Ever since the first iPhone was introduced I’ve been hearing the same thing from FOSS and PC-enthusiast community.
We want a modular phone, removable this and that, open source, 3,5 HDD, google is evil, f**k apple.
You got what you asked for, behold
So why aren’t you buying this?
It’s time to walk the walk.
I dislike smartphones in general.
Whoever managed to stuff all of that into a phone shell, kudos to them!
It’s just a touch interface computer as far as I’m concerned.
I can understand not liking that form factor.
I never asked for this, but I’ll bite anyway.
First, the goings on at Purism have been questionable. Notably issues with promised price and the price hikes of the device more recently and some opaqueness about the actual hardware in the phone on release. A pretty good insight here: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Zlatan-Todoric-Interview
There is additionally the pinephone which should be releasing soon. It is cheaper and the development timeline has been much more reasonable and transparant. That might be the one to go with if you want a LiNuX pHoNe.
Its fucking way to expensive My cap on phone price is like $350 (l think i paid $300 aprox after $100 google fi rebate for my pixel 3a at launch)
Becuase the pine phone is cheaper and there is more development happening over there.
I was going to reply, but i realised i want to go to the shops before they close and my post on why i wouldn’t buy this would take to long before then.
I can buy almost two new iPhones 8s for the price of one librem 5, and the specs are far better.
I can buy four iPhone 8s for the price of one “USA” Librem 5.
When my Ubuntu Touch Phone (Meizu MX4) went out of support, I got an iPhone.
When it’s ded (out of support) then I’ll look at this, or the newest UBports phone.
Thanks for the suggestion though.
Isn’t Android is the FLOSS niche? It’s Linux kernel and all. Don’t get why this exists.
Android is the reason stallman was right when he said it’s GNU/Linux.
Android isn’t really linux in the sense of what people mean when the talk about linux distros in the foss world
But it uses GNU utilities too? Sure there’s Java on top of it, but it’s a *nix system.
A couple maybe… but no, Android uses Busybox not GNU for its base coreutils. There’s the problem of spirit of the law. You cant really use android to run standard Linux type stuff, not easily, not in the way it was designed. Android is android. It may use Linux at its core but its quite different in how it actually functions. Not to mention its being replaced, so its life looks limited anyway.
Ah yes, I forgot it’s BusyBox. You are right, it just uses the kernel. My bad.
What’s the real problem with it for Linux people, though?
There’s several things to look at here. And several reasons not to buy this phone.
For a hobbyist, its fine, but I agree with @lesser, the pine phone is probably better, it doesn’t lie through its teeth about what it is, at its core, a phone for playing with. And its a fraction of the price.
Librem has one major issue over most other issues in my opinion. Its attempting to take advantage of a specific type of person by selling them false security that falls apart when you scratch the surface.
The Librem 5 its self has one interesting security feature, the hardware switches, apart from that though most of their security features are illusions to get people to shell out $2000 for a phone that will do 1/10th of the things people want it to do.
As i said in the previous post, its essentially double the cost of an iPhone 8 and lacks in basically every department in comparison. Keeping in mind that there’s simply no way they can offer a competitive cost without the scale, we’re still left with a chunky, basic, phone for at least $700.
The hardware its self, is fine, for a hobby phone.
However this is their selling point
Librem 5, the phone that focuses on security by design and privacy protection by default.
But i don’t see it. Apart from some hardware switches (which 99% of people don’t need, and most people who buy this will always leave them on), why wouldn’t i just buy a pine phone?
Security! its their main selling point. But i think its all mostly garbage.
Look at this chart
Now, the real question on my mind when looking at this is this. What?
User controls device: In what way? Whats this benchmarking to get those results? I do control my device (iPhone)
Trackers disabled by default: what do they mean? what counts as a tracker. For a paranoia phone, presumably they mean any sort of radio signal? In which case if their phones ship which the hardware switches disabled then sure.
Privacy protection by default: you couldn’t get a more vague statement.
Separates CPU from cellular baseband: this is technically false (in relation to iPhone, and i believe some newer Android devices)
You get the idea. It’s already red flags for me. Its saying security related words, but doesn’t really go into it, what they mean, or if its even actually true, or more importantly necessary.
Another red flag along this line is their USA Librem 5 which boasts a “with a secure supply chain and electronics Made in USA”
This secure supply chain is in my mind another illusion, it doesn’t seem to actually exist.
It sounds like their only making the PCB in the US and assembling in the US. that leaves all parts sourced from 3rd party companies. If they boast a secure supply chain then all these part suppliers, shipping routes and companies related to the supply and build of the device should all have been audited. But that audit doesn’t seem to exist. Not to forget, that if these were serious concerns, you would be depending your own independent audit of their entire supply chain yourself.
Not only that, but their idea of a secure supply chain, in that some parts are made in their factory also doesn’t appear to have an independent audit itself.
‘Made in the USA’ does not a secure supply chain make.
All in, my overall take from Librem with this is that they are using security and privacy as a marketing gimmick at the expense of peoples security and privacy.
So why aren’t you buying this?
I plan to buy an Evergreen.
Past experience has burnt me on pre-release devices, and I’m glad I waited. A number of hardware relelated issues have already come to light with the Librem 5, and been corrected in later batches.
I can handle software being incomplete, but hardware bugs aren’t something I’m willing to risk with a purchase that expensive.
You cant remove some google service on android phones guessing the same way on apple
Guessing they mean since android/iphones are tied back to a central location they are tracked is my guess that
lol
I agree with pretty much all you said just playing devils advocate
Interested in the PinePhone, have ignored the Librem since the cost of it is 3 times what I would pay for a phone. I stick to $250 and under and might be willing to go up to 300. But for me all I use a phone for is calls, calendar and reading.
Comes down to price, I can make a handheld linux computer that uses my Cell for internet for under $150 and out do the Librem. It would even be in my favorite form factor… Brick. Think I will just wait a little longer and get the Pine.
I think we can make some reasonable assumptions and say that’s probably what their trying to go for. My problem with those two, and that list in particular, is that this is a phone whos primary selling point is security, but theres zero expansion on this.
They say “Does Not Track You” for example (not sure if thats redundant… with Trackers Disabled by Default… Thinking about it, if they are disabled, that means they exist. So how can it not track you, if you can enable them? but thats the wrong direction)
Phones by their nature track, so it wouldn’t be accurate to say that trackers are disabled by default, or it doesn’t track you. (at least to what they are probably considering tracking, metadata for example)
Phones absolutely track you in that case.
Its just wishywashy. Any serious security hire on their team would look at this list and declare it meaningless.
I do like the idea of hardware switches for specific components and a free OS. I don’t like that it’s thicker than an iPhone (I’m talking about he first one here). I also don’t like the specs and that it’s gonna be four times the price of my Nokia 6.2.
I have a One Plus 6 and it’s almost 3 years old now. The specs on Librem 5 looks very outdated even by my standards.
