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FSF announces Librephone project

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Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#411

Post by nabla9 »

Librephone is reverse engineering project that attempts to remove remaining proprietary binary modules, not a competing project.

> Triaging existing packages and device compatibility to find a phone with the fewest, most fixable freedom problems is the first step. From there, the FSF and Savoye aim to reverse-engineer and replace the remaining nonfree software. Librephone will serve existing developers and projects who aim to build a fully functioning and free (as in freedom) Android-compatible OS.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#412

Post by RIMR »

cookiengineer wrote: post #265

Why can't they just partner with postmarketOS here? Why do we have to have /e/OS instead of a better supported LineageOS, because /e/ is a 1:1 copy anyways? Why do we have to have a Librephone project now instead of partnering with say, Fairphone and the Pine64 people? Open source loses this war because proprietary devices are streamlined. The only thing that comes close to this is GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and postmark…

Why partner with postmarketOS, LineageOS, GrapheneOS, or CalyxOS? This would be an open source initiative that contributors from any of those projects to add to. The results could be used by any of the aforementioned distributions, and more. It might even make running vanilla Linux on our exiting smartphones viable.

Why partner with Fairphone and Pine64? They already have open hardware, and require zero reverse engineering to get a fully open solution working. In a world with thousands of Fairphones and Pinephones, and billions of corporate smartphones, replacing the proprietary software needed to run those billions of corporate smartphones is a hell of a win for software freedom.

And are you really expecting the argument "open source loses" to be a real argument against a project by the Free Software Foundation? This is like asking a cancer charity why they don't endorse your preferred brand of cigarettes.

What the FSF is doing here isn't about maximizing your experience with your preferred custom ROM, it is about tearing down the proprietary software barriers that prevent the vast majority of smartphone users from fully owning the hardware they purchased. It fits perfectly with the FSF's goals.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#413

Post by rjsw »

fsflover wrote: post #281
cookiengineer wrote: post #265

Why can't they just partner with postmarketOS here? Why do we have to have /e/OS instead of a better supported LineageOS, because /e/ is a 1:1 copy anyways? Why do we have to have a Librephone project now instead of partnering with say, Fairphone and the Pine64 people? Open source loses this war because proprietary devices are streamlined. The only thing that comes close to this is GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and postmark…

Why are all commenters on HN ignoring the only smartphone running an FSF-endorsed [0] operating system, Librem 5, and only list everything else? I just can't get it. Even the FSF themselves didn't mention it or provided any reasoning for choosing a Google-controlled operating system - despite recommending Librem 5 earlier [1]. What am I missing? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25504641 [1] https://www.fsf.or…

We know that you will post something about Librem 5 so there is no need for anyone else to do it.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#414

Post by konimex »

kennywinker wrote: post #39
ttoinou wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They more and more force you into 2FA through banking app

Every bank i’ve used (2, so ymmv) allowed 2fa using a totp app, they just don’t make that choice obvious you have to dig around in the settings

Here in SE Asia (in my country at least) you're lucky if they even offer you SMS 2FA (and even then, only for cash withdrawal from ATMs), because otherwise its just using PIN or biometrics without any kind of second factor auth.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#415

Post by RIMR »

nabla9 wrote: post #390
ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The FSF is now under the leadership of a "Bachelor of Arts degree in Media and Culture and a Master of Arts in the Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image" who probably hasn't written a line of code. This is an exceptionally poor argument. 1. Coders are biased and often not aligned with users whose rights FSF is there to protect. Just look at any OSS vs FS discussion on this site to see examples. 2. Your…

In free software those who write code decide what is done and nobody else matters in the end.

Spoken like someone who has zero experience developing open source software.

I work for a company that makes a very popular open source product. The users lead our development, not the coders. Hell, I don't even code, and I get to tell the engineers what to fix based on what our users complain about.

I suppose if you think of free software as a bunch of solo-coded GitHub projects, it can feel like the coders are king, but you absolutely don't maintain a project like Linux, or any of the major distros thereof, by giving coders supreme authority over decision-making...

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#416

Post by natebc »

nabla9 wrote: post #390
ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The FSF is now under the leadership of a "Bachelor of Arts degree in Media and Culture and a Master of Arts in the Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image" who probably hasn't written a line of code. This is an exceptionally poor argument. 1. Coders are biased and often not aligned with users whose rights FSF is there to protect. Just look at any OSS vs FS discussion on this site to see examples. 2. Your…

In free software those who write code decide what is done and nobody else matters in the end.

This probably explains a lot of the problem then. IME those who are good at writing code are pretty bad at the social parts of running an organization.

This isn't a dig, I've known and admired quite a few people who were absolute geniuses at hardware and/OR software, real engineers but they couldn't even manage a group lunch. It's just an entirely different skillset.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#417

Post by johnwheeler »

FSF never does and never will understand good software. The problem they have is they don't care about the user as much as they care about the developer. They want everything to be easy for the developer and they put the user second.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#418

Post by immibis »

koolala wrote: post #195
lmm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you typically can't transfer between different banks WTF? What kind of shitty banking system are you using?

Wells Fargo said to do it I had to use Zelle.

AFAIK Zelle is something US banks got together and set up on their own because the government didn't. So a Zelle transfer is the US equivalent of a SEPA transfer.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#420

Post by RIMR »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #389
oblio wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL. Compare and contrast this: > Say what you want about the Stalleman type he was very inspiring and had real leadership. So a lot of hackers followed him in his crazy vision and that gave us a lot. With this: > It is very feminine and obviously doesn't work that well. It's a super sexist comment. A comment born in the 60s, or I guess in our geek land, still in 2025.

>It's a super sexist comment. Is it? To answer this, just reverse the genders in the statement and see if it's still sexist. "It's very masculine and obviously doesn't work that well"

Yeah, that's still sexist. Was that your point, because it kinda feels like you're presenting this as a gotcha or something...
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