Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK you can use and reverse engineer the firmware blobs on any OS, free or not.
I wonder if it's one of those situations where the potential for legal system abuse is a chilling effect.
Can you elaborate?
FSF announces Librephone project
531–540 of 669 posts
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#532> Triaging existing packages and device compatibility to find a phone with the fewest, most fixable freedom problems is the first step
Maybe this is my PM brain but why go after the most compatible devices first vs the most popular devices today?
Surely you’d maximize software freedom by targeting the most used devices so those can switch first
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#533There are several comments about Linux on phones años PostMarketOS.
Apparently an usable daily driver already, FuriLabs' FLX1s. Nobody seems to have mentioned it yet.
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very good thing. I don't think many people here on HN reject technology, but sometimes no technology is better than one that is not controlled by the user.
No it isn't. They just use an SMS code instead which is not secure at all.
choosing a wrong alternative does not make mandating spyphones good.
why not distribute hw tokens for purposes like this? it has the least flaws IMO.
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the one big flaw I've seen in Stallman's philosophy on software. He's been thoroughly proven right I think about the dangers of closed-source (unmodifiable) software to user freedom. But I think his insistence that Free Software also needs to be freely redistributable with no payment to the author in order to be Free has greatly limited the resources available to build such software. The FSF will argue "you c…
> It's not a viable business model. > You can do it obviously, but it's effectively just a different way of soliciting donations at that point; the fair market value of the software is ~$0 It is a viable business model. At XWiki SAS¹, they do this for their "Pro apps" [1] which are paid extensions for XWiki targeted to businesses and that are free software (under the LGPLv2 license) with license checks. Businesses wo…
As I said that's just another way of soliciting donations; it relies entirely on consumer goodwill (or ignorance/poor accessibility of the free option). There are limits to how big you can get with that (or how much you can charge) before someone just undercuts you with a fork.
I'm not saying it's impossible to survive with that model; lots of organization survive on donations. But you're not gonna be able to build the Free Software equivalent of Microsoft or Google on donations.
That said, I think doing that with business software is a particularly interesting case because it allows low level employees to justify running a donation through the regular software purchasing process without raising too many eyebrows if they care to. I've seen a few other projects with similar models.
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's time to look for a new bank.
In my country we have a large religious community that eschews smartphones. Due to this no company or government agency requires a smartphone for service.
would you mind reveal which community and country is this? maybe i can ask them to lobby in my area too...
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their point is obviously that they can't if they aren't qualified. I don't know if that's actually true but it's clear what they're arguing here anyway.
There are studies about this. A lot. Many of them garbage, because their reference points were garbage (like 2008), or flat out lied, but it's quite clear that even if it matters on C-level jobs, it's miniscule. It was studied a lot because of Norway, and the following countries in Europe. Either it was pure sexism to have a distorted sex distribution, or C-level jobs don't really matter for companies outlook. I don'…
I don't know what you're trying to say but we weren't talking about companies or countries. We were talking about leadership of a political movement. It's a revolutionary ideology, not a business.
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#538Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do we have to have million Linux distros? Why do we have to have dozen desktop environments? Because in FOSS world every single actor is a snowflake with unique vision. Any form of cooperation ends up in drama and moral accusations.
The FOSS world is primarily about freedom. You don’t have to align with someone else’s vision, you don’t need to be profitable, you don’t need to care about other projects
A.k.a. not getting paid, so you might as well do what you want.
Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#539Re: FSF announces Librephone project
#540Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about WhatsApp?
I don't follow.. are you asking if WhatsApp offers some alternative to banking services? It doesn't.
> are you asking if WhatsApp offers some alternative to banking services? It doesn't
Indian banks provide their full suite of services through WhatsApp. I have opened and closed accounts, completed KYC and authorised transfers through it.