Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FSF announces Librephone project

fsf.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 669 posts

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#491

Post by hedora »

thedumbname wrote: post #145
hedora wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one solution to this problem that many people reading this message can contribute to: Make sure your app has a progressive web app version that has feature parity with the store apps. That way, the app will work on phones like the librephone, and, if Apple or Google decide to kick you off the store, you and your users have some recourse. As a bonus, it’s compatible with open source — users can modify the app…

You are mixed up 3 different tech stacks: 1. React Native has nothing in common with web apps except JS runtime. It uses "native" widgets for Android and iOS. You need to add a new "native" runtime for your free OS. There are some third-party attempts to add mac/win/linux support, but they are not feature complete as officially supported platforms. Again, your free OS will be step behind. 2. Yes, you can write PWA wi…

I have a react native app, and can compile it to pwa mode. It runs well in a browser.

99% of the code runs fine in electron to. Index.tsx is the main exception.

I’m not saying you can automatically run software for one of these targets across all three. I’m saying it’s straightforward to write portable software that works on all of them.

Also, I can’t think of any apps I use that require any platform-specific APIs at this point. Even if they did, the phone I want would be able to surface those APIs to pwas.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#492

Post by pessimizer »

fsflover wrote: post #355
closeneough wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This project is about reverse engineering the firmware blobs. It states that they do not want to create a distribution like postmarketOS or other projects do.

The listed distributions have already been created. The OP didn't suggest to create a distribution but to collaborate with existing ones not relying on the Google's OS.

Graphene and Lineage both rely on Google's OS, so this is not what the OP was saying.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#493

Post by woodrowbarlow »

penguin_booze wrote: post #394

Ugh, I don't know. From a practical standpoint, I can see why basing on Android makes sense. But I really wish we can "somehow" extend an existing Linux distribution (or an Android kernel, even) with a user space reworked to function well on small screens. Maybe that's a pipe dream. What I'd really, really prefer is to be able to program the device with the same ease as developing a local Linux application. If I need…

i agree, except the web part.

Purism did a lot of work to build Phosh, based on Gnome, with GTK apps that had fluid layout. on a phone-size screen, the UI was suited for touch; but connect it to a screen and everything seamlessly switches to a standard Gnome UI.

i would rather see this get mainlined into Gnome, and for it to be common-practice to design desktop apps with a fluid layout that can adapt to phone screens.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#494

Post by NoGravitas »

heybales wrote: post #402
penguin_booze wrote: post #394

Ugh, I don't know. From a practical standpoint, I can see why basing on Android makes sense. But I really wish we can "somehow" extend an existing Linux distribution (or an Android kernel, even) with a user space reworked to function well on small screens. Maybe that's a pipe dream. What I'd really, really prefer is to be able to program the device with the same ease as developing a local Linux application. If I need…

Congratulations, you just invented the open web circa 2006.

Or FirefoxOS circa 2013.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#495

Post by hedora »

Barbing wrote: post #166
mikestorrent wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't just be them. I foresee Cloudflare and other CDNs offering a free checkbox: [] Require age of majority verified user And it will in turn depend on Secure Attestation, Web Credentials, and other recent W3C work to provide proof that you're the registered owner, age of majority and verified by thumbprint or other biometrics, running an unmodified device. Your ID might be escrowed with your OS vendor, email pro…

You’re probably 100% right and it’s honestly heartbreaking. Time to donate to the EFF and FSF I guess…

Also, time to switch back to firefox, and turn off the DRM crap.

I get warnings from some sites (like radio stations) that DRM is required for the page, but haven’t noticed any breakage.

Using them in that mode adds signal to their web server logs saying that forcing DRM will break their site.

Everyone that cares about this stuff should be doing this.

(And, no, firefox isn’t broken. Also, Firefox doesn’t include the pile of dark patterns and mandatory google spam that chrome does.)

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#496

Post by jacquesm »

le-mark wrote: post #486
jacquesm wrote: post #269

Getting governments, banks and other big entities to play along here is going to be the main challenge.

One might think governments could get on board for the sake of digital independence/sovereignty ; but so far that hasn’t been the reality. One day digital sovereignty could become a real priority, then it could happen.

I think that day arrived Jan. 6th 2025. If the message doesn't land now it never will.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#497

Post by NoGravitas »

kovac wrote: post #49
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #4

Ultimately, I don't think the most important challenge is in binary firmware blobs, but the software which people depend upon to run their lives. What does it matter if you can run a completely free software stack on your phone, if your bank software (or your required government ID, as is looking depressingly likely) requires you to run a Big Tech approved phone OS? Perhaps the FSF can't do much about that, but that…

I think this is the right place to start. A free OS will empower developers to implement technical workarounds that could trick these apps into working there. If the OS is tightly controlled, we have no recourse. Even in the worst case scenario, we could use a cheap big-tech-approved phone for these applications (a glorified digital token) and use the free phone for everything else. When there's enough adoption and t…

> A free OS will empower developers to implement technical workarounds that could trick these apps into working there.

Not if they require something like hardware-backed remote attestation, and only accept such attestation from Google or Apple.

I'd love a practical Linux phone, and being able to run a deblobbed close-to-mainline kernel on a new-ish phone would help with that, but that doesn't really solve the most user-facing problem of mobile phones, the ecosystem lockdown.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#498

Post by NoGravitas »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #220
glitchc wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds utopian except you still have to pay for a cell plan on said device, no? How else to obtain a phone number for MFA?

Hopefully by not using MFA that depends on SMS.

Unfortunately there are non-SMS MFA that are still tied to a phone number, and you may be forced into using them for some context. Duo Mobile is one.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#499

Post by oblio »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #396
oblio wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need more Torvalds and Van Rossums and Kawaguchis than Stallmans.

Not really. Without Stallman, there would be no Torvalds. After Stallman launched the GNU project, the emergence of GNU licensed kernel for x86 architecture was inevitable. It just happened that Linux became that kernel. Had it not, the GNU project folks led by rms would have inevitably made their own.

It was so inevitable that GNU Hurd should have been renamed GNU Albatross in the 1990s.

Re: FSF announces Librephone project

#500

Post by NoGravitas »

dotancohen wrote: post #168
thedumbname wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are mixed up 3 different tech stacks: 1. React Native has nothing in common with web apps except JS runtime. It uses "native" widgets for Android and iOS. You need to add a new "native" runtime for your free OS. There are some third-party attempts to add mac/win/linux support, but they are not feature complete as officially supported platforms. Again, your free OS will be step behind. 2. Yes, you can write PWA wi…

What does a banking app need that a PWA can not provide?

Technically nothing.

In practice, banks will demand remote attestation of the environment the app is running in.

Post reply on HN