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My PinePhone turned up this week. It, ummmm, very rough around the edges, software wise. So far I have only used the default Manjaro distribution it came with

My PinePhone turned up this week. It, ummmm, very rough around the edges, software wise. So far I have only used the default Manjaro distribution it came with. Im both looking forward to, and dreading, working my way through a dozen or so alternative distros to find the least worst collection of brokenness and bugs. But I 100% knew what I was buying into when I paid for it, and am very happy I have it.

matheusmoreira 5y ago
I found the pinephone in my research. It seemed nice but the hardware specifications were really underwhelming. I'm used to buying flagship phones with the best hardware available and using them for years and years. > It, ummmm, very rough around the edges, software wise. I can imagine. How's the driver situation? Lots of proprietary blobs? What about the device itself? Build quality? I see it has hardware switches for RF and sensors, I really like that. > So far I have only used the default Manjaro distribution it came with. I wonder why Manjaro and not stock Arch Linux.
- blendergeek 5y ago
  > How's the driver situation? Lots of proprietary blobs? Interestingly enough, no, the drivers are all open source and mainlined. There is even a work-in-progress driver for hardware video decoding. There are a couple proprietary firmware blobs that have to be loaded at boot time but that is just like on a laptop.
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    > Interestingly enough, no, the drivers are all open source and mainlined. There is even a work-in-progress driver for hardware video decoding. That's amazing. So unlike Android phones I can actually use a stock kernel. I think I'm gonna buy one. > There are a couple proprietary firmware blobs that have to be loaded at boot time but that is just like on a laptop. So the kernel itself is not tainted? I'm fine with that.
- jstanley 5y ago
  > How's the driver situation? Lots of proprietary blobs? Even if this is the case, what are you going to do? Buy a normal phone? That will just get you even more proprietary blobs. You shouldn't let aversion to proprietary blobs put you off getting a PinePhone if all the other options you'd consider contain more proprietary blobs.
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    > Buy a normal phone? That will just get you even more proprietary blobs. Google's apparently trying to get all these manufacturers to contribute their drivers to the kernel. Not sure how successful they've been. I was hoping the situation would be better here. Proprietary Linux drivers suck. Even nvidia drivers have caused instability in my system before, switching to nouveau fixed it. I hate those things so much.
- bigiain 5y ago
  It’s got closed source blobs for at least it’s Realtek wifi chipset. Probably more as well. :shrug: Hardware and build quality wise, I’m quite happily surprised at how good it feels. It’s certainly not at iPhone13 Pro levels of industrial design, but it feels like it compares favourably to, say Galaxy S4 vintage “flagship phones”. And yeah, that row of hardware switches was a very powerful deciding feature for my purchase.
goodpoint 5y ago
Use Mobian

matheusmoreira 5y ago

I found the pinephone in my research. It seemed nice but the hardware specifications were really underwhelming. I'm used to buying flagship phones with the best hardware available and using them for years and years. > It, ummmm, very rough around the edges, software wise. I can imagine. How's the driver situation? Lots of proprietary blobs? What about the device itself? Build quality? I see it has hardware switches for RF and sensors, I really like that. > So far I have only used the default Manjaro distribution it came with. I wonder why Manjaro and not stock Arch Linux.

blendergeek 5y ago
> How's the driver situation? Lots of proprietary blobs? Interestingly enough, no, the drivers are all open source and mainlined. There is even a work-in-progress driver for hardware video decoding. There are a couple proprietary firmware blobs that have to be loaded at boot time but that is just like on a laptop.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  > Interestingly enough, no, the drivers are all open source and mainlined. There is even a work-in-progress driver for hardware video decoding. That's amazing. So unlike Android phones I can actually use a stock kernel. I think I'm gonna buy one. > There are a couple proprietary firmware blobs that have to be loaded at boot time but that is just like on a laptop. So the kernel itself is not tainted? I'm fine with that.
jstanley 5y ago
> How's the driver situation? Lots of proprietary blobs? Even if this is the case, what are you going to do? Buy a normal phone? That will just get you even more proprietary blobs. You shouldn't let aversion to proprietary blobs put you off getting a PinePhone if all the other options you'd consider contain more proprietary blobs.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  > Buy a normal phone? That will just get you even more proprietary blobs. Google's apparently trying to get all these manufacturers to contribute their drivers to the kernel. Not sure how successful they've been. I was hoping the situation would be better here. Proprietary Linux drivers suck. Even nvidia drivers have caused instability in my system before, switching to nouveau fixed it. I hate those things so much.
bigiain 5y ago
It’s got closed source blobs for at least it’s Realtek wifi chipset. Probably more as well. :shrug: Hardware and build quality wise, I’m quite happily surprised at how good it feels. It’s certainly not at iPhone13 Pro levels of industrial design, but it feels like it compares favourably to, say Galaxy S4 vintage “flagship phones”. And yeah, that row of hardware switches was a very powerful deciding feature for my purchase.

goodpoint 5y ago

Use Mobian