Live data from Hacker News

Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

thatgeoguy.ca

71–80 of 123 posts

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#71

Meanwhile in the "repurpose existing phones" camp: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/SDM845_Mainlining Yeah, sure, the Librem5/Pinephone boot directly into open source firmware instead of some Qualcomm monstrosity that even acts as a hypervisor, but. Near-mainline Linux with GPU support on actually powerful devices with 3-ish-GHz fast cores, 8GiB RAM, and so on. And you can buy these on the used market rather than i…

I threw out my Qualcomm phones long ago because the lack of software updates had made them useless and freedreno really didn't look like it was going to catch up. Part of me wishes I hadn't but also the Pinephone is better than my Samsung galaxy S3 in terms of specs and with actually competent software.

If people on qualcomm phones had any amount of faith the company wouldn't screw them over or the community would be able to make a huge leap in terms of compatibility they probably would keep the phones but that's not how things have worked for about a decade.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#72
I'm surprised battery life isn't mentioned. My understanding is that it's abysmal for Librem 5? I could live with a phone that has software issues, but I can't live with a phone that spends most of the day turned off because it needs charging every few hours...

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#73

It’s not obvious for me why wouldn’t they install better cameras. For me camera system is one of the most important parts of a smartphone specification. Don’t those makers realize that there are people for whom those things are important?

People will probably build alternative camera modules in the future. Early adopters have already been able to replace the motherboards to get a ram/flash upgrade.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#74

I'm surprised battery life isn't mentioned. My understanding is that it's abysmal for Librem 5? I could live with a phone that has software issues, but I can't live with a phone that spends most of the day turned off because it needs charging every few hours...

> My understanding is that it's abysmal for Librem 5?

It's more or less fine, especially considering that suspend is not yet implemented at all: https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-4500mah-battery-upgrade/.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#75

I'm all for more variety of hardware and more control over software. That said, what makes these a better option, for anyone, than buying an android phone with an unlockable bootloader and loading a Google-less version of Android on it?

Unlike android, most GNU/Linux OSes are built so that you can hack around problems on your own pretty easily without having to completely rebuild the OS. Also since you're just running X11/Wayland you have a way larger selection of software available. Almost anything open source that runs on your Linux desktop will run on your phone (although often with less performance.)

Finally, you're not stuck with a PalmOS style mobile GUI and can use a normal overlapping window manager.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#76

I'm surprised battery life isn't mentioned. My understanding is that it's abysmal for Librem 5? I could live with a phone that has software issues, but I can't live with a phone that spends most of the day turned off because it needs charging every few hours...

> My understanding is that it's abysmal for Librem 5? It's more or less fine, especially considering that suspend is not yet implemented at all: https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-4500mah-battery-upgrade/ .

That article basically says that if I turn wifi off and don't use the phone, it still wont even last a whole day, in the best case... To me, that's abysmal.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#77
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are definitely valid reasons not to buy Chinese products: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott_Chinese_products . Also what are the other competing smartphones which are made in USA? Made in USA is a big stretch when nearly all components are imported from abroad. Better to say "Few screws inserted in USA" On why you cannot really make thing outside of China: The biggest proponents of very purposefully locki…

Author here: I think this reply and the reply by AnthonyMouse in another sub-thread [1] nail it. I'd also add that just because you don't want to buy Chinese products != Buy USA made products. There are a vast number of other countries that would jump at the notion of becoming your supply chain, and don't necessarily have all the ethical grievances of supporting China. I actually think my main objection though had no…

> As the above comment here says, it should really be closer to "few screws inserted in USA" than "Made in USA."

This is simply wrong: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/. Mainboard PCB, Mainboard PCBA, Electronics, Modem PCB etc. are produced in USA. All Purism devices are assembled in USA, but this one is actually made in USA.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My understanding is that it's abysmal for Librem 5? It's more or less fine, especially considering that suspend is not yet implemented at all: https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-4500mah-battery-upgrade/ .

That article basically says that if I turn wifi off and don't use the phone, it still wont even last a whole day, in the best case... To me, that's abysmal.

True, but it will be sufficiently improved with software updates.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#79
post #56

I'm impressed with the rate of progress in the Linux distros for smartphones due to these devices, especially the Pinephone as it's more accessible. But I honestly expected few major phone manufacturers to join these development effort in some manner after seeing the fate of Huawei with Android or specifically Google Play Services/OHA(Open Handset Alliance), I'm surprised it didn't happen yet or perhaps it's because…

Huawei now is pushing their mikro-kernel based OS, nothing to do with Linux, Harmony OS. Ironically it used to be a research project demoed a few times at FOSDEN and US gave them a reason to bring it into production. Tizen is also being used in Samsung's smart TVs. LG has WebOS and Sharp Aquos. And then there is ChromeOS as well. Basically, GNU/Linux desktop has proven to not be something that general public even con…

As well as Sailfish OS, which is supported on a number of Sony devices among others. Development of the OS is happening at a faster clip now due to the support of the Aurora (Avrora) OS developers. Huawei is considering shipping phones with Sailfish in the future as well.

EDIT: Typos.

Re: Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone

#80
post #45

> For the vast majority of people, the Librem 5 and Pinephone are probably not worth even considering. The GNU userspace and associated “mobile” paradigms within it are very much not ready for daily use. > Linux phones are definitely not yet ready to be daily drivers Despite the author making this point twice and some of the negativity regarding Purism's pricing - I still feel very good about the state of Linux phone…

The PinePhone is _so close_. Some suggestions, as a user, to get it over the edge: 1. Every app in the Manjaro distribution that ships pre-installed should at least fit on the screen; many apps have popups that do not. 2. Dialing should never cause a reboot; calling voicemail has crashed the phone for me. 3. Either give up on having a camera or make it _fast_. 4. Some kind of loading indicator for apps would be nice.…

Would love a phone w/out a camera. I do not know why they are seen as necessity.
Post reply on HN