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Librem5 Hardware Update

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Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#91

Post by ekianjo »

rocky1138 wrote: post #89
ekianjo wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and is similarly open is the Dragonbox Pyra The Pyra is taking forever and it's pretty much a one-two men's team, which is why it takes so long I guess.

It is taking forever, yes. Unfortunate as the hardware will be out-of-date by the time it is actually fully released. Still, it'll be fast enough for its purposes and will really be a triumph for Michael Mrozek. It's amazing that he's been able to do all this.

The problem is that there are now alternatives out there like the GPD-Win 2 and GPD Pocket, which are way more "open" (and actually using the mainline kernel now) than the Pyra can ever hope to be (The Pyra will use to use a number of binary blobs to function. Such as the GPU support...). Of course, the GPD may be inferior in some aspects, but they release hardware very quickly and the market is pretty much captured by their efforts.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#92

Post by Arnavion »

Galanwe wrote: post #86

As an expat living in HK, I did not quite understand the explanations about delays at the beginning of the article. The golden week is Japanese, not Chinese. Nothing closes in China at that time. And it’s in may/april. Mangkhut did not really hit China mainland, it was already mainly just a storm when it reached mainland, and it died in 1/2 days once leaving the sea. I guess most of the factories are near Shenzhen, t…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(China)

>The "National Day Golden Week" begins around 1 October.

>Three days of paid holiday are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese companies always have seven continuous days of holiday.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#93

Post by sneak »

josteink wrote: post #90
djsumdog wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea using adb/oemunlock. Sometimes you have to get a code (like with Sony, you input your IMEI number into their website and get one). I've had one Sony that was unlockable; a condition of the original cell provider. Still, it's bizarre considering you can install Linux on any PC/laptop you buy. The bigger issue of course, is that you can't just install Linux on a phone. They're all random pins soldered to random chi…

> Still, it's bizarre considering you can install Linux on any PC/laptop you buy. Apple is trying to change that with their new T2-line of machines where you are effectively locked out of using the device’s storage if you try to boot a OS not blessed by Apple (like Linux). You don’t own your new MacBook or Mac Mini. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Apple-T2...

You can disable all of that and boot any code you like. For the 99% that don’t want bootkits to be possible on their hardware, you can require a signed bootloader. Best of both worlds.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#95

Post by sneak »

conradev wrote: post #54
pedrocr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not of course. They just treat the modem as walled off peripheral black box like all the other rest of the hardware. They may load firmware on boot for LTE/Wifi/Bluetooth like most Linux laptops do. Depending on your opinion on the topic that may be free enough or not but it should be safe as none of those can access the CPU/RAM directly.

I see. The question here is not if there will be proprietary software: there will be. The question is which of that proprietary software runs on the CPU. Is the idea that all of the software in the kernel to interface with these devices is open source? I also don’t get the hangup over PCIe (vs USB). DMA with an IOMMU can be made fairly secure (and has obvious perf benefits).

Reminds me of a joke I heard:

What’s the difference between a person and a cellphone?

A person only has two arms.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#96

Post by portroyal »

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #49

Any experiences with their laptops?

Typing to you from a Librem 13 that I've owned for ~3 weeks. So far, the hardware is stellar. I can't say the same for PureOS, I replaced that after ~36h (never made it to desktop). Battery life is consistently ~8-9h. The machine is more powerful than the desktop I replaced it with -- that box is basically NAS now.

Would I buy again? Yes, for the ethos. Would I recommend it to a casual user (the intended audience)? No. It's still very much a techie device. If I push the power button and don't see desktop within a minute, that's broken. You need to be comfy at the command line to maneouver -- which I notice has been almost entirely convenienced away in Fedora 29. If Librems shipped F29, I could at least recommend it for my partner who is the definition of a casual computer user.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#97

Post by josteink »

sneak wrote: post #93
josteink wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still, it's bizarre considering you can install Linux on any PC/laptop you buy. Apple is trying to change that with their new T2-line of machines where you are effectively locked out of using the device’s storage if you try to boot a OS not blessed by Apple (like Linux). You don’t own your new MacBook or Mac Mini. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Apple-T2...

You can disable all of that and boot any code you like. For the 99% that don’t want bootkits to be possible on their hardware, you can require a signed bootloader. Best of both worlds.

Inaccurate. Boot yes, but you can’t access your SSD from Linux, so you can’t actually install anything on your (very expensive) internal storage.

For a Mac Mini with external storage that may be passable, but for a laptop like the MacBook that’s pretty much a no go.

This move by Apple should not be confused with generic UEFI secure boot with user-loadable keys, which yes, IMO is a good thing for most people.

Apple however has locked down the hardware in a way which only benefits them.

This move is actually what everyone feared Microsoft would do with UEFI (which they didn’t) and literally caused endless FUD and uproar on the Internet (and it’s still going on).

Now that Apple is actually doing it nobody bats an eye, because Hey shiny!

TLDR: I don’t get people.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#98

Post by jsjohnst »

pessimizer wrote: post #82
jsjohnst wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet those tinfoil folks who cover the camera do nothing about the microphone. Since ~2009, it’s been impossible to turn on the camera on an Apple laptop/monitor without the light turning on, yet there’s no indication of something using the mic.

> Yet those tinfoil folks who cover the camera do nothing about the microphone. You say this like it's a "gotcha," but what exactly could somebody with no technical knowledge do about the microphone? If you're trying to say that if there were an equivalent to electrical tape but for the microphone, people wouldn't use it, then I don't even think you honestly believe that. Also, it's bizarre that in a world that ratti…

> but what exactly could somebody with no technical knowledge do about the microphone

Take an old pair of wired headphones with mic, cut the cord off, plug in connector. There’s better solutions, but that’s the easiest if you are nervous.

> paranoid schizophrenia

I made no such comparison

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#99

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

eudora wrote: post #64
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you think about it, it amazes me. So many people, including me, would love to have these switches. Like physical switch for the mic, camera and radio. And yet, the companies that are supposed to listen to the customer seem to do exactly the opposite to what the customer wants, like installing all these unremovable crappy apps nobody uses or removeing the headphone jack. Are these people so out of touch with real…

Hold up. I don't have stats but I'm incredibly confident that almost no users want hardware switches. Does your mum want a hardware switch? Does the guy working at Starbucks? I think it might be the techheads who think that installing Linux and having hardware switches are normal - they're the ones who are out of touch with reality.

> Does your mum want a hardware switch?

Actually, she does. She read some news and put some tape over the camera of her notebook. Just as Zuck does - and I imagine there is an enormous gap in technical knowledge between the CEO of FB and my mum. So yes, maybe the demand is higher than the marketing departments are willing to admit. Apple's years-long reluctance to cater for people looking for a phone with two SIM card slots also comes to mind.

Re: Librem5 Hardware Update

#100

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

amelius wrote: post #69
eudora wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hold up. I don't have stats but I'm incredibly confident that almost no users want hardware switches. Does your mum want a hardware switch? Does the guy working at Starbucks? I think it might be the techheads who think that installing Linux and having hardware switches are normal - they're the ones who are out of touch with reality.

Companies are basically dictating what users "want": from social media to personalized ads. The problem with regular users is: they don't care until it's too late. Can we blame them? Not really, because life is too diverse to worry about every consumer product. It's good, however, if there is a bunch of good guys who do the thinking for these users. Still, most users may not care, but eventually consumer advocacy gro…

> The problem with regular users is: they don't care until it's too late.

But it shouldn't be that way, should it? At least it's not what I learned during my marketing lessons. You do market research, listen to your potential customers, discuss the results and proceed based on that.

In the mobile world you have an absurd situation that you remove an important component of the device, you release the device, everybody tells you it was a very stupid decision, you ignore everybody and still rake a ton of cash. Amazing.

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