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TLDR or something? They aren't making an OS. The project is about opening up the closed blobs that mobile chipsets use: "This project's goal is not another An

TLDR or something? They aren't making an OS. The project is about opening up the closed blobs that mobile chipsets use: "This project's goal is not another Android distribution, but a long-term project to better understand and reverse-engineer the nonfree blobs used by virtually all SoCs made today."

fsflover 1y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589873
- supermatt 1y ago
  Thats clearly not what the OP is suggesting as per "Why do we have to have /e/OS instead of a better supported LineageOS, because /e/ is a 1:1 copy anyways?". Both cases are android. /e/OS is not librephone. There's little point in "partnering" with postmarketOS, because the project is literally about clean room reversing the proprietary blobs found in android devices: https://librephone.fsf.org/site/ https://librephone.fsf.org/site/ - there are no commercial phones using postmarketOS with blobs to reverse engineer.
  - fsflover 1y ago
    > there are no commercial phones using postmarketOS with blobs to reverse engineer This is false: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Purism_Librem5_(purism-librem5) https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Purism_Librem5_(purism-li... See also my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589096
    - supermatt 1y ago
      > This is false You can install postmarketOS on it (just as you can install lineageOS, etc on a Samsung galaxy, etc), but it ships with PureOS. "The Librem 5 is a phone built on PureOS" - https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ The project is to reverse engineer proprietary blobs - so it makes sense to go where those blobs are and reverse to match the functionality that is exposed commercially instead of guessing at a subset for base implementation on a non-official OS? > See also my other comment It seems you are just as confused about this project as the OP, which is ironic given your name.
      - fsflover 1y ago
        > but it ships with PureOS Why does it matter? Yes, I would prefer that FSF collaborated with PureOS directly, but collaborating with postmarketOS also seems possible. There are enough blobs in Librem 5, which don't depend on the OS. > which is ironic given your name Indeed I'm quite surprised about the FSF actions lately.
        supermatt 1y ago
        > Why does it matter? Because to reverse it you need to have a functionally complete baseline to compare it to. For the Librem that baseline is what it ships with (PureOS). For nearly every other device on the planet, that is Android. By them focusing on creating fully functional free drivers to swap out with the non-free driver blobs on Android, they will have created a reference source that can be adapted for any other OS.
        fsflover 1y ago
        You're right about the drivers, but you don't need to reverse engineer them for Librem 5: They are already free. You only need to do it for the firmware, which AFAIK doesn't depend on the OS.
        supermatt 1y ago
        "Non-free driver blobs" in the librephone context means anything needed to drive the hardware. i.e. kernel drivers, HAL modules, firmware images, user-space vendor libs, etc. But sure, librem5 probably has most of that already.
        fsflover 1y ago
        > But sure, librem5 probably has most of that already. So it would be less work and would benefit more operating systems to work on it. Yet the FSF chose another hardware - I don't understand why.

fsflover 1y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589873

supermatt 1y ago
Thats clearly not what the OP is suggesting as per "Why do we have to have /e/OS instead of a better supported LineageOS, because /e/ is a 1:1 copy anyways?". Both cases are android. /e/OS is not librephone. There's little point in "partnering" with postmarketOS, because the project is literally about clean room reversing the proprietary blobs found in android devices: https://librephone.fsf.org/site/ https://librephone.fsf.org/site/ - there are no commercial phones using postmarketOS with blobs to reverse engineer.
- fsflover 1y ago
  > there are no commercial phones using postmarketOS with blobs to reverse engineer This is false: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Purism_Librem5_(purism-librem5) https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Purism_Librem5_(purism-li... See also my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45589096
  - supermatt 1y ago
    > This is false You can install postmarketOS on it (just as you can install lineageOS, etc on a Samsung galaxy, etc), but it ships with PureOS. "The Librem 5 is a phone built on PureOS" - https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ The project is to reverse engineer proprietary blobs - so it makes sense to go where those blobs are and reverse to match the functionality that is exposed commercially instead of guessing at a subset for base implementation on a non-official OS? > See also my other comment It seems you are just as confused about this project as the OP, which is ironic given your name.
    - fsflover 1y ago
      > but it ships with PureOS Why does it matter? Yes, I would prefer that FSF collaborated with PureOS directly, but collaborating with postmarketOS also seems possible. There are enough blobs in Librem 5, which don't depend on the OS. > which is ironic given your name Indeed I'm quite surprised about the FSF actions lately.
      - supermatt 1y ago
        > Why does it matter? Because to reverse it you need to have a functionally complete baseline to compare it to. For the Librem that baseline is what it ships with (PureOS). For nearly every other device on the planet, that is Android. By them focusing on creating fully functional free drivers to swap out with the non-free driver blobs on Android, they will have created a reference source that can be adapted for any other OS.
        fsflover 1y ago
        You're right about the drivers, but you don't need to reverse engineer them for Librem 5: They are already free. You only need to do it for the firmware, which AFAIK doesn't depend on the OS.
        supermatt 1y ago
        "Non-free driver blobs" in the librephone context means anything needed to drive the hardware. i.e. kernel drivers, HAL modules, firmware images, user-space vendor libs, etc. But sure, librem5 probably has most of that already.
        fsflover 1y ago
        > But sure, librem5 probably has most of that already. So it would be less work and would benefit more operating systems to work on it. Yet the FSF chose another hardware - I don't understand why.