Purism Is Still Hoping To Build A GNU/Linux Free Software Librem Smartphone

[sverris]

That processor has no GPL-compliant video engine. Gnu/Linux is possible, but atm not truly open hardware. Best option seems to use a community edition of Ubuntu on the Fairphone 2, but that is still feature-incomplete and buggy.

[sverris]

Not possible with the current state of affairs in the modem driver/firmware world.

Can't even get a 802.11ac Wi-Fi card without closed firmware since OEMs keep them close due to their intellectual rights (= bad code) or regulations that prohibit antenna power management by users in some countries. A free GSM/UMTS/LTE implementation down to firmware? I doubt that.

The best you can hope for is an SoC with a modem which is separate from the main board (e.g. you interface with it via USB) with a hardware kill switch (physically disabling power to the separate chip). The key here is to avoid direct access to the main board's RAM from the modem which can have malicious firmware.

That's right: see also http://neo900.org/faq#peripherals

Don't know, if/when the neo900 will see the light...

[ElectricPrism]

I appreciate that they have "big dreams", however I think it's not bad to reign it in with "do one thing, and do it well".

[Adarion]

OMG, they are at it again. I mean, I'd love to have a RYF / RYP sticker compatible cellphone. Absolutely. But this company fucked up major style last time. First they announced something that looked like they'd just wanted to leverage and finance their above-average gaming laptop by the libre software enthusiast community. They announced a "libre" notebook (incl. coreboot or even libreboot and all sorts of stuff) - but they had intended an intel CPU/APU and a Nvidia GPU. WTF? Later they just brought out some totally average slightly upper class laptop (IPS panel) that did still feature a UEFI BIOS.
As Coreboot devs noted these folks did not even approach them in advance and asked "hey, Coreboot experts, could this be possible, what do you think?" No - nothing. After some time even some Coreboot dev ported Coreboot to their blobed thing and shamed them in public.
And now they want to do a phone? I hope they'll choose better components and do a little planning and research in advance this time!

The HW kill switches sound like a pleasant idea in any case, though.

Semi on topic: Didn't Qualcomm want to buy NXP recently?

[tuuker]

if anyone had courage to sneak or infiltrate into engineering department where modems are produced with software then upload to everywhere. This is only way to free people from NSA and operators slavery.

[timofonic]

Hopes a promises...

Are they politicians?

Purism sounds like a nazi party. Are they funded by the Mozilla ex-CEO?

[aht0]

Replicant is using some sort of GSM/UMTS drivers that work. AFAIK they are avoiding blobs.