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Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

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Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#201

Post by voltagex_ »

joenathanone wrote: post #150
sverige wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much does it cost to keep everyone who wants to from gathering your personal data from that $100 phone, though?

Free if you know how to use ADB and Fastboot.

So I checked, and there are no "official" current LineageOS builds for any Nokia phones (unless I'm missing something on https://download.lineageos.org)

There don't seem to be any builds anywhere for the 4.1 (is it an uncommon phone?)

For argument's sake, let's say you bought the 6.1, now your option is to download an "unofficial" ROM from some pseudo-anonymous person with an anime avatar from XDA, hosted on whatever free file hosting they can find today.

Don't get me wrong, I used Lineage when it was called Cyanogenmod, and it saved one phone from landfill which is great. But I'm older now, and I need my phone to work and work well - I really don't have time for problems like https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?s=76595163ac85.... For some people, that's worth the money.

Edit: here's all the proprietary blobs that'd need to be reversed to be audited to make sure they're not selling you out, too - https://github.com/nokia-dev/proprietary_vendor_nokia/tree/a.... Props to HMD for publishing them, though.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#202

Post by flukus »

mpnordland wrote: post #25

So for me, this is roughly what I want in a phone. But the thing is, I bought a phone over two years ago, with better specs for $100 less. That same phone today is priced at $200-$300. The way I see it the real value add for this phone is the software, and this whole mainline Linux, FOSS, run whatever you want approach is very attractive to me. But is it worth $700? Is it worth $700 when my current phone is in great…

Assuming it's not an iphone, the phone you bought will likely be getting few/no more security updates and is obsolete, that's why it's so cheap now and in part why it was so cheap then. As you said, the value add here is in running mainline linux and that means your phone really will be usable for several years. Some of the other big pluses over android are ease of development, no java bloatware, more FOSS and no spyware. Those things are just eating your specs anyway.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#203

Post by bscphil »

voltagex_ wrote: post #201
joenathanone wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free if you know how to use ADB and Fastboot.

So I checked, and there are no "official" current LineageOS builds for any Nokia phones (unless I'm missing something on https://download.lineageos.org ) There don't seem to be any builds anywhere for the 4.1 (is it an uncommon phone?) For argument's sake, let's say you bought the 6.1, now your option is to download an "unofficial" ROM from some pseudo-anonymous person with an anime avatar from XDA, hosted on whateve…

Similarly, I've pretty much given up on LineageOS ever getting the Nexus 5X to the 16.0 version. Their list of supported phones looks decent, but when you realize they can't keep even those phones up to date the project starts to look like a failure.

I'm hoping to find an alternative for friends and family who still have the 5X - it's been dropped from Google's security updates for a while, because their support ends abysmally quickly.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#204

Post by hajile »

Can someone tell me why they opted for the imx8m with 4 A53 cores rather than the imx8 which adds 2 A72 cores (3-6x faster) and 2x the GPU performance?

A $35 raspberry pi 4 has way more computing power than this phone while being 20x cheaper.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#205

Post by cannonedhamster »

giaour wrote: post #188
jammygit wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purism is a social good corporation. It changes things a bit, but I’m unclear how

B corps are allowed to prioritize specific values enumerated in their corporate charter, even at the expense financial gains. Regular corporations have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders, which in recent decades has been interpreted as requiring companies to maximize short-term shareholder value

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/fiduciary-responsibi...

There is no fiduciary requirement to put profits above all else. In fact there is no fiduciary duty to make profits, just basically to do what's best for the company. There is no short term time frame listed. If there is a requirement to make profits it's not because it's a responsibility. Shareholders may want it but no one gets punished if a bad decision for the long term success of the company doesn't pan out. There's numberous examples of CEOs that attempted to pivot when it wasn't the most profitable course of events and then receiving a nice severance more than most employees make in a lifetime of work for failing.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#206

Post by voltagex_ »

bscphil wrote: post #203
voltagex_ wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I checked, and there are no "official" current LineageOS builds for any Nokia phones (unless I'm missing something on https://download.lineageos.org ) There don't seem to be any builds anywhere for the 4.1 (is it an uncommon phone?) For argument's sake, let's say you bought the 6.1, now your option is to download an "unofficial" ROM from some pseudo-anonymous person with an anime avatar from XDA, hosted on whateve…

Similarly, I've pretty much given up on LineageOS ever getting the Nexus 5X to the 16.0 version. Their list of supported phones looks decent, but when you realize they can't keep even those phones up to date the project starts to look like a failure. I'm hoping to find an alternative for friends and family who still have the 5X - it's been dropped from Google's security updates for a while, because their support ends…

You hit the 5X jackpot - up to a certain manufacturing date, those phones were notorious for bootlooping and never working again.

More on topic, the LineageOS support requires a volunteer maintaining a buildable tree for the phone, and testing will require the hardware itself. I'm not sure how much CI/CD helps here.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#208

Post by ryukafalz »

pjmlp wrote: post #163
ptx wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GNOME and Linux are under the GPL. So are phosh (Purism's shell), Chatty (their messaging app) and probably a lot of other components. So you can't make a closed fork.

Linux kernel is GPL. Now try to get the right version sold with an Android phone.

It often seems to take some persistence, but typically it is possible to get the kernel sources. The manufacturers can drag their feet for a while but ultimately they have to give it to you.

Compare that to the rest of the software on an Android device; you'll have no luck convincing Samsung to give you the source to any of the UI bits on their phones, for example.

The GPL is a huge improvement in this regard.

Re: Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs

#209

Post by IloveHN84 »

My comment might be controversial, but for 649$, the hardware specs are felt like a smartphone of 2-3 years ago (or even more). They could have invested in a octa-core phone and more RAM or a better rear camera. 13Mpixels cameras are there since the Samsung Galaxy S4, for instance. When the phone will come out, I will be already old.

Sure, the final user isn't the typical iOS/Android one, but the lack of fundamental applications and a real app ecosystem should led them thinking of reducing their tag price.

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