Purism Starts Shipping The First Librem 5 Smartphones

[Danielsan]

I didn't buy a Librem5 because too much expensive... I congrats them however they did some missteps, I hope they learned the lessons and I hope them the better for the second generation. Other thing is this phone is well clear from the beginning that would be a thick phone... They are using a SOC board with just the ethernet removed... Unless the soc vendor decides to re-engineer the soc in a small factor suitable for phone this and all the future linux phone based on this general purpose soc will be always thick...

[slalomsk8er]

(failed) product, in this case the Neo Freerunner.

Why failed - I had one it was nearly usable

I want my Nokia N900 back - best phone ever - refresh inkl. keyboard but this time with capacitive touchscreen please.
You could run openoffice and even use it as a full linux desktop if connected to a external screen, mouse and keyboard - no Samsung DeX or other convergence shenanigans needed.

[danmcgrew]

I didn't buy a Librem5 because too much expensive... I congrats them however they did some missteps, I hope they learned the lessons and I hope them the better for the second generation. Other thing is this phone is well clear from the beginning that would be a thick phone... They are using a SOC board with just the ethernet removed... Unless the soc vendor decides to re-engineer the soc in a small factor suitable for phone this and all the future linux phone based on this general purpose soc will be always thick...

I congratulate them also.
Their openness and honesty are extremely refreshing, as is their desire to show the world that they can deliver a product, no matter how 'beta' it might be--along with declaring the product to be 'beta', and letting us 'look over their shoulder'. This indicates that they're going to work just as hard getting it out of the beta class.

In light of the competition which is on the horizon, perhaps they have in mind--along with polishing the product--driving some of the cost out of the product. Perhaps.

At any rate, we all need to cut them some slack; with all the pressure they're under to deliver a high-quality product, they don't need negativity--and particularly not from people who don't intend to buy the product anyway.

[jaskij]

slalomsk8er (not quoting cause mobile) so basically something like Hi-Link where USB modems show up as CDC-ETH and you do everything via the built-in portal?

[Caliga]

Is there anybody who got one of these on this forum? Could you post some detailed pics or a video, please? I'm dying to see this legendary beast!

Nobody received one yet. They are just dropping off of the production line as of yesterday.
Purism published additional pictures today. See

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102740815257018934

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102849525724901197

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102854758636419924

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102854780934789095

(of course also available on https://twitter.com/Puri_sm ...)
On the community forum, some people have already regretted not opting for the first (Aspen) batch, as it clearly does not look shabby to them

What I'm curious about is how they solved the modem firmware thing as they are almost always closed source.

Both, Modem and WiFi/BT cards, are only connected via a bus. This means, in contrast to basically all other phones, they are slaves and have no access to RAM (or anything).
The GPS in the modem is disabled (there's a separate GNSS), so a malicious modem cannot even send an exact position (yes, tower can still track you of course).
Plus, you can use offline navigation even when the modem is off by the killswitch.

The hard part here was mainly to get components (modem/wifi/bluetooth) that are
* available on M.2 cards
* can operate without loading runtime firmware (blobs)
Both are only possible because Purism cooperated with the vendors. You simply cannot buy that stuff off the shelf.
The no-runtime-firmware/no-proprietary-driver thing is not just a security thing. Most importantly, the whole phone will 100% work with basically any distro (likely in 10 years still), as all drivers are free and mainlined. See Purism & Linux 5.3

I think this is basically the gold-standard for the coming years. Quite possibly, we'll never see a fully open baseband modem, as it touches so many patents, licenses and regulations that it's not even funny...

For a full overview of featues, have a look at the Librem 5 Promise Delivery Chart.

They are using a SOC board with just the ethernet removed...

I think you're talking about the dev-kit.
The phone has a custom-made PCB (schematics will be freed in the future). The main reason why it is thick is that it has two daughter-cards (modem, wifi/BT).
See the pictures in the links above. As it was an explicit design-goal to have these components outside of the CPU so they can be replaced and turned off, it's unlikely to get thinner any time soon.

[danmcgrew]

Originally posted by eltomito View Post
"Is there anybody who got one of these on this forum? Could you post some detailed pics or a video, please? I'm dying to see this legendary beast!

Nobody received one yet. They are just dropping off of the production line as of yesterday.
Purism published additional pictures today. See

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102740815257018934

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102849525724901197

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102854758636419924

https://social.librem.one/@purism/102854780934789095

(of course also available on https://twitter.com/Puri_sm ...)
On the community forum, some people have already regretted not opting for the first (Aspen) batch, as it clearly does not look shabby to them

It's fairly obvious that eltomito (#14) was asking about the Ubuntu phone, as (1) the three comments previous to his was about the Ubuntu phone, and, (2) he refers to the object of his question as "legendary". Purism's new phone is not "legendary", quite yet.

[jaskij]

The hard part here was mainly to get components (modem/wifi/bluetooth) that are
* available on M.2 cards
* can operate without loading runtime firmware (blobs)

Does ModeManager load binary blobs? If not then they could either a) go with Mini PCIe b) go with custom modem PCBs, I know some modems which are available off-the-shelf (and were two years ago) that work with it.

[tweak42]

I think you're talking about the dev-kit.
The phone has a custom-made PCB (schematics will be freed in the future). The main reason why it is thick is that it has two daughter-cards (modem, wifi/BT).
See the pictures in the links above. As it was an explicit design-goal to have these components outside of the CPU so they can be replaced and turned off, it's unlikely to get thinner any time soon.

If it's thicker, I wonder how durable the body/case is.
With phone cases being practically the norm with all the slippery thin (and sometimes bendable) mainstream phones, thicker doesn't have to be a disadvantage if the case is designed / manufactured correctly.

[Caliga]

Does ModeManager load binary blobs?

Not sure what you mean. There are zero blobs installed on the phone (only firmware embedded in secondary chips).

If not then they could either a) go with Mini PCIe b) go with custom modem PCBs, I know some modems which are available off-the-shelf (and were two years ago) that work with it.

Actually, I think they have their own custom-made modem PCBs.
Because those on M.2 cards that already existed had problems, e.g. no voice capability, or needs a blob to run etc...
Hear it from the CTO: https://forums.puri.sm/t/this-is-the...e-used/6427/21

More background in the ChaosCommunicationCamp Talk:
https://puri.sm/posts/purism-cto-pre...dom-at-cccamp/

[jaskij]

Caliga (no quote cause mobile) I mean ModemManager as in the FreeDesktop software which controls modems in most modern desktop distros. Because if that worked I can order a regular modem chip right now, a single unit, which I know works on Debian.