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Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

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Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#71

Post by dminik »

codedokode wrote: post #70
fsflover wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like using your phone as a desktop computer, when it's connected to a screen and keyboard and runs a full desktop OS. Having a full access to all desktop apps, development environments. Also this, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49201496 . Also, choosing the OS means freedom to choose the interface you like or develop your own (or to pay somebody to do that for you). Freedom to not be in walled gardens.

I suppose it would be relatively slow and how too little memory to be usable for programming, for example.

You know, we used to develop on computers with less than a Gig of RAM. A phone with 6/8/12 GB should be plenty enough to to do some development on. Or even less if you don't need to compile.

Seriously, you can run the windows version of GTA V on a phone. It runs pretty ok as well.

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#72

Post by fsflover »

Telaneo wrote: post #69
1dom wrote: post #65

I feel the votes and excitement in this thread aren't from people with a Fairphone 6 or PMOS. From the PMOS wiki: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairp... : > No internal speakers or microphones are currently working. Media sound (not calls) is working if connecting a Bluetooth or USB audio device. I got a Fairphone 6 last year, after having a OnePlus 7 Pro which I bought in 2019 and still work…

I share the same experience with My FP6. I want to love it. But the edges of experience are so rough it pains me damn near every day. I'm flipping it as soon as Motorola releases their GrapheneOS compatible phone. I hate that I have no other decent options, and that phones are getting bigger and bigger, but I don't really have a choice. If Apple would be so kind as to release an SE-sized phone again, I'd jump right b…

> but they at least seem to be on the right track to improve things again

Where did you get this impression? It seems to be the opposite:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43243075

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322556

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#73

Post by NoboruWataya »

1dom wrote: post #65

I feel the votes and excitement in this thread aren't from people with a Fairphone 6 or PMOS. From the PMOS wiki: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairp... : > No internal speakers or microphones are currently working. Media sound (not calls) is working if connecting a Bluetooth or USB audio device. I got a Fairphone 6 last year, after having a OnePlus 7 Pro which I bought in 2019 and still work…

It's a bleak situation. I don't have a Fairphone (after much agonising, I went instead with a used Pixel when I finally decided to retire my previous phone). I love Fairphone's mission and hope they succeed but indeed it is very difficult to justify spending that much on a phone with those specs, particularly when the company is young and so its promises of replacement parts, extended updates, etc, are difficult to assess.

I have played around a bit with pmOS, originally on an early Pinephone (the "Braveheart" model, which was plagued with hardware issues) and more recently on an ASUS MeMO Pad 7 (which at the time was in the "Community" support category but appears to have since been archived by pmOS). Even on devices where it "works", it tends to be slow, buggy, very heavy on battery and some peripherals like GPS and camera very rarely work.

This is absolutely not intended as criticism of the Fairphone, Pinephone or pmOS teams - on the contrary they are doing fantastic and important work. I think the problem is just really hard when you're working against the interests of some of the wealthiest corporations on earth (and governments seem to have zero interest in helping solve it).

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#74

Post by Aachen »

hvb2 wrote: post #39
SkinTaco wrote: post #38

What is that bit about Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheids­verzekering at the end? I've never heard of business liability insurance before. Does Germany not have an equivalent of an LLC?

He didn't create an LLC he's a 'stichting' which is basically a non profit with a specific goal to achieve. He doesn't want to create an LLC because he doesn't want anyone to question his motives. Also this is the Netherlands not Germany :)

A stichting isn't nonprofit without ANBI status. They can do whatever they want with the money afaik (technically: anything in accordance with the bylaws, but they wrote the bylaws)

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#75

Post by solarkraft »

I’ve recently been demonstrated NixOS running on a Fairphone (in large part due to the PostmarketOS efforts) and was just blown away by how responsive everything was (legitimately the same as any Android phone, comparable to a low-end Android in Waydroid!). What a far cry from the old Pinephone demos!

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#76

Post by Aachen »

SkinTaco wrote: post #38

What is that bit about Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheids­verzekering at the end? I've never heard of business liability insurance before. Does Germany not have an equivalent of an LLC?

Business liability insurance is standard practice for those operating a foundation (the post calls it nonprofit but afaik that's not the same thing unless they intend to apply for ANBI status, after which you can donate tax-deductably, at least per my understanding)

I don't know if it's standard for other business types as well, like in a BV (afaik that's what you call LLC). If you're not the only shareholder, it might help prevent legal issues when you make some mistake and it just gets paid from insurance. That's the purpose of it in a stichting anyway (negligence claims; getting into debts where you could allegedly have foreseen that the foundation can't afford it)

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#77

Post by lucideer »

1dom wrote: post #65

I feel the votes and excitement in this thread aren't from people with a Fairphone 6 or PMOS. From the PMOS wiki: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairp... : > No internal speakers or microphones are currently working. Media sound (not calls) is working if connecting a Bluetooth or USB audio device. I got a Fairphone 6 last year, after having a OnePlus 7 Pro which I bought in 2019 and still work…

> I really, really wish Fairphone was better, but the entire company experience is so janky for how expensive the products are.

Fellow Fairphone user here & I don't really understand this comment. Why did you buy a Fairphone?

As far as I can understand, the main reason anyone would buy a Fairphone is because they want a fair(er) phone. That "fairness" involves reducing profit-driven exploitation - there's an implicit understanding there that that massively increases supply chain cost, right?

It just feels like you're trying to have your cake & eat it too here. Nobody should be comparing Fairphones to a flagship of any era.

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#78

Post by chaosharmonic »

saidinesh5 wrote: post #36
zb3 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Murena could, Jolla could, GrapheneOS could do that too (possibly Nexphone also did but we'll find out; only GrapheneOS will give us flagship experience though). Of course these (except Jolla?) are still based on the Android model, but this itself doesn't preclude creating a non-user-hostile OS (of course Google would never certify it), proprietary black-box OEM code only assumes some Android elements, not the end us…

> What's wrong with pixel drivers for instance? I'm of course not talking about those written by e-waste ODMs like Tinno who can't even release GPL kernel sources properly A couple of issues , back from my sailfish os porting days (haven't touched it in half a decade so things might have changed): 1. You would still need to run a lot of Android user space to make use of these drivers. We had a separate second init sy…

One thing that has changed in around that time (maybe) is that GKIs[1] are now standard across (Google-branded) Android devices. Board/SoC support is handled via kernel modules now. The builds are directly from the Android Common Kernel, and an explicit goal is to be able to upgrade kernels on-device. (This has actually been demonstrated on Pixel devices, though I'm not sure how widespread it's been across others.) The Common Kernel also doesn't take contributions, and specifically encourages vendors to just upstream their drivers instead. Not that this fully solves the problems you're describing, but Android as a platform has become more intentional about dealing with kernel fragmentation and making itself more structurally friendly toward mainlining.

For the Pixel specifically, Google actually is working to upstream its hardware drivers and enable devices to boot off mainline. [2]

[1] https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/kernel/gen...

[2] https://lpc.events/event/17/contributions/1445/

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#79

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

omicronxt wrote: post #60

I was recently working on porting PMOS to Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro, though switched to NixOS due to much faster update cycle. I got much further than I thought I would (though this was mostly possible due to LLMs without them it would waaaay longer), fixed everything including cameras except mic working in calls. Still bummered about that because I really wanted to try daily driving linux phone but alas not lucky. I wish a…

> working on porting PMOS to Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro, though switched to NixOS due to much faster update cycle

As in, Mobile NixOS? How was that?

Re: Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

#80

Post by manofmanysmiles »

ianso wrote: post #48
squigz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely curious, like what cool things?

Apologies for self-linking here, but it's not just cool things, in my opinion it could transform humanitarian aid work. I wrote a use-case/short-story about it here: https://ianso.blogspot.com/2025/11/what-we-dont-have.html

I love this. I see this vision, in many forms, yet have trouble articulating in a way that motivates and inspires others, including myself.

I don't think a lack of hardware and software technology is what is lacking, but rather a vision, a dream, a call to action and corresponding courage to act while facing down an invisible enemy that can only been seen by its effects on the world.

Thank you for articulating it clearly. It inspires me to take a step back from building, and consider what I'm building and why.

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