- johnchristopher 7y ago
teddyh 7y ago
I keep waiting for news about their RYF certification.

Librem 5 Is Calling

dogma1138 7y ago

So it’s capable of doing the bare minimum required for a device to be called a phone?

Guest42 7y ago
Yes, and that’s a large accomplishment given the important constraints that were placed upon this project.
brnt 7y ago
On the one hand, I thought the same. On the other, this is area is a minefield of proprietary non standards and walled off chips and protocols. Embedded is bad, communication even worse. Having an open source phonecall is a real achievement and a testament to the endurance of the people working on it. Its impressive and not at all, at the same time.
xrd 7y ago
You are right! Most other phones do so much more, like sending all your data to a big corporation with almost no need for you to worry about it. I'm writing this from my Android phone and hope Google isn't going to be angry with me.
winslow 7y ago
~12 years ago Android and iOS were at the bare minimum to be considered a phone by making a call and having the basic necessity apps. It takes time to build something from scratch. Especially the way Purism is building it without proprietary hardware and firmware blobs. Maybe we should discourage everyone from learning programming when they first print "Hello World"?

winslow 7y ago

Awesome progress by the purism team!

stamps 7y ago

Maybe the majority of people who pre-ordered these brick sized devices will finally start to received them after they've been "shipping" for 9 months after already being more than a year late. Thankfully there's more competent companies like Pine64 pushing alternative devices.

fsflover 7y ago
You do not seem to acknowledge the huge task they untertook. The internal Dogwood batch has already come to Purism [0], so the progress is made all the time. [0] https://social.librem.one/@purism/103968824971000879 https://social.librem.one/@purism/103968824971000879

tracnar 7y ago

This is what I hoped the Ubuntu Phone would be: a full-featured Linux distribution running on a phone! It also suffers from not capturing the Android app ecosystem, but at least it might drive Gnome to get responsive/phone-ready apps. Plus using the same base could enable some nice computer-phone integration.

zerocrates 7y ago
I'd rather Gnome focus on computer-ready apps a little more rather than chasing a phone future that will likely never come to pass. I don't mind Gnome 3 but it has taken, in my opinion, too many steps toward mobile already.
- tracnar 7y ago
  While I would tend to agree, it's now already pretty much phone/touch ready, so it might as well make use of it. I feel like Gnome's UI is finally getting some consistency after having a lot of random changes from version to version in the past years. I don't really use many of the Gnome apps as I'm mainly in the browser or terminal, but various things like the video player, image viewer, document viewer, recorder, webcam app, process monitor, all seem to have converged to being very narrow focused and simplified. I usually like the simplicity, and if I need more I turn to specialized software.
  - zerocrates 7y ago
    Actually I'd agree that changes have mostly been positive in the last several versions.

freedomben 7y ago

I really do hope the Librem 5 is a success, and I'm extremely grateful to Purism for moving forward with this. I will absolutely make Librem my primary phone provided it has a reasonable price tag for good hardware specs and is usable. That said, a little while ago I looked into developing some apps for the Librem, and I don't think they intend to either now or in the future provide any sort of a paid app store. This is a massive problem IMHO. I write lots of open source and will continue to do so, but without a means of funding it will never take off like the other major platforms. I would love to see free-as-in-speech app store that also allows payment. As has been repeated ad nauseum, free-as-in-speech doesn't have to also mean free-as-in-beer. That said also, I don't actually think Purism needs to do this themselves. In fact it may be a lot better if they don't and we had an independent org running the "app store." It would obviously require some collaboration with Purism tho, so I hope I'm wrong about their apathy toward the idea. In related news I have the PinePhone Braveheart edition and am super pleased with it. Hopefully between the different companies going for it, we'll have some fully open alternatives to Android/iOS soon!

exolymph 7y ago
> I would love to see free-as-in-speech app store that also allows payment. The problem here is payment processors, and the problem with payment processors is pressure from banks, and the pressure on banks comes from regulators. So it's not really a problem that Purism / Librem can solve.
- haydn3 7y ago
  Um, bitcoin, anyone?
  - exolymph 7y ago
    The problem with BTC is that demand to spend it on normal commerce is close to nil. Most people don't have it, and the ones who do are HODLing.
johnchristopher 7y ago

teddyh 7y ago

I keep waiting for news about their RYF certification.