Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 • Hacker News Board

Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#1

Post by yepthatsreality » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 1:40 AM UTC

Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2
puri.sm

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#2

Post by dmix » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:26 AM UTC

GTK for a smartphone is an interesting choice. I'm curious if the Gnome team would ever commit to this.

The use of a stylus in the video is a bit concerning though.

Off topic but I hope Librem releases a high-end laptop in addition to their mid-tier one, ideally with a high performance AMD CPU. Something that could be the open-source friendly version of a Macbook Pro.

The way they disable Intel ME and add hardware toggles for webcams/microphones, and their general good taste is a big draw for me.

Edit: looks like Gnome is backing Purism's project. Neat. https://www.gnome.org/news/2017/09/gnome-foundation-partners...

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#3

Post by jijji » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:34 AM UTC

Any demos of the phone making an actual phone call, sending an sms text message?

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#4

Post by alexkavon » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:35 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #2

GTK for a smartphone is an interesting choice. I'm curious if the Gnome team would ever commit to this. The use of a stylus in the video is a bit concerning though. Off topic but I hope Librem releases a high-end laptop in addition to their mid-tier one, ideally with a high performance AMD CPU. Something that could be the open-source friendly version of a Macbook Pro. The way they disable Intel ME and add hardware to…

I believe they're working with the Gnome team on this, as well as support for Plasma Mobile.[0]

[0] https://puri.sm/posts/gnome-and-kde-in-pureos-diversity-acro...

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#5

Post by dman » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:38 AM UTC

Any idea on when this ships?

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#6

Post by alexkavon » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:38 AM UTC

jijji wrote: post #3

Any demos of the phone making an actual phone call, sending an sms text message?

https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-12/

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#7

Post by learnfromstory » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:51 AM UTC

Just shockingly ugly. If you're going to do a pixels-under-glass UI, you really have to start with a toolkit that isn't awful, or you end up with the openmoko which looked exactly like these demos but 12 years ago. You end up with, in short, a phone where the user adjusts the volume using alsamixer in an xterm because the UI wasn't really thought through.

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#8

Post by RandomBacon » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:54 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #2

GTK for a smartphone is an interesting choice. I'm curious if the Gnome team would ever commit to this. The use of a stylus in the video is a bit concerning though. Off topic but I hope Librem releases a high-end laptop in addition to their mid-tier one, ideally with a high performance AMD CPU. Something that could be the open-source friendly version of a Macbook Pro. The way they disable Intel ME and add hardware to…

> The use of a stylus in the video is a bit concerning though.

I imagine that's just so there isn't a big finger/hand getting in the way of the camera. And because the phone is flat on the table for the video, you can't type on it like when you're holding it with your hand.

A non-issue in my opinion. I wouldn't have given it a second thought.

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#9

Post by logicprog » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 2:59 AM UTC

I want to like Librem's smartphone, I really do. I like having control over my software, and I like being able to really understand how it works and tinker with it and stuff. But I have this sinking feeling that the Librem 5 is just vaporware, or worse, that it'll get released with a half baked UI and a barebones list of apps. On that latter one, I really don't see how they'll fix the problem. On the former, the thing is that the affordences for bad UI design are a LOT tighter on mobile devices and it's taken a long time for desktop Linux to get their game together. Plus, all of Librem's other stuff is over priced and a bit cheap looking, and I'm not sure I want a phone like that.

Re: Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

#10

Post by TylerE » Fri, Jul 12, 2019, 3:08 AM UTC

logicprog wrote: post #9

I want to like Librem's smartphone, I really do. I like having control over my software, and I like being able to really understand how it works and tinker with it and stuff. But I have this sinking feeling that the Librem 5 is just vaporware, or worse, that it'll get released with a half baked UI and a barebones list of apps. On that latter one, I really don't see how they'll fix the problem. On the former, the thin…

I'm getting a lot of Ouya vibes from this project. Good UI/UX is hard, and "open platform" might get some kickstarter monies, but it isn't really something 99.9% of people care about.