Earlier quoted context omitted.
The devices they make that don't ship with Linux on them are pretty good, those are also easier to get fully functional software since the scope is so much smaller. The whole linux side is just a bit of a mess
Do you think RISC-V will make any difference for the Pine64 situation (especially the SPI flash)? I remember seeing something about a UEFI standard. Would that help?
Why I left Pine64
91–100 of 227 posts
Re: Why I left Pine64
#92Martin, if you're still around, could you tell us what phone you would recommend to someone if they were wanting to switch to daily driving PostmarketOS? Do you still see that as the pinephone or do you consider another device as having a more promising future/better hardware/better support?
Re: Why I left Pine64
#93I've also asked repeatedly why those kind of projects are not using android forks instead of other things, and I never got an answer that made sense.
Android is open source and has proven that it's a robust system, I don't understand why people want to use something else.
Re: Why I left Pine64
#94I really want such project to succeed but I guess there is no market or enough money to make it happen. I've also asked repeatedly why those kind of projects are not using android forks instead of other things, and I never got an answer that made sense. Android is open source and has proven that it's a robust system, I don't understand why people want to use something else.
Also, has anyone really done anything more than just tweak AOSP? Honest question, I don't know. If say Google completely abandoned the AOSP and went full Fuschia (I know this isn't likely), is there any individual or group out there that knows enough about AOSP to take it over?
Re: Why I left Pine64
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems like in the end the pinebook pro did get the SPI chip on it, but then they flashed a closed source U-Boot to the eMMC instead which does not allow booting from SD. So it's again a complete pain for the other distributions to help these users. For the wiping issue, a lot of times I see suggestions to wipe the first few MB of the storage when there's booting and flashing issues to get rid of an old U-Boot, whi…
So the SPI chip is effectively useless? Is this something that could be fixed in a newer hardware revision?
Re: Why I left Pine64
#96I am a big FOSS proponent (I almost exclusively use FOSS), but I find it difficult to not become disillusioned recently. It seems the large corporations like FANGs are largely pushing OSS to use volunteer work to make software a commodity, while trying to accumulate more and more data, which they consider their main value. At the same time we have companies like pine, who seem to support FOSS through relatively open…
>> It seems the large corporations like FANGs are largely pushing OSS to use volunteer work to make software a commodity
Why would you expect them to do anything different? Companies are driven by profit, not some sense of morality. OSS licenses allow them, even encourage them, to trade volunteer (aka free) labor in return for source code availability.
>> which to me seem increasingly more about a way to make a profit of the FOSS trend by using volunteer work without any investment from their end.
There's often serious investment from their end, but that's irrelevant. They absolutely want to leverage FOSS to make a profit. And that's explicitly allowed by OSS licenses.
To put it another way, your disillusionment is because of a "bug" on your end, not on theirs. They are behaving exactly as OSS is designed. Your _expectation_ of their behavior is inaccurate, and so does not match reality. Not surpisingly this makes you sad :(
Re: Why I left Pine64
#97I am a big FOSS proponent (I almost exclusively use FOSS), but I find it difficult to not become disillusioned recently. It seems the large corporations like FANGs are largely pushing OSS to use volunteer work to make software a commodity, while trying to accumulate more and more data, which they consider their main value. At the same time we have companies like pine, who seem to support FOSS through relatively open…
Re: Why I left Pine64
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
The devices they make that don't ship with Linux on them are pretty good, those are also easier to get fully functional software since the scope is so much smaller. The whole linux side is just a bit of a mess
Do you think RISC-V will make any difference for the Pine64 situation (especially the SPI flash)? I remember seeing something about a UEFI standard. Would that help?
Re: Why I left Pine64
#99I am a big FOSS proponent (I almost exclusively use FOSS), but I find it difficult to not become disillusioned recently. It seems the large corporations like FANGs are largely pushing OSS to use volunteer work to make software a commodity, while trying to accumulate more and more data, which they consider their main value. At the same time we have companies like pine, who seem to support FOSS through relatively open…
[I noticed the stump of the pine tree, which apparently was cut down after a fire, in the picture at the head of this article--maybe why the author left Pine64? :)]