Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FSF announces Librephone project

fsf.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 669 posts

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#91

Post by smashah »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #4

Ultimately, I don't think the most important challenge is in binary firmware blobs, but the software which people depend upon to run their lives. What does it matter if you can run a completely free software stack on your phone, if your bank software (or your required government ID, as is looking depressingly likely) requires you to run a Big Tech approved phone OS? Perhaps the FSF can't do much about that, but that…

i think the best solution to this would be some sort of docker-project for people to remotely access a device hooked up to a raspberry pi or something at home via adb via https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy as "natively" as possible.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#92

Post by hypercube33 »

ACCount37 wrote: post #15

Unfortunately, even if you could completely de-blob the kernel itself (and for many chipsets, that would require a considerable amount of reverse engineering work!), smartphones bear the Curse of the Modem. In a modern smartphone, modem is often a part of the SoC itself - and it runs some of the biggest and fattest blobs you've ever seen.

I for one am up to the idea of breaking android off Google due to the same reasons of chrome - conflict of interest since Google is an advertising company.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#93

Post by kube-system »

IlikeKitties wrote: post #74

How will this phone comply with child safety laws? *Edit* Because Idiots are Downvoting me, look at the texas law SB 2420 as an example. These phones will essentially be illegal in texas unless they comply with already passed laws.

They will comply with the law because they are not making a phone, or any product at all for that matter. This is a reverse engineering initiative.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#95

Post by userbinator »

hypercube33 wrote: post #83
Bender wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope all the things you mention never become mandatory some day because I currently use my phone for voice and text only. Sooner than later I plan to get rid of my phone all together. I'm gonna surprise the phone company and get a land line. That means any online service that uses SMS/text to verify me will fail.

If you're being serious, you're in for a rude awakening. POTS lines are dead and being replaced with VOIP and VoIP to pots modems on the premise. lots of cities have already started to grub the copper out and replaced it a long time ago with fiber.

Changing the implementation but not the interface is exactly the point. It doesn't matter how it's delivered; it's just a phone line for voice calls.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#96

Post by longitudinal93 »

jeena wrote: post #62
ipaddr wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a big tech second phone. Cheapest available. Just perform the needed tasks and use your Libre phone for everything else. Does anyone remember having a copy of internet explorer that the bank required (or chrome these days) but using firefox for everything else? Apply that concept to a phone.

But then I would need to constantly charge two phones and keep two phones in my pocket all the time because I never know when I would need to do those things on the go.

I recently added a second phone for secure comms (Graphene). The biggest hassle turned out to be moving data between them. For that I settled on running my own Matrix server.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#97

Post by degamad »

koolala wrote: post #24
jojobas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some banks require app confirmation for PC-initiated transactions, using play integrity requiring apps. Cause security, you know.

What kind of transactions require this? Normal bank transactions don't, right?

Fraud prevention on my primary transaction account requires 2FA for every transfer.

The only supported 2FA is the bank's own dedicated 2FA app.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#98

Post by femto »

ACCount37 wrote: post #15

Unfortunately, even if you could completely de-blob the kernel itself (and for many chipsets, that would require a considerable amount of reverse engineering work!), smartphones bear the Curse of the Modem. In a modern smartphone, modem is often a part of the SoC itself - and it runs some of the biggest and fattest blobs you've ever seen.

Not insurmountable, given the availability of srsRAN.

https://www.srsran.com/

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#99

Post by longitudinal93 »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #79
mekoka wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the government needs me to get a side phone for ID, I'll cross that bridge. For everyday use, I'm fine with having a "rogue" phone as my primary.

The next step will be for them to prevent you connecting to the cellular network.

Just tether through your shit phone

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#100

Post by ants_everywhere »

SchemaLoad wrote: post #12
bombcar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really NEED to be forced to attest if you can make your phone look like any damn PC using a browser?

These days browsers are becoming increasingly distrusted. My bank logs my browser out after 30 minutes inactivity and then to log back in I have to confirm the login on my phone.

webauthn cares about the strength of the authenticators used. Mobile has standard libraries for biometrics and secure enclaves. This is less common on desktops and laptops. Your bank may offer the ability to enroll a yubikey or similar.
Post reply on HN