I just got an email stating that the Librem 5 I ordered a while back will be shipping “Soon”. At the bottom of the email, it offers having the paid price towards a cupon towards a librem mini. Should I take the cupon? I am leaning towards a librem mini with core boot. I got a feeling the librem 5 won’t really be up to daily driver. Even for my lower end use. Secondly, I have a feeling in my area only ATT and Tmobile will work, and neither have good service at my house (but fine a block away).
Well, I kind of agree with the first part,I do feel scammed, but the librem mini doesn’t seem to be vapor hard ware. And they already have my money.
I do deeply desire a phone like the librem 5, but it has to be able to make phone calls reliably and on a network I can use. But I don’t think even the early shipping librem 5s are up to minimal daily driver. Last I heard calls were not reliable.
Basically, I have a feeling if I take delivery on the librem 5 I will have a 600 dollar paper weight, where at least a librem mini with core boot bios would be usable for a daily driver small PC. And the refund seems unlikely or more involved than it should be.
I hoped for the best but the Librem 5 is a toy and an academic research project at best. I know a lot of people that have had issues with the CEO of Librem. There were many talks that he had up here at LinuxFest NorthWest where people would ask him direct questions and he would dodge or not answer them.
If you feel fine with it, then get the Mini as it will be more useful to you than the Librem5 will ever be. Currently, their banner on the Librem5 says that there will be long shipping delays due to chip capacity shortage, component deliveries, and etc. If you really want a privacy oriented phone right now, the fairphone or the Pinephone are you best bet.
I was one of the Jolla supporters that got scammed so I don’t support any pre-purchase of anything anymore until it is people’s hands as a final product. I want to support the OpenSource community so much, but I am weary when they try to ship physical hardware due to past failures to launch after taking people’s money.