If they wanted a secure phone OS that has access to a wide variety of applications without strings tied to "big corporations", then they should have just forked Android.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Monday November 23, 2020 @05:13AM (#60756190)
It's not that simple. Librem 5 is first of all about open hardware: the idea is that every component of the phone can operate without closed-source proprietary binary blobs. It's more about trust than security. Achieving this is becoming increasingly difficult: for example, the most recent laptop that fully supports open firmwares is a Thinkpad from 2009. For phones it's even worse (basically impossible)
Librem admittedly succeeded only partially in this feat: the GSM module for example is still closed. But they engineered the phone so that the main CPU is isolated from the GSM CPU (usually it's shared). So you're only running a black-box for the GSM stack, which is at least a good start.
Purism's marketing campaign was aggressive and, according to many observers, dishonest. They advertised a phone 100% free as in freedom, but they knew this could not be accomplished completely because it's still impossible nowadays to fully liberate modern hardware components. Companies like Pinephone or Fairphone adopted a more nuanced stance and focused on other things such as sustainability of raw material or hardware modularity (which I think should just be MANDATORY in consumer electronics even if it requires compromises in design, sorry for your feelings dear hipster)
Another product that is a bit more under the radar right now but I think it's cool is Shiftphone. Don't hear many talking about this, unsure why.
My main concern with all these phones is that they are freaking BIG. Especially the Librem 5, it's like a brick. I am one of those increasingly rare people who prefer a small phone. My current one is a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. I would sell my soul to have a small and "modern" smartphone with fully open hardware able to run LineageOS. With replaceable battery and SD card slot. Sigh.
(Daily reminder that Android OS is *not* free. A good compromise is Lineage OS without Gapps)
Companies like Pinephone or Fairphone adopted a more nuanced stance and focused on other things such as sustainability of raw material or hardware modularity
I've said this before, if you're the type to upgrade your own desktop computer, you already know where this leads. You'll end up with a really old, beat-up phone with new innards. Modular design makes sense when a few components age out significantly faster than the rest of the device (as in the early era of PC 3D graphics accelerators, where you practically had to buy a newer model for each release of a new game), but for smartphones that's not really the case. By the time you need more RAM, or a faster
My main concern with all these phones is that they are freaking BIG. Especially the Librem 5, it's like a brick
I can't find any size specifications at all. Sure, it has a 5.7" screen but that doesn't give me width or height, or screen ratio, or bezel depth, or how thick the phone is.
I think I'm ok with a phone a bit larger than the one you're using but I hate the trend of making phones too big to fit safely in trouser front pockets.
Seems to be mostly german-language, and not focused on mainline kernel support.
>they are freaking BIG
Ya, part of the issue being the need a huge battery to even consider being an everyday main device. Maybe future revision and silicon will make a librem 4 possible.
"Just think of a computer as hardware you can program."
-- Nigel de la Tierre
For who? (Score:3, Informative)
Who is this for? Who is asking for this?
If they wanted a secure phone OS that has access to a wide variety of applications without strings tied to "big corporations", then they should have just forked Android.
Re:For who? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not that simple. Librem 5 is first of all about open hardware: the idea is that every component of the phone can operate without closed-source proprietary binary blobs. It's more about trust than security. Achieving this is becoming increasingly difficult: for example, the most recent laptop that fully supports open firmwares is a Thinkpad from 2009. For phones it's even worse (basically impossible)
Librem admittedly succeeded only partially in this feat: the GSM module for example is still closed. But they engineered the phone so that the main CPU is isolated from the GSM CPU (usually it's shared). So you're only running a black-box for the GSM stack, which is at least a good start.
Purism's marketing campaign was aggressive and, according to many observers, dishonest. They advertised a phone 100% free as in freedom, but they knew this could not be accomplished completely because it's still impossible nowadays to fully liberate modern hardware components. Companies like Pinephone or Fairphone adopted a more nuanced stance and focused on other things such as sustainability of raw material or hardware modularity (which I think should just be MANDATORY in consumer electronics even if it requires compromises in design, sorry for your feelings dear hipster)
Another product that is a bit more under the radar right now but I think it's cool is Shiftphone. Don't hear many talking about this, unsure why.
My main concern with all these phones is that they are freaking BIG. Especially the Librem 5, it's like a brick. I am one of those increasingly rare people who prefer a small phone. My current one is a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. I would sell my soul to have a small and "modern" smartphone with fully open hardware able to run LineageOS. With replaceable battery and SD card slot. Sigh.
(Daily reminder that Android OS is *not* free. A good compromise is Lineage OS without Gapps)
Re: (Score:1)
Companies like Pinephone or Fairphone adopted a more nuanced stance and focused on other things such as sustainability of raw material or hardware modularity
I've said this before, if you're the type to upgrade your own desktop computer, you already know where this leads. You'll end up with a really old, beat-up phone with new innards. Modular design makes sense when a few components age out significantly faster than the rest of the device (as in the early era of PC 3D graphics accelerators, where you practically had to buy a newer model for each release of a new game), but for smartphones that's not really the case. By the time you need more RAM, or a faster
Re: (Score:2)
My main concern with all these phones is that they are freaking BIG. Especially the Librem 5, it's like a brick
I can't find any size specifications at all. Sure, it has a 5.7" screen but that doesn't give me width or height, or screen ratio, or bezel depth, or how thick the phone is.
I think I'm ok with a phone a bit larger than the one you're using but I hate the trend of making phones too big to fit safely in trouser front pockets.
Re: (Score:2)
>Shiftphone
Seems to be mostly german-language, and not focused on mainline kernel support.
>they are freaking BIG
Ya, part of the issue being the need a huge battery to even consider being an everyday main device. Maybe future revision and silicon will make a librem 4 possible.