7 ms·

This isn't a good thing, smartphones are cheap products, all we're doing with this device is making a toy that will gather dust after a few months. It's wastefu

by jbob2000 6y ago

This isn't a good thing, smartphones are cheap products, all we're doing with this device is making a toy that will gather dust after a few months. It's wasteful to ship a product like this where 90% of it doesn't work. Your love of it probably comes from the familiar feeling you have from being abused by Linux distros on desktop - it's Stockholm syndrome. I'm glad you are able to post to a message board on your phone, that's a huge step, yes, but this is sounding eerily familiar to the "huge steps" desktop linux distros have been making for decades.

nix0n 6y ago
> 90% of it doesn't work Sure, but 50% of what a smartphone does are anti-features anyhow. Maybe having to drop to CLI a few times a day is better than being spied on, for some people.
- jbob2000 6y ago
  I wouldn't call what smartphones do "spying". But if you're already at a place where you consider these devices adversaries, then sure, cutting off your nose to spite your face is the right move.
- criddell 6y ago
  A smartphone by its nature is a surveillance device no matter what operating system is on it. As long as the cellular radio is on and you are connecting to towers, your location is being tracked.
  - fsflover 6y ago
    That's why Pinephone and Librem 5 have the killswitches.
    - criddell 6y ago
      You mean airplane mode? I think most phones can selectively turn off the cellular, wifi, and bluetooth radios.
      - fsflover 6y ago
        No, I mean hardware killswitches. https://puri.sm/posts/lockdown-mode-on-the-librem-5-beyond-hardware-kill-switches/ https://puri.sm/posts/lockdown-mode-on-the-librem-5-beyond-h... https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#Killswitch_configuration https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#Killswitch_confi...
        jbob2000 6y ago
        All phones have hardware killswitches. It's called a dead battery.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        boogies 6y ago
        How can you tell if the battery is dead in a phone that you don’t control? Take a heat gun to it to melt the glue, disassemble, and test the battery with a multimeter?
- necrotic_comp 6y ago
  Or even just writing shell scripts. Writing a whole android application for what would be a 10 line python script is a pain that I don't even want to think about.
danShumway 6y ago
> but this is sounding eerily familiar to the "huge steps" desktop linux distros have been making for decades. Well, good. Destkop Linux has come a huge way. I was playing around with Linux as a kid, and it wasn't mature enough for my needs. Fast forward to 2020 and I've had my parents on Linux without issues, I've currently got my nieces on Linux with zero issues, even though they're using those computers for all of their remote learning during the pandemic, and even though I haven't been able to visit them in person to fix any issues. I run Linux on 100% of my personal computers and it works great. I don't think Linux is for everyone, but we're at the point where it's crazy to say that Linux isn't functionally competitive with Mac/Windows for some people, particularly professionals or nontechnical people on managed computers. I used to play with Linux for ideological reasons, now I use Linux because I want to get work done in a stable environment. I used to avoid recommending Linux to anyone who wasn't technical, now if I can set the computer up for them I only recommend Linux because I know that Linux won't break behind my back. Whether that's because Linux has gotten way better or because Windows/Mac has gotten way worse and is way less stable than it used to be -- you can be the judge of that. A Linux smartphone that worked 80-90% as well as the Linux desktop would be usable as a daily driver for me. That's at the point where I would feel comfortable getting rid of my Android phone.
- nabeards 6y ago
  Which distros are your parents and nieces running? Every time I try to find the ‘user friendliest’ Linux, there’s just too much outdated and/or bad info out there.
  - tpxl 6y ago
    I've set up Lubuntu (performance reasons) for an old laptop for a completely non-tech person and Ubuntu on a newer laptop for a rather non-tech person. Both have no problems. Most of the work is done in the browser/libre office and the rest doesn't matter (wifi works out of the box and has a GUI, you don't really need anything else).
  - fsflover 6y ago
    Not OP, but for my relatives I am using Debian stable with KDE or XFCE, depending on the computer specs. It's been rock-solid for years without my involvement.
JeremyNT 6y ago
The whole point of this device is that more people will have access to a real working system and they can improve the software ecosystem. This is how these devices can move from "toys" into real alternatives to Google and Apple products.

nix0n 6y ago

> 90% of it doesn't work Sure, but 50% of what a smartphone does are anti-features anyhow. Maybe having to drop to CLI a few times a day is better than being spied on, for some people.

jbob2000 6y ago
I wouldn't call what smartphones do "spying". But if you're already at a place where you consider these devices adversaries, then sure, cutting off your nose to spite your face is the right move.
criddell 6y ago
A smartphone by its nature is a surveillance device no matter what operating system is on it. As long as the cellular radio is on and you are connecting to towers, your location is being tracked.
- fsflover 6y ago
  That's why Pinephone and Librem 5 have the killswitches.
  - criddell 6y ago
    You mean airplane mode? I think most phones can selectively turn off the cellular, wifi, and bluetooth radios.
    - fsflover 6y ago
      No, I mean hardware killswitches. https://puri.sm/posts/lockdown-mode-on-the-librem-5-beyond-hardware-kill-switches/ https://puri.sm/posts/lockdown-mode-on-the-librem-5-beyond-h... https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#Killswitch_configuration https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#Killswitch_confi...
      - jbob2000 6y ago
        All phones have hardware killswitches. It's called a dead battery.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        boogies 6y ago
        How can you tell if the battery is dead in a phone that you don’t control? Take a heat gun to it to melt the glue, disassemble, and test the battery with a multimeter?
necrotic_comp 6y ago
Or even just writing shell scripts. Writing a whole android application for what would be a 10 line python script is a pain that I don't even want to think about.

danShumway 6y ago

> but this is sounding eerily familiar to the "huge steps" desktop linux distros have been making for decades. Well, good. Destkop Linux has come a huge way. I was playing around with Linux as a kid, and it wasn't mature enough for my needs. Fast forward to 2020 and I've had my parents on Linux without issues, I've currently got my nieces on Linux with zero issues, even though they're using those computers for all of their remote learning during the pandemic, and even though I haven't been able to visit them in person to fix any issues. I run Linux on 100% of my personal computers and it works great. I don't think Linux is for everyone, but we're at the point where it's crazy to say that Linux isn't functionally competitive with Mac/Windows for some people, particularly professionals or nontechnical people on managed computers. I used to play with Linux for ideological reasons, now I use Linux because I want to get work done in a stable environment. I used to avoid recommending Linux to anyone who wasn't technical, now if I can set the computer up for them I only recommend Linux because I know that Linux won't break behind my back. Whether that's because Linux has gotten way better or because Windows/Mac has gotten way worse and is way less stable than it used to be -- you can be the judge of that. A Linux smartphone that worked 80-90% as well as the Linux desktop would be usable as a daily driver for me. That's at the point where I would feel comfortable getting rid of my Android phone.

nabeards 6y ago
Which distros are your parents and nieces running? Every time I try to find the ‘user friendliest’ Linux, there’s just too much outdated and/or bad info out there.
- tpxl 6y ago
  I've set up Lubuntu (performance reasons) for an old laptop for a completely non-tech person and Ubuntu on a newer laptop for a rather non-tech person. Both have no problems. Most of the work is done in the browser/libre office and the rest doesn't matter (wifi works out of the box and has a GUI, you don't really need anything else).
- fsflover 6y ago
  Not OP, but for my relatives I am using Debian stable with KDE or XFCE, depending on the computer specs. It's been rock-solid for years without my involvement.

JeremyNT 6y ago

The whole point of this device is that more people will have access to a real working system and they can improve the software ecosystem. This is how these devices can move from "toys" into real alternatives to Google and Apple products.