4 ms·

A lot of problems obviously, many of which would be deal breakers for anyone, but the author expresses a strong emotional bias towards the phone. Unfortunately

by simonh 4y ago

A lot of problems obviously, many of which would be deal breakers for anyone, but the author expresses a strong emotional bias towards the phone. Unfortunately they don't say why, I'd really be interested in knowing what the advantages are of the phone that make it so loved despite all these issues. After all, some of us might be interested in having one as an additional device either for fun or as for the additional utility it might provide.

Roark66 4y ago
I too have a (fairly) strong emotional bias towards pine products. I can tell you why. For one, pine is the only manufacturer I know of that managed to obtain and release real down to register level documentation for the hardware they use. We have very comprehensive documentation from rockchip (a lot of it in Chinese, but auto translation tools are good enough). They publish schematics for everything. They let you download source code for so called "proprietary" drivers that work with old versions of Linux kernel. All this means, for a tinkerer/hobbyist one can do stuff that is simply impossible on any other hardware that has comparable performance (basically modern 64bit embedded systems like those in newest mobile phones). Then there is all the time we(hobbyists/devs) spend tinkering with this hardware. When one invests so much time into some product it is hard to just let it go. However, having said all that I would never use an unfinished product as my main phone. If I had a pine phone I woukd probably carry it as a secondary, but those devices are nowhere near the state people can rely on them in case of emergency.
- deleted 4y ago
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linmob 4y ago
As a person that spends way too much time on these efforts[0], here's what makes the phone still worthwhile to me despite being slow and at times buggy: It's nice to be in an ecosystem that does not have ad frameworks, that does not nudge you into using iCloud or where you have to use Play Services (or invest time into building around not having them (and more than once, did that for years)) for apps to work properly. (That aside, I have not had the problems OP describes - but the worst problems with PinePhone (outside of highly experimental software) I suffered through where with Manjaro.) [0]: https://linmob.net https://linmob.net, https://linuxphoneapps.org https://linuxphoneapps.org

by simonh 4y ago

Roark66 4y ago

I too have a (fairly) strong emotional bias towards pine products. I can tell you why. For one, pine is the only manufacturer I know of that managed to obtain and release real down to register level documentation for the hardware they use. We have very comprehensive documentation from rockchip (a lot of it in Chinese, but auto translation tools are good enough). They publish schematics for everything. They let you download source code for so called "proprietary" drivers that work with old versions of Linux kernel. All this means, for a tinkerer/hobbyist one can do stuff that is simply impossible on any other hardware that has comparable performance (basically modern 64bit embedded systems like those in newest mobile phones). Then there is all the time we(hobbyists/devs) spend tinkering with this hardware. When one invests so much time into some product it is hard to just let it go. However, having said all that I would never use an unfinished product as my main phone. If I had a pine phone I woukd probably carry it as a secondary, but those devices are nowhere near the state people can rely on them in case of emergency.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

linmob 4y ago

As a person that spends way too much time on these efforts[0], here's what makes the phone still worthwhile to me despite being slow and at times buggy: It's nice to be in an ecosystem that does not have ad frameworks, that does not nudge you into using iCloud or where you have to use Play Services (or invest time into building around not having them (and more than once, did that for years)) for apps to work properly. (That aside, I have not had the problems OP describes - but the worst problems with PinePhone (outside of highly experimental software) I suffered through where with Manjaro.) [0]: https://linmob.net https://linmob.net, https://linuxphoneapps.org https://linuxphoneapps.org