Librem5 Hardware Update • Hacker News Board

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#31

Post by esotericn » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:09 PM UTC

floatboth wrote: post #25

yogthos wrote: post #21

It’s hard to overstate how important Librem phone is. Currently, it’s pretty much impossible to buy a high end phone that you can actually own. All Android based phones have their firmware locked and root access disabled. This effectively means that you do not own the device, and you don’t get the final say as to what will be running on it. I’m aware that it’s possible to crack the firmware, but I think that’s comple…

> crack the firmware In most cases, you don't have to crack anything, you can officially unlock the bootloader and flash your own OS build. Yes, you can't touch the early boot initialization, you're still required to use vendor blobs for using wireless/modem/camera/etc things, but you can control most of the software that matters.

If you can't use mainline Linux and/or have no GPU acceleration that's no use at all.

It's sort of theoretically useful whilst being practically pointless unless you want to produce your own OS.

How do I get into a Linux userland with X11 and a touch driver on my Galaxy Note 8? The answer is pretty much "write it all yourself, quickly before the hardware becomes obsolete".

I hope that the librem5 gains traction for that reason alone - producing a critical mass of developers.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#32

Post by curioussavage » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:14 PM UTC

curioussavage wrote: post #16

For the last few months I have been super excited about the Librem 5. I check way too often for their updates. Maybe I’m alone but I wish I had more visibility into their progress. Might not be helpful for them though.

I also wish they would embrace Vala as the language for the apps. ElementaryOS has had pretty decent success so far building an app ecosystem and the choice of Vala has contributed to that

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#33

Post by craftyguy » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:17 PM UTC

newnewpdro wrote: post #30

Why is there a substantial heat sink on what's supposed to be packaged down to the size of a smartphone?

Because it's a platform under active development, and they're probably more concerned with functionality than some super sexy tiny cooling solution? At some point they'll most likely test the production cooling system, but for now it probably doesn't matter. You'd be surprised how many things (cooling, PCBs, etc) are much larger early on than their production counterparts...

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#34

Post by ethbro » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

greenhatman wrote: post #20

curioussavage wrote: post #16

For the last few months I have been super excited about the Librem 5. I check way too often for their updates. Maybe I’m alone but I wish I had more visibility into their progress. Might not be helpful for them though.

I really want a Linux phone that has the same kind of specs and build quality as Samsung flagship phones.

Hope you're willing to pay $x0,000 to amortize the design / code / build cost over a smaller-than-Samsung userbase then.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#35

Post by craftyguy » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:20 PM UTC

faragon wrote: post #8

Kudos. The most interesting thing in smartphones for my needs since the Nokia N900, not counting the SailfishOS efforts. I'll buy one if it works "a la Maemo" (Debian derivative).

Their OS, PureOS, is a Debian derivative.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#36

Post by craftyguy » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:21 PM UTC

blihp wrote: post #24

remlov wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am almost certain that battery only applies to the dev board for testing and development. There is no way a 18650 is going to fit in the final Librem 5 product.

Sadly, I think you're right. Hopefully they manage to go with some sort of standardized (cheap and easy to replace) battery for the final product.

Sadly? I wouldn't really want a phone that had a battery physically larger than a AA battery.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#37

Post by ethbro » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:21 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #5

> Almost right after that was a Chinese holiday, the Golden Week, which is in practice a two week holiday. This doesn't match with my experience. Golden Week is a one-week holiday that gets you less than 5 days of vacation, because -- although companies are legally required to give Monday through Friday off -- the norm is to work on weekends around the holiday to make up for the lost time. Does anyone have an idea wh…

I'd be interested in hearing anyone's experience with holidays and China B2B.

Is it just kind of known that things stop there for certain weeks? Or are these formally set out in schedules?

My only experience has been B2C, where the experience is generally {no response} -> {a week later: "Oh, everyone was on holiday"}

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#38

Post by wilsonnb3 » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:22 PM UTC

yogthos wrote: post #21

It’s hard to overstate how important Librem phone is. Currently, it’s pretty much impossible to buy a high end phone that you can actually own. All Android based phones have their firmware locked and root access disabled. This effectively means that you do not own the device, and you don’t get the final say as to what will be running on it. I’m aware that it’s possible to crack the firmware, but I think that’s comple…

It’s pretty easy to buy a high end phone that you can actually own if you don’t use a ridiculously hyperbolic definition of ownership.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#39

Post by ethbro » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:25 PM UTC

craftyguy wrote: post #33

newnewpdro wrote: post #30

Why is there a substantial heat sink on what's supposed to be packaged down to the size of a smartphone?

Because it's a platform under active development, and they're probably more concerned with functionality than some super sexy tiny cooling solution? At some point they'll most likely test the production cooling system, but for now it probably doesn't matter. You'd be surprised how many things (cooling, PCBs, etc) are much larger early on than their production counterparts...

Software perspective: Fatal error, I'll just make a change and recompile.

Hardware perspective: CPU cooked itself because frequency regulation was accidentally turned off, time to wait for new parts from China + assembly.

It always amuses me how laisez faire folks are about things like ESD. "It's never caused a problem before" isn't a reason to ignore best practices and not work defensively.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#40

Post by amelius » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:32 PM UTC

zlatan_todoric wrote: post #23

While the Librem5 is step into right direction, it is far away from open hardware and will likely need even software proprietary bits - so I would recommend to stay in realistic zone and help the project in any way you can.

From their manifesto:

> The Corporation will release all software written by The Corporation under a free software license.

> The Corporation will release all hardware schematics authored by The Corporation under a free hardware license.

If you are talking about the IP blocks that are bought/licensed from third parties, then you are right, but I suppose that these are replaceable by equivalent blocks in future versions, without the user noticing. In other words, users don't depend on these blocks, so for all the user knows, these blocks are commodities.