Purism Finally Announces The Firmed Up Specifications For The Librem 5 Smartphone

[ZeroPointEnergy]

I think so, too. I already had an Openmoko, a Nokia N900 maemo and the Ubuntu BQ phone. Out of those 3, only the N900 was a device you could actually use. And all of them were much cheaper, so I think I'm skipping this one.

Lol, almost in that order here, but had a Jolla between N900 and Ununtu Touch. Openmoko was never really usable for me but fun nonetheless. N900 was an absolutely amazing device and lasted really long, was really ahead in many things. Jolla was super strange to use and finally the Ubuntu touch was actually the cleanest and best experience I ever had with any smartphone. Currently I use a Lineage on a samsung s7, but that just sucks and gets no more updates.

I preordered the Librem 5, but seeing this stats, if I could go back I would maybe wait and take a closer look at the pine phone

[cybertraveler]

Does anyone know if there is or will be a decent GPS navigation app for it? It's a must-have for me, but I'm not currently aware of any decent ones for GNU/Linux. I know about navit, but that software looks really lacking, complex, unintuitive & ugly compared to some of the offerings for Android & iOS.

What I would love is if a dev forked the Maps.me app software and made it work with the Purism. Obviously it would need regular maintenance too.

[ZeroPointEnergy]

Anyway, Huawei Y7 2019 is a real thing. It has a similar specification (3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage), and costs less than 150 USD ($140, if I good remember). Moreover, it has a better SoC, and at least a polished operating system, what can't be said about PureOS.
But I know, I know, hardware kill switches cost over half a thousand dollars...

The goal of the Librem 5 is to have a 100% blob free phone with a separated baseband that has no direct memory access and can be used with an upstream kernel.

It's like you are comparing a Talos II workstation to a playstation or something.

[schmidtbag]

This device isn't going EOL in a couple years (if they manage to upstream most of their stuff anyway), so it makes sense as an "investment" phone for a long haul.

Much more than a flagship Android anyway, where after 2 years it's EOL and/or runs like crap because updates are made like shit (on purpose or not, I'm not even trusting Samsung to be consistently evil, they just don't care)

Well... hopefully, and in theory anyway. We don't know how well Purism will be able to maintain this. But I do take your point that this will have better LTS than pretty much any Android phone.

[the_scx]

The advantage of this phone over anything that Ubuntu produces is the reputation of Purism. You know that they are serious about security and privacy, with a lot of attention to detail, while Ubuntu is not, more precisely, Ubuntu has a not-so-stellar privacy reputation.

They are going to use Flatpak, which is a security nightmare.

https://flatkill.org/

If you are interested into a hardened-security smartphone, then Librem 5 with PureOS is probably not for you.

I would buy this phone, maybe not immediately but a year or two after release. I would like it to be a bit cheaper, though, while the specs are OK for me.

Only if they survive so long on this market.

[the_scx]

Does not invalidate my point.
Ubuntu Edge is and remains vaporware bullshit that can't be used in a comparison, period.

In my opinion, the Canonical plan was feasible, but they didn't collect enough money.
Anyway, Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition was a hi-end smartphone with a very reasonable price: just 370 USD for something that was already better than Librem 5, but in 2016!

Huawei Y7 2019 is designed by large megacorporation and mass-produced at a scale that Purem phone will never be.
Economies of scale are a thing.

So? As an end-user, I don't care whether they are a super corporation or just a startup.
Moreover, PINE Microsystems has already proven that low-volume sales don't have to involve high prices.
I would not complain if they wanted 300 USD for a polished smartphone. But they want 700 USD for something that is not even a finished product!

Also their "OS" is already 99% made by Google, and Huawei are only reskinning it.

And what about PureOS? Did they create GNOME or Plasma? Or maybe they came to the community asking if someone would do a mobile UI for them? And what contribution did they make to Flatpak?

[jo-erlend]

For some reason, whenever someone tries to provide a real Linux phone, large segments of the Linux user community starts working very hard to convince people not to support it. It's really weird.

[starshipeleven]

Well... hopefully, and in theory anyway. We don't know how well Purism will be able to maintain this.

The community can maintain their custom GUI/userspace well enough to keep it working even if Purism blows up, similarly to what happened with Ubuntu Phone.

The big issue is kernel support (also similarly to what happens to Ubuntu Phone hardware, and to Cyanogenmod/LineageOS support)

If they upstream kernel support (and they are doing it) it's going to be fine.

[ZeroPointEnergy]

For some reason, whenever someone tries to provide a real Linux phone, large segments of the Linux user community starts working very hard to convince people not to support it. It's really weird.

This are either some phone kiddies who want to play games on their phones and really need that performance or some weirdos who for some reason don't think of their phone as a computer and don't apply the same standards they would apply to a desktop.

[the_scx]

For some reason, whenever someone tries to provide a real Linux phone, large segments of the Linux user community starts working very hard to convince people not to support it. It's really weird.

So OpenZaurus, MontaVista Linux, Openmoko Linux + Qt Extended, Moblin, LiMo, Maemo, MeeGo, Bada, Access Linux Platform, webOS, Firefox OS were not real?! What about Tizen, Sailfish OS, Ubuntu Touch and KaiOS? Are they fakes?
But seriously, do we really have to support every Linux project just because it is about Linux? Has anyone here looked at the reasons of the failure of mentioned platforms?
In my opinion, Ubuntu Touch had a much better chance of success. By success I mean not only market share, but also a really polished system and software ecosystem (see also: NFC and mobile payments). Anyway, it was before Canonical abandoned it and focused on the clouds and IoT solutions.