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Author here: a lot of the FOSS stack can run on Android-based phones today! I think the hardware is a limiting factor, but part of what makes these devices uni

Author here: a lot of the FOSS stack can run on Android-based phones today! I think the hardware is a limiting factor, but part of what makes these devices unique (as other commenters have pointed out) is that they can run with minimal proprietary blobs. I don't believe either phone is at "no blobs" yet, since even Purism had to have blobs for the Baseband and Wifi (I think, or maybe it was just Wifi?). Nevertheless, Ubuntu Touch does work on Android devices today, and I think even PostmarketOS has some adoption on OnePlus 6/6T. Overall though, I'd say that power isn't really the big thing. I think existing software has shown that you really don't need a lot of compute to be able to run apps smoothly on these phones (Morph browser, many GTK apps on the Librem 5). Battery life remains a concern with these devices, but that seems to improve bit by bit over time (at least, the Pinephone does. Not sure what is up with my Librem). I think getting a partnership would be doubly tricky though, because a lot of the market just doesn't want these phones to begin with, and struggling companies are unlikely to attempt to explore mobile Linux unless they know it'll turn their ship around. Maybe if they get banned from using Android somehow (much like Huawei was), but even then I can't say I'm sure that Linux is appealing for companies in that scenario.

fsflover 5y ago
> even Purism had to have blobs for the Baseband and Wifi (I think, or maybe it was just Wifi?) Baseband and Wifi both run blobs, but not on the main CPU and not from the userspace. As a result, the phone is the only one recommended by the FSF: https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v11/ https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v11/. > Not sure what is up with my Librem Librem 5 does not have suspend-to-RAM yet: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Frequently-Asked-Questions#21-how-long-will-be-the-battery-life-of-the-librem-5-evergreen https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...
- AshamedCaptain 5y ago
  > Librem 5 does not have suspend-to-RAM yet Stuff like the above-mentioned N900 could reach weeks of uptime without any suspend-to-RAM (and at least a couple days with wifi on). There is something definitely wrong here.
kaba0 5y ago
Is blobless a good thing? They still run closed firmware, and on top of that these will never even get updated.
- ajklsdhfniuwehf 5y ago
  how about not giving in to either? You know, some people like not not throw the baby with the water.
- seba_dos1 5y ago
  All these blobs can get easily updated/replaced by the user without having to hack the hardware in any way. For some reason there's a lot of FUD going on around that issue.
  - kaba0 5y ago
    How is it FUD? Yeah open-source drivers will get updated. The binary blob firmware of a component? Not really. If you replace it, it will still has the old/potentially buggy firmware.
    - seba_dos1 5y ago
      The FUD is about not being able to reflash and update the blobs just because they're not stored in the rootfs. It won't get done as part of regular system updates because they're non-free, but you're able to do it on your own pretty easily.

fsflover 5y ago

> even Purism had to have blobs for the Baseband and Wifi (I think, or maybe it was just Wifi?) Baseband and Wifi both run blobs, but not on the main CPU and not from the userspace. As a result, the phone is the only one recommended by the FSF: https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v11/ https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v11/. > Not sure what is up with my Librem Librem 5 does not have suspend-to-RAM yet: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Frequently-Asked-Questions#21-how-long-will-be-the-battery-life-of-the-librem-5-evergreen https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...

AshamedCaptain 5y ago
> Librem 5 does not have suspend-to-RAM yet Stuff like the above-mentioned N900 could reach weeks of uptime without any suspend-to-RAM (and at least a couple days with wifi on). There is something definitely wrong here.

kaba0 5y ago

Is blobless a good thing? They still run closed firmware, and on top of that these will never even get updated.

ajklsdhfniuwehf 5y ago
how about not giving in to either? You know, some people like not not throw the baby with the water.
seba_dos1 5y ago
All these blobs can get easily updated/replaced by the user without having to hack the hardware in any way. For some reason there's a lot of FUD going on around that issue.
- kaba0 5y ago
  How is it FUD? Yeah open-source drivers will get updated. The binary blob firmware of a component? Not really. If you replace it, it will still has the old/potentially buggy firmware.
  - seba_dos1 5y ago
    The FUD is about not being able to reflash and update the blobs just because they're not stored in the rootfs. It won't get done as part of regular system updates because they're non-free, but you're able to do it on your own pretty easily.