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PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

pine64.org

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Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#121

The pinephone is great, in fact I'm typing this comment from mine. That said, fair warning to anyone thinking about getting one: it's slow, buggy, and flat out unreliable if you need to be able to receive / answer calls and texts for anything important (e.g. work). Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline…

Yeah, that’s my main complaint. I want it to actually work as a phone before I want it to work like a small computer.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm coming to the realisation that open source projects will always provide a lower quality than comerical ones. That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. > How can we honestly expect a small team of developers to compete with the larger teams a commerical project can afford? In many cases they win by default. If "no leaking of personal data"…

> That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. I love Linux. I'm a Linux desktop user but I can 100% say my experience is degraded compared to mac and windows users. Not just in apps that are there but in small things like sometimes it changes which mic is being used without telling me. Driver support is also a thing. I have my GUI crash on me on…

I get that argument, but depending on what is being discussed, it might miss the point. If it is "end user experience", then I agree that lack of driver support or software matters. However, if we are comparing operating systems, what they do, and how they do it, I find Linux to be so far ahead of both Windows and MacOS (and I've used all three) that it shouldn't even be much of a question. The limiting factor is, in my experience, only software and driver availability.

"Well, that's kinda a big and important thing to ignore" I hear you say. And, I agree. But, it's also not an inadequacy of Linux itself.

I've had this discussion quite a few times, so to distill it down, "OS A is better than OS B" tend to touch on the following:

- Software availability is better (not a limitation of the OS, but I hear you)

- Privacy is better (while, for example MacOS, not being aware that every single executed executable is being logged and transmitted unencrypted)

- User experience is better (while not having given latest gnome a try, which aside from subjective preference is really well done, and in my subjective experience, much more intuitive than apple's approach, as well as windows' "here's two ways to do the same thing")

- ̶A̶r̶t̶i̶f̶i̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶h̶a̶r̶d̶w̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶m̶i̶t̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶ hardware is better. For Apple hardware, this was sort of true up until around 2010. Since then, you get so much less value I'm amazed they can still pull it off.

I see MacOS and Windows going more and more in the direction of a "mobile OS" which less freedom and more telemetry. I see the growing collection of open source hardware as humanity's effort to build something for everyone. Imagine how sad the world would be if Linux or OSS didn't exist.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#123

The pinephone is great, in fact I'm typing this comment from mine. That said, fair warning to anyone thinking about getting one: it's slow, buggy, and flat out unreliable if you need to be able to receive / answer calls and texts for anything important (e.g. work). Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline…

> Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline linux distribution. I'm coming to the realisation that open source projects will always provide a lower quality than comerical ones. How can we honestly expect a small team of developers to compete with the larger teams a commerical project can afford? The realit…

> I'm coming to the realisation that open source projects will always provide a lower quality than comerical ones.

That depends entirely on the scope of the project.

Projects that can be built by one person are pretty much always better as open source.

That unfortunately does not include mobile operating systems though.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#124
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the comments, and weighing your comment, you say we need to have Android to be successful. Before that you say “we need apps”, that’s the heart of your comment. It can be successfully argued that we don’t need more of what we already have (aka closed walled, ad ridden, privacy off by default - solutions) We (as in developers) should start believing in these projects and adopt them. Blender for a long time cou…

I was saying for me to want to use it I want Android. Not just for apps but also for all the extra stablity features. > Before that you say “we need apps”, that’s the heart of your comment. Apps are major reason for using my phone. I don't really phone or text people I use whatsapp, telegram, etc for messaging, Twitter and Reddit for content and a browser for the rest. Then there are covid apps, health tracking apps,…

> I was saying for me to want to use it I want Android. Not just for apps but also for all the extra stablity features.

That kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing. If you want android you can just buy an android phone.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#125
post #64
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL, so true. I often need to have online meetings with engineers that for some reason prefer Linux as their desktop OS. Guess which meeting participants _always_ delay the meetings because they can't get their audio/video working for routine meetings? If that happens to pretty tech savvy software engineers, the average user has zero chance of using Linux as a desktop effectively.

In my case, I've had a few issues with screen sharing online meetings: - Webex doesn't provide screen sharing in larger meetings via WebRTC. It really sucks, since it works in smaller ones and people really get suprised by this. - The last time I used Webex via their "desktop" app, they didn't properly support pipewire. - Same with zoom, except that they don't seem to provide browser meetings at all sometimes & their…

> Webex doesn't provide screen sharing in larger meetings via WebRTC

Can you not capture your screen manually and make it available to your browser as a generic web cam? (Not that you should have to, but still.)

> [Zoom] don't seem to provide browser meetings at all sometimes

Last time I used it they were engaging in website trickery. You had to click the link to download (and maybe do something else) before it would present you with the "join from browser" link.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#126
post #114

Do these alternative Smartphones are able to seamlessly run native Android/iOS apps in containers? It'd be great if they could "embrace" such walled gardens, and possibly "extend" some of their functionality :-)

There is Anbox for that.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#127
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. I would argue Linux is only superior from the IT software perspective. This is a very narrow perspective that is only inflated if you're in IT or on an IT related site like HN. From almost every other dimension Linux is inferior and therefore from an Overall perspective it is inferior. The most importa…

LOL, so true. I often need to have online meetings with engineers that for some reason prefer Linux as their desktop OS. Guess which meeting participants _always_ delay the meetings because they can't get their audio/video working for routine meetings? If that happens to pretty tech savvy software engineers, the average user has zero chance of using Linux as a desktop effectively.

> Guess which meeting participants _always_ delay the meetings because they can't get their audio/video working for routine meetings?

This can also be because this random enterprise want to use something other than zoom for some godforsaken reason.

Spend all that time to get your setup working, but congratulations, it doesn’t work with GloryOnlineMeeting 2.4.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#128
post #10

Add OpenGL ES 3 GPU and I'm sold.

https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-p...

the librem is a bit too clunky and expensive, probability of pine adding a newer GPU is higher!

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#129
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. I would argue Linux is only superior from the IT software perspective. This is a very narrow perspective that is only inflated if you're in IT or on an IT related site like HN. From almost every other dimension Linux is inferior and therefore from an Overall perspective it is inferior. The most importa…

The common Linux interfaces are very easy to decipher and have a good usability. Usability is measurable property, so that's not a guess, just a fact. Add to that the higher task purpose you can get with Linux (partly boosted by not having annoying blockers to get work done, like Windows ads and forced reboots) and the infinitely higher customizablity (for the user's needs and wants) and for general computer usage, t…

>The common Linux interfaces are very easy to decipher and have a good usability.

CLI? Absolutely.

Desktop interfaces are an inconsistent mess.

Re: PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

#130

The pinephone is great, in fact I'm typing this comment from mine. That said, fair warning to anyone thinking about getting one: it's slow, buggy, and flat out unreliable if you need to be able to receive / answer calls and texts for anything important (e.g. work). Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline…

I think the main thing that PinePhone has going for them is the price $150-200 for what essentially is a hobbyist device at this point is more than reasonable.

This is in stark contrast to the Purism phones which offer about the same hardware (slightly better CPU but worse GPU) at flagship prices.

This is somewhat also proof that the prices that Purism charges aren’t due to lack of economy of scale you can make these devices on the cheap, the hardware is available.

I have a similar complaint about their laptops they charge a hefty premium for what is essentially a bog standard OEM laptop from China which you can get for almost half the price in many cases including from other direct to customer vendors.

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