I was tempted to buy one at the time. Good thing I did not had disposable income at the time.
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Manufacturing hardware is really really hard. While it is possible that they are engaging in fraud, it’s more likey they’re just incompetent.
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.
That’s a $719 USD lesson to never crowd fund.
I would just make it a point to not pre-order anything. Don’t hand over your money until you know what you’re getting in exchange and how to return it for a refund if you’re disappointed.
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Manufacturing is very hard and the pandemic certainly didn’t help.
I am trying to be fair to them. I don’t beleive they are a fraud company, but its specifically the expansys thing triggered me.
I don’t believe its unacceptable to sell devices to randoms before fulfilling backers. Those were our devices. I could have bought one on expansys and had it delivered before IGG one. That’s not a manufacturing problem.
This was the first, and last time I will preorder anything. I broke my rule, lesson learned.
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OTA-3 is the first Ubuntu Touch based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS that will become available for the PinePhone, the PinePhone Pro and also the PineTab and PineTab 2.
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https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2024/01/08/highlights-of-2023/
We managed to rebase the kernel for our supported hardware to Linux 6.6 in Trixie. This was not an easy task, giving all the ongoing work. Especially on sunxi64 (the OG pinephone kernel) it needed lots of work. Shoutout to Andrey Skvortsov for his efforts!
Mobian rebased to kernel 6.6, including the original Pinephone.
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They didn’t manage to ship the first version before the pandemic either, when selling it as a real product with on their site and not a preorder…
Wendel only got one because Linus gave him his review unit … i was jealous at the time, but given the software support I’m pretty sure he isn’t using it already
I got my money back after month of delay waiting for the “shipping in 2 month” while they never provided honest intel about what was going on.
When you repetitively lie to avoid looking bad, it’s no-longer incompetent, it’s malice.
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Hmm. Had I known this maybe I wouldn’t have backed.
Good call that you cancelled. You’ve dodged a bullet. And had I seen your thread before maybe I could have saved myself…
Summary
It’s not just me. Many (most?) backers haven’t gotten their devices ether.
I only backed because of XDA’s official involvement.
This was to be the first “official LineageOS” device. I had been playing with Lineage since it was called CyanogenMod and been using XDA for years so I thought this would get great community support since it was “official”.
I had really wanted this phone to succeed. But it’s not looking great.
They stopped responding on their own community forums. It’s been 3 months since their last update. Once again they have broken the IGG monthly updates terms and aren’t doing the minimum requirements.
The IGG comments section is starting to turn:
Summary
Someone even pointed out that its still a Team Favorite despite not having delivered, which also shows IGG don’t seem to care:
XDA has been completely silent about it too. No response on their forums, and no announcements since that first article. Are XDA even involved anymore? No one knows.
This came out recently featuring an interview with the creator of cyanogenmod, which covers some of the history of android modding and rooting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDOMekBPR4U
I guess alt roms and rooting are kinda dying as that title suggests. It’s sad that not even an official lineage device backed by XDA themselves was feasible…
It’s tough in the alternative phone space. Does nobody want to own their own devices and OS anymore?
Maybe I would have ordered a PinePhone instead…
Yes, because as soon as your do that, your phone turn on you.
It’s harder and harder to hide root,
Google safetynet is a pain and every fix found break every couple month
DRM needed for many streaming app turn off and stop you for having what you pay for …
This make people ready to do it (like us) a very very very small market now.
I miss the early years of the one plus one ><
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It is, was, and always will be a niche thing.
Servers get virtualized and offered up to the public. Laptops and mobile phones are owned not by the users that posses them, but the companies that purchase them.
The assumption that “root” is authoritzed to make dangerous changes to the hardware hasn’t been true in hardware for a good long time.
Given the issue that GrapheneOS pointed out about Pixel devices being the only ones that reliably and securely allow bootloader relocking, you begin to understand why the industry considers ownership of your device to be risky.
Open devices will never play nice with the mainstream. That battle has already been lost.
“May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.” -Mal Reynolds
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agreed. luckily not an issue on a degoogled device. GMS is not required for android to function.
but unfortunately some apps require gms to function.
there is aurora and fdroid, but these may not be feasible alternatives for everyone’s use case.
there is perhaps some irony in trying to escaping goggle but Graphene only runs on goggles pixels…
then perhaps we need the ability to relock the bootloader in an open source phone.
This is merely an engineering challenge!
I reject this reality and substitute my own! 
(Sorry venting)
Speaking of F**KING WHICH ! Guess who can’t get the car he rented and already paid from on the Turo.com platform because they force you to install their app to get the car, and the app is “incompatible” with all the phone i own, either because rooted or to old for play store integrity check !
F*CK ! i have no idea what to do and how to turn around in such a little amount of time.
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how about an android emulator, on a laptop?
or like a $30 chap ass 2nd hand phone form the repair / high street shop?
This practice is aids. No I wont install your spyware app to rent a car. No I wont install your spyware app for discount on my coffee. No I won’t install your spyware app for some fake rewards points.
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check what google play store integrity check is.
It’s the end of “you own the device and it listen to you”. Google unilaterally decide if yes or no your phone is allowed to run app.
They employ the magisk guy to make sure he would stop trying to bypass it.
I mean ok, 48h from the trip, with no other option in sight …
given than all of them do it …
At some point you don’t have a choice anymore…
I’ll send a nice GDPR request for deletion after the trip, but i need to find a way, and it look like that will be borrowing a colleague old iphone for the trip …
My bank enforce me to have the app to do anything on the site, most communication app don’t have a proper web/linux client, my mobility service is using the phone as a transport card… the more years come the less i can see myself out of the android/apple grip… IMO linux phone only won’t be a thing 
I feel there’s a strong argument to be made that virtualization killed this about 15 years ago.
Datacenters drive chip design, and datacenters virtualize operating system instances as a business model. This means operating system design shifted away from “root is owner and can make dangerous hardware choices” that had been true up until that point.
The issues here are much deeper than one company. Those design patterns are actively considered harmful by both the hardware and software vendors. They select against user control in their hiring decisions and their culture.
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The choice to simply not own a phone anymore grows more enticing year over year. I’d rather opt out than bend over.
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without a phone i can’t have a bank here
And from trying Norway, without a phone you can’t take public transport for example.
I already can’t do my taxes, sign up for job-seeking compensation or manage my electric bill if i don’t have internet, slowly it has become something so mandatory that elderly get state paid young-ling do to all internet thing with them rather than sending the old formulair using the postal service.
No one fought this hard enough and it became the default.
The same thing is happening with the mobile phone, and no one is fighting it either. New law are pushing digital id card and driving license that only exist on your phone… Insurance enforce their app to make clams and most big city aren’t drivable without a connected GPS (traffic and closed road avoidance)…
I’d rather opt out than bend over.
I truly feel like we were to late and it’s over.
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Its not a realistic prospect especially if your livelihood depends on contacting other people.
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I don’t think it’s realistic for me either. I do need to talk to people. I’m just annoyed by phones in general.
I hope the Pinephone succeeds. I miss headphone jacks…
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Same.
But I dont use my beloved ubuntu touch phone, I compromised with graphene.
Still creepy tracking, but also has creepy apps on for creepy companies to demand I use.
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