A GNU/Linux Smartphone Running GNOME & HTML5 Web Apps? Priced At $599, Ships In 2019 If The Stars Align

[wizard69]

I don't think a lot of people understand how fast companies go through money on projects like these. In the US for example each employee costs you about 2X his wages. One could easily spend between $150,000 and $200,000 per year, per software developer. So a team of six blows this budget. This does not even get into the other skills, resources and materials required to just do the hardware / software.

So yeah $30 million isn't unrealistic and probably a bit on the low side. Now maybe this company has other resources but im already doubting that a viable product will be released that will actually lead to mass production. This doesn't even get into the question of demand. You have to sell product to stay in business and just who would be buying this hardware? It is very unlikely that they would find enough customers to even stay in business. In the end uou need to be able to market the product to enough people to cover production and R&D costs.

I wouldn't be surprised if Canonical/Mozilla spent more either. ~30M & 4 years is the minimum amount of resources I'd even consider taking on such a project and producing a usable prototype.

Read some more about Mer and libhybris. Hybris effectively allows you to use existing Android drivers on existing Android devices to run normal Linux. It's pretty damn smart, and a decent platform to built on unless you have a vendor who's 100% on-board with open Linux drivers for everything. It runs on a number of devices as well, and quite well.

Regarding Replicant- it's still Android. All of UI is Android, and app engine is also Android. I'd rather have normal Linux ecosystem with Wayland and QT (or GTK) apps. Pretty close to what Sailfish does, but their UI is still closed-source. And not too many native apps, and it could use more features & polish. Otherwise you'd rather run Replicant- no reason to develop own OS...

[pal666]

Read some more about Mer and libhybris. Hybris effectively allows you to use existing Android drivers on existing Android devices to run normal Linux.

why would anyone buy this instead of android phone? for different ui? you can make different ui on android.
i would buy phone with real fedora linux with real linux drivers. though these guys developed "libre" laptop with nvidia gpu, so i wouldn't trust their hardware choice

[pal666]

Using Intel CPU/GPU seems to be the most feasible route.

lol, no. intel smartphones are dead

[libv]

How is this a crowdfunding campaign?

They basically have a page that looks like a kickstarter page, in their online shop.

This is not crowdfunding, this is pre-ordering.

Also notice that there is no threshold. You always lose your money.

[starshipeleven]

How is this a crowdfunding campaign?

They basically have a page that looks like a kickstarter page, in their online shop.

This is not crowdfunding, this is pre-ordering.

Also notice that there is no threshold. You always lose your money.

The line between between crowdfunding and pre-ordering has always been very slim.

Also the threshold thing is not relevant, you can crowdfund without that too.

[coder111]

Sorry, I think you misunderstand. Libhybris is not about running Android apps. Libhybris is about running Android DRIVERS and being able to run real Linux on Android devices easily with next to no vendor support.

I'm still using my outdated Jolla. My wife is on Android. We have a couple of Android tablets as well.

Believe me, having a real Linux ecosystem underneath makes a LOT of difference for me. Being able to freely use native rsync, ssh, systemd, Midnight Commander, rpm (although I'd prefer dpkg) only serves to remind me how much I miss it when I have to use Android.

On android, lots of those features I take for granted on a real Linux system I have to install via crappy half baked apps with ads. And they don't work well or work with various weird workarounds half the time.

You could argue that on a phone this is irrelevant. But smartphones are not just phones, they are mobile computers. Sometimes even mobile computers first, phones second, in which case platform matters greatly for developers and power users.

BTW, Jolla terminal app ROCKS. I haven't seen anything as nice on Android... Sorry, I'm getting off the point here. Did you mention you want a phone with a real Fedora? Which aspects of Fedora do you need? Because if you need RPM and ability to install stuff, you might want to try Mer/SailfishOS. The only thing it lacks is real X- the UI is based on Wayland/QT. You could try getting xwayland running, but I haven't played around with that.

why would anyone buy this instead of android phone? for different ui? you can make different ui on android.
i would buy phone with real fedora linux with real linux drivers. though these guys developed "libre" laptop with nvidia gpu, so i wouldn't trust their hardware choice

[nomadewolf]

I do hope it takes off!
But they lost me at Gnome...

[nomadewolf]

why would anyone buy this instead of android phone? for different ui? you can make different ui on android.
i would buy phone with real fedora linux with real linux drivers. though these guys developed "libre" laptop with nvidia gpu, so i wouldn't trust their hardware choice

For privacy and encryption.
It will not be 100% guaranteed. But it'll be way more than anything we have today. (if it takes off)
It'll also serve as a kickstart to this kind of market. And maybe others will join. Or so i hope...

[L_A_G]

I'm going to call bullshit on this one, I routinely see game projects (RPGs or board games, or even fucking dice sets) getting swamped with money on crowdfunding.

Like say this https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...15/description that raised 12 millions.

It's just a matter of being niche.

Sure, you still see projects hit big, but you don't see them hit big as often as they used to and there's just less money in it altogether. Here's a link if you don't believe me.

The era of big crowdfunding projects is over the same way the era of really big airplanes like the Airbus A380. Sure, planes are being sold, but not at the initial rate or what the manufacturer expected.

[starshipeleven]

Sure, you still see projects hit big, but you don't see them hit big as often as they used to and there's just less money in it altogether. Here's a link if you don't believe me.

The era of big crowdfunding projects is over the same way the era of really big airplanes like the Airbus A380. Sure, planes are being sold, but not at the initial rate or what the manufacturer expected.

Article title: "Crowdfunding sees their first slowdown in 5 years"

your conclusion "crowdfunding is done for".

I mean, maybe there are other factors at play too in that slight decrease?

Did you also notice they were talking also of "equity crowdfunding" which is NOT what kickstarter and friends do?