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Purism Shares April Update On Librem 5 Hardware/Software

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  • Purism Shares April Update On Librem 5 Hardware/Software

    Phoronix: Purism Shares April Update On Librem 5 Hardware/Software

    Purism has shared their latest update on the efforts around their Librem 5 GNU/Linux smartphone they hope to begin shipping in Q3...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Sounds to me like the PinePhone will be available first.

    Comment


    • #3
      I wonder how much work mainstream companies have making their phones.

      Purism is working in 1 phone, although they have write a good amount of nonexistent software, it is taking them a lot of time.

      Would it be wrong to say that Samsung might be working on Galaxy S12 already? So they can release it in the 2 years?

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by andrei_me View Post
        ...
        Apart from companies like Samsung having way more development resources device makers that spin their own silicon generally run their own proprietary kernels while those using silicon from companies like Qualcomm tend to rely on proprietary kernels provided by their silicon vendors. Silicon vendors like Qualcomm are also infamous for being really tardy with releasing new kernels, demanding exorbitantly expensive support contracts to access them and providing them for a pretty short time. This is a big part of the reason why Android devices used to have such crap post-release support by their manufacturers.

        Since then Google has decoupled most of the Android functionality from the kernels such that device makers don't have to wait on a new kernel from their silicon vendor for the latest version of the OS to update their devices to said version of the OS. You still get some pretty ancient kernels by the end devices reach their support EOL, thou not as extreme as the Jolla 1, which is still supported by the manufacturer, that still uses on a 3.4 kernel from 2012 when 3.4 had it's EOL in October 2016. However that's at least better than the "You get one major update and then just minor bug fixes" that Android users had to put up with.

        Purism on the other hand wants to be maximum open source so they really can't rely on any proprietary kernel modules and as a result have to rely on stuff that's been mainlined so recently they're going to have to do the major debugging of this stuff themselves along with having to do this plus doing said mainlining themselves. Going trough all of the stuff they've had to mainline it's actually more than I expected them to have needed to mainline themselves this recently.

        If there's one benefit to how far behind they are on the original schedule is that at least the SoC's kernel drivers have been mainlined so they can use a mainline kernel, rather than an NXP supplied proprietary one, from the get-go. I personally guessed they'd be forced to be pragmatic and start off with a proprietary kernel to get development of userland components going until mainline on the SoC in question has been debugged thoroughly enough to be properly usable. Hell, I'd even say this is probably still the way they should go about it. One software team working on getting the kernel space stuff to be ready for prime time while another works based off a closed, but much more stable kernel so they don't need to debug user and kernel space at the same time.

        Comment


        • #5
          Hmm... if they haven't yet finalized the hardware design then I see a Q3 release impossible at this point. Let's hope they can actually make it for Q4. I guess, as andyprough said, it sounds like the PinePhone will be available first.

          Comment


          • #6
            The app switcher really reminds me of webOS.

            In fact, GNOME's header bar seems to be taken directly from webOS:

            Comment


            • #7
              While i don't like the delays, i'd rather see them release a solid phone than a half-baked one.

              Comment


              • #8
                I truly open source phone is worth the wait for me. The functionality of making calls from anywhere, sim card or not, and the added bonus of not being spied on by every jerkoff with their hand in the jar, is worth being done right.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by andyprough View Post
                  Sounds to me like the PinePhone will be available first.
                  Could be, but does it really matter? It doesn't target the same market.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by L_A_G View Post

                    Apart from companies like Samsung having way more development resources device makers that spin their own silicon generally run their own proprietary kernels while those using silicon from companies like Qualcomm tend to rely on proprietary kernels provided by their silicon vendors. Silicon vendors like Qualcomm are also infamous for being really tardy with releasing new kernels, demanding exorbitantly expensive support contracts to access them and providing them for a pretty short time. This is a big part of the reason why Android devices used to have such crap post-release support by their manufacturers.

                    Since then Google has decoupled most of the Android functionality from the kernels such that device makers don't have to wait on a new kernel from their silicon vendor for the latest version of the OS to update their devices to said version of the OS. You still get some pretty ancient kernels by the end devices reach their support EOL, thou not as extreme as the Jolla 1, which is still supported by the manufacturer, that still uses on a 3.4 kernel from 2012 when 3.4 had it's EOL in October 2016. However that's at least better than the "You get one major update and then just minor bug fixes" that Android users had to put up with.

                    Purism on the other hand wants to be maximum open source so they really can't rely on any proprietary kernel modules and as a result have to rely on stuff that's been mainlined so recently they're going to have to do the major debugging of this stuff themselves along with having to do this plus doing said mainlining themselves. Going trough all of the stuff they've had to mainline it's actually more than I expected them to have needed to mainline themselves this recently.

                    If there's one benefit to how far behind they are on the original schedule is that at least the SoC's kernel drivers have been mainlined so they can use a mainline kernel, rather than an NXP supplied proprietary one, from the get-go. I personally guessed they'd be forced to be pragmatic and start off with a proprietary kernel to get development of userland components going until mainline on the SoC in question has been debugged thoroughly enough to be properly usable. Hell, I'd even say this is probably still the way they should go about it. One software team working on getting the kernel space stuff to be ready for prime time while another works based off a closed, but much more stable kernel so they don't need to debug user and kernel space at the same time.
                    Honest question, isn't it illegal to use the Linux kernel and only provide a propietary blob?

                    Comment

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