Purism's Librem 5 July Update Cites Software Progress, No Hardware Update

[Michael]

Not obsolete for people who are ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of privacy. It's a very small market, but might be big enough to sustain Purism's business.

Considering Purism has already had to take on millions in outside funding aside from their crowdfunding campaign to complete current work, it's already not looking sustainable.

[danmcgrew]

https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

Problem here is the Librem 5 is not going to be alone in that market. The pinephone is aiming for a 150 USD phone. Librem 5 has 1G more ram for over double the price yes $599 price tag. For a security mind phone the Librem5 has a mistake you need tools to remove the battery. Pinephone battery is removable without tools in current design.

Also do like pinephone support booting and running from removable sd card. Nice right you can audit your phone after crossing a check point.

I don't see how librem 5 is going to be that much better than the pinephone at this stage.

"...the battery will be the same capacity as the Samsung J7 SM-J700H/ BJ700BU (3000-3400 mAh), which can be had for under $10 from amazon and eBay. So in the event you need replacement or spare batteries, getting hold of them will be easy and affordable. We also settled on the number, and the implementation of, privacy switches on the phone – there will be 4 switches in total: for the i) BT/Wifi module, ii) the modem, iii) cameras (front/back) and iv) lastly for the microphone. They will be located on the PCB, under the back-cover, to prevent them from being toggled by accident, e.g. in your pocket or purse...

“... After a chat with developers, we also came up with a way to expose I2C [i.e., I²C] using 6 pogo pins. These pogo pins will be located directly on the PCB. The idea behind this implementation is that entire back-covers with add-on components can be created (even 3D-printed) with additional functionality to enrich the phone’s functionality. The implementation only requires that the custom back-cover with additional hardware has the same dimensions and position of plastic latches as the original – and obviously that the component in question uses I2C (contact pads). I expect that a back-cover with a keyboard – perhaps one similar to that found on the Nokia N900 – will be something a considerable number of people may be interested in creating. To this end, we’ll make sure to have detailed documentation on this feature. I really hope that the hackers and tinkerers among you will embrace and make use of I2C for new cool implementations...”

https://www.pine64.org/2019/06/06/ju...o-and-pinetab/

[Cape]

https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

Problem here is the Librem 5 is not going to be alone in that market. The pinephone is aiming for a 150 USD phone. Librem 5 has 1G more ram for over double the price yes $599 price tag. For a security mind phone the Librem5 has a mistake you need tools to remove the battery. Pinephone battery is removable without tools in current design.

Also do like pinephone support booting and running from removable sd card. Nice right you can audit your phone after crossing a check point.

I don't see how librem 5 is going to be that much better than the pinephone at this stage.

SD card memory is the worst thing here: slow, unreliable and dangerous if stolen.

Besides, the biggest issue is HW-SW integration since nobody really did it before.

For this reason, I'm still dubious about their choice to go the Gnome way... A desktop environment that still struggle on desktop machines and for which nobody ever developed a mobile version...
In fact, I'm hoping on plasma Mobo!

[oiaohm]

SD card memory is the worst thing here: slow, unreliable and dangerous if stolen.

SD card is the phones secondary boot drive with pinephone. 16GB eMMC is the primary. Unless the storage is encrypted really does not make very much difference if phone is stolen or not.

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/294389-china-is-installing-android-malware-on-tourists-phones

I said crossing a check point for reason. You cross a check point in china you have to hand over your phone when you get it back it can have grown extra software. How long before entering other countries are like this.

So something you can nicely pocket while they search you phone is a good thing or when you get past the check point audit again. Please note when you cross a check point with the mandatory requirements to hand over passwords encrypted don't help you much here either.

eMMC is not exactly the simplest to remove and swap.

Besides, the biggest issue is HW-SW integration since nobody really did it before.

For this reason, I'm still dubious about their choice to go the Gnome way... A desktop environment that still struggle on desktop machines and for which nobody ever developed a mobile version...

That the other thing pinephone is not locking themselves into a particular vendor instead working with 8 different solutions and best on release day wins the default.

[paupav]

why have they succeeded while canonical has failed?
even if this project fails someone will continue to develop it in their spare time.

[oiaohm]

why have they succeeded while canonical has failed?
even if this project fails someone will continue to develop it in their spare time.

Timing is a big factor. I would not say succeeded yet.

Big thing was back when Canonical was trying Ubuntu touch we did not have the battle of the raspberry pi clones at full force. Its the battle of the clones that have seen open source graphics drivers for arm platforms increase as well as binary drivers for arm platforms get more accessible. At the time when Canonical was doing ubuntu phone they were having to use libhybris to make Android graphics drivers work with their software. Yes no primary graphics support was really bad.

https://www.pine64.org/ pine64 who is aiming todo pinephone is coming out of the raspberry pi competitor market. So they have a lot of experience under their belt on hardware development.

https://puri.sm/products/ Notice Purism first products are laptops for their pureOS based on debian and intel only graphics. This means their early products avoid the driver hell problem.

So neither purism or pine64 are going into the phone project without prior hardware development experience and not planning to attempt to out source out or have driver hell. When Is say not have driver hell they are making sure the chip chosen in their phones have good support out box.

Pinephone I do think will have higher odds than Purism Librem5 as they will not be against running Android on their devices as well as all the other options.

Really we do need to see more phones with unlocked boot-loaders and audit-able.

[brent]

why have they succeeded while canonical has failed?
even if this project fails someone will continue to develop it in their spare time.

Please tell me in what way Purism has succeeded. They have a largely unfinished, immature software stack and no hardware. Ubuntu Touch was in a better state when it was released.

[Guest]

Not obsolete for people who are ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of privacy. It's a very small market, but might be big enough to sustain Purism's business.

You can use a simple feature phone for making calls, and pretty much anything to be able to do your computing on the go. I've dropped smartphones a couple of years ago, and I'm not looking back, especially with cancerous trends like tiny round bezels that lead to vomit-inducing designs. Oh, and there are no good mobile operating systems. I'd rather pick up an UMPC if I needed something that fits in the pocket.

[danmcgrew]

@ 20--

"...You can use a simple feature phone for making calls, and pretty much anything to be able to do your computing on the go..."

Very good point. Been using a feature-phone ("flip-phone") and a small laptop for years. I've always been 'put off', not so much by the privacy issue (Yes, that TOO), but by exactly how hobbled the so -called "smartphone" is as a computer, when it contains MUCH more computing power than any laptops up 'til about 2010. And this crippling, by Google, on purpose, is deliberate; it exists for no no solid, technical reason whatever. And if you insist on fixating on the camera, I suggest that you can buy a *superb* REAL camera for less than the $1000-$2000 you will spend on a "smartphone", while using its camera as justification.
Put away your flame-throwers--this *strictly personal opinion*--
The PinePhone holds the promise of being the first device which actually is a 'real computer' (no matter what you consider that to be, but certainly moreso than a GooglePhone or iPhone), which will fit in your pocket. Oh, and the $150.00 price hasn't escaped my attention, either.
This is the reason I'll gladly buy one...or two...

https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

[Vistaus]

@ 20--

"...You can use a simple feature phone for making calls, and pretty much anything to be able to do your computing on the go..."

Very good point. Been using a feature-phone ("flip-phone") and a small laptop for years. I've always been 'put off', not so much by the privacy issue (Yes, that TOO), but by exactly how hobbled the so -called "smartphone" is as a computer, when it contains MUCH more computing power than any laptops up 'til about 2010. And this crippling, by Google, on purpose, is deliberate; it exists for no no solid, technical reason whatever. And if you insist on fixating on the camera, I suggest that you can buy a *superb* REAL camera for less than the $1000-$2000 you will spend on a "smartphone", while using its camera as justification.
Put away your flame-throwers--this *strictly personal opinion*--
The PinePhone holds the promise of being the first device which actually is a 'real computer' (no matter what you consider that to be, but certainly moreso than a GooglePhone or iPhone), which will fit in your pocket. Oh, and the $150.00 price hasn't escaped my attention, either.
This is the reason I'll gladly buy one...or two...

https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

No. The Planet Computers Gemini PDA holds the promise of being the first device which actually is a 'real computer' which will fit in your pocket, even more so because it has a physical keyboard. It runs various Linux distros as well as Sailfish (an Ubuntu Touch port is coming too) and allows triple-booting. And their current Cosmo Communicator will be an even better version of the Gemini, also running various Linux distros.
The only thing Pine has that PC's devices have not is physical kill switches.