The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone • Hacker News Board

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#201

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 9:45 AM UTC

usrn wrote: post #97

zwieback wrote: post #30

I like the idea of a more open phone a lot but dispute the "Smartphones are shit" premise. I think modern smart phones are an unbelievably awesome value. Battery, display, wireless and processing power have advanced at such an unbelievable rate that we have something in our pockets that far exceeds predictions of 20, 30, 100 years ago. The problem is that we don't want to pay what it really costs to have such a great…

As someone who had a few pre-smartphone PDAs: Smartphones absolutely are high powered shit. On paper they're amazing but the ecosystem limits you to scrolling instagram and only a handfull of accepted IMs (iOS struggles with XMPP and IRC for example, something even my hacked DS could do fine with 4MB of ram and a 60Mhz ARM9.) Just editing fucking textfiles and copying it back to a normal PC (that isn't a mac) is a re…

[deleted]

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#202

Post by throwing4321 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 9:47 AM UTC

toastercat wrote: post #167

nabaraz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The choice is between GrapheneOS + Sandboxed Google play vs LineageOS + MicroG. If you care too much about privacy, GrapheneOS is the way to go. If you want a balance between privacy and usability, LineageOS is the way to go. Also, GrapheneOS only supports Pixel phones. I have tried CalyxOS but there are too many issues.

What issues have you experienced with CalyxOS? Asking as a daily user of CalyxOS. I have not had any real issues, but I also don't install many apps on my phone.

For one, they recently were unable to give monthly security updates for 3 months or so.

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#203

Post by sleepless » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 9:47 AM UTC

usrn wrote: post #97

zwieback wrote: post #30

I like the idea of a more open phone a lot but dispute the "Smartphones are shit" premise. I think modern smart phones are an unbelievably awesome value. Battery, display, wireless and processing power have advanced at such an unbelievable rate that we have something in our pockets that far exceeds predictions of 20, 30, 100 years ago. The problem is that we don't want to pay what it really costs to have such a great…

As someone who had a few pre-smartphone PDAs: Smartphones absolutely are high powered shit. On paper they're amazing but the ecosystem limits you to scrolling instagram and only a handfull of accepted IMs (iOS struggles with XMPP and IRC for example, something even my hacked DS could do fine with 4MB of ram and a 60Mhz ARM9.) Just editing fucking textfiles and copying it back to a normal PC (that isn't a mac) is a re…

"iOS struggles with XMPP" Is that so? Monal just received the 5.1.0 update and Siskin is also under active development. Then there is Snikket based on Siskin. Compared to 2017 this is quite the vivid XMPP landscape and development on all three apps is ongoing and the people behind the apps seem capable. You can use a bridge to even use IRC in your XMPP client. Editing txt files in NextCloud and having this by in sync on your other computers is great. Sure, iOS lags in both regards but it is not Apples priority to offer such solutions. They want to shove iCloud down the users throat. Just wanted to mention the existing and viable solutions.

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#204

Post by throwing4321 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 9:50 AM UTC

foresto wrote: post #111

mikece wrote: post #2

Why LineageOS and not GrapheneOS? I have a Pixel 4a with GrapheneOS and really like it. The lack of Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google's push notifications service) isn't an issue for personal usage; for work I still use an iPhone because I don't want to put things like MS Teams on Graphene OS. As for PinePhone: it's interesting that this article puts LineageOS and PinePhone together since the latter cannot run the for…

> Why LineageOS and not GrapheneOS? One problem with GrapheneOS is that it only supports a tiny handful of devices, and only for few years (at best) per device. A lot of people can't afford to keep buying Pixel phones on that schedule, and some who can afford it find the e-waste unappealing. This isn't exactly the project's fault. It's more a side effect of an industry that prevents customers from securely installing…

Starting from the current Google Pixel, Google will support them for at least 5 years.

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#205

Post by foresto » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 10:03 AM UTC

throwing4321 wrote: post #204

foresto wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why LineageOS and not GrapheneOS? One problem with GrapheneOS is that it only supports a tiny handful of devices, and only for few years (at best) per device. A lot of people can't afford to keep buying Pixel phones on that schedule, and some who can afford it find the e-waste unappealing. This isn't exactly the project's fault. It's more a side effect of an industry that prevents customers from securely installing…

Starting from the current Google Pixel, Google will support them for at least 5 years.

Five years from when? The purchase date, or the product introduction date? If the latter, the effective support lifetime will be (on average) much shorter.

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#206

Post by kaba0 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 10:04 AM UTC

noirbot wrote: post #155

usrn wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who don't want to redo their Xorg config.

I don't WANT to redo my Xorg config, but I don't have much choice if I want Linux to behave like an OS from this century.

Wayland is here without any need to tinker for modern features.

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#207

Post by kaba0 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 10:08 AM UTC

cehrlich wrote: post #180

zwieback wrote: post #30

I like the idea of a more open phone a lot but dispute the "Smartphones are shit" premise. I think modern smart phones are an unbelievably awesome value. Battery, display, wireless and processing power have advanced at such an unbelievable rate that we have something in our pockets that far exceeds predictions of 20, 30, 100 years ago. The problem is that we don't want to pay what it really costs to have such a great…

The fundamental problem seems to be that there is one group of people who believe that smartphones should be 'real computers', and another group that wants it to be something different, more limited. For my personal usage I'm in the second group. I have several 'real computers', and I just want my phone to do phone stuff, and do it without getting in my way. I have no interest in switching from my iPhone to a PinePho…

How does letting me use my iphone as a general computer limit your freedom of having it limited?

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#208

Post by yeetsfromhellL2 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 10:16 AM UTC

usrn wrote: post #97

zwieback wrote: post #30

I like the idea of a more open phone a lot but dispute the "Smartphones are shit" premise. I think modern smart phones are an unbelievably awesome value. Battery, display, wireless and processing power have advanced at such an unbelievable rate that we have something in our pockets that far exceeds predictions of 20, 30, 100 years ago. The problem is that we don't want to pay what it really costs to have such a great…

As someone who had a few pre-smartphone PDAs: Smartphones absolutely are high powered shit. On paper they're amazing but the ecosystem limits you to scrolling instagram and only a handfull of accepted IMs (iOS struggles with XMPP and IRC for example, something even my hacked DS could do fine with 4MB of ram and a 60Mhz ARM9.) Just editing fucking textfiles and copying it back to a normal PC (that isn't a mac) is a re…

I tried finding a decent text editor for android a little while ago and was not successful. FOSS git on iPad doesn't exist. SSH on either is very limited to say the least. An effective terminal is a pipe dream. Crapple and Scroogle have successfully turned the smartphone into a revenue generating device for themselves, and it's also a device our lives basically revolve around. I'd love to run a GNU/Linux (as opposed to Android/Linux) on my mobile device. The only thing I'd have to gripe about is a hardware keyboard.

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#209

Post by throwing4321 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 10:18 AM UTC

foresto wrote: post #205

throwing4321 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting from the current Google Pixel, Google will support them for at least 5 years.

Five years from when? The purchase date, or the product introduction date? If the latter, the effective support lifetime will be (on average) much shorter.

Product release date of course.

Other devices compromise on security.

Re: The case for LineageOS and the PinePhone

#210

Post by kaba0 » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 10:20 AM UTC

HidyBush wrote: post #29

The funny thing is that PinePhone's problems almost entirely fall on the software side. I think we can all agree that for basic smartphone usage the base PinePhone is plenty overkill. How much processing power do you need to send messages? Take and look at moderate resolution photos? Render an OpenStreetMap tile? If somehow web browsers didn't exist the only downsides left for the Pinephone would maybe be regarding h…

I’m not so sure. Like, a web browser requires an excessive amount of CPU-power so that alone would necessitate a better CPU. I can only speak about the Pinephone, hopefully the pro is sufficient enough.

Like, sure one can make 60fps vector graphics for a smartwatch purely from software rendering running on embedded hardware e.g. https://repository.microej.com/packages/documentation/rt595/... but just look at your typical web app. No embedded will run that and it is pretty much needed for a smartphone.