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"The most popular mobile operating system on the planet, Android, is already based on Linux, but with Google in charge of it, many consumers cannot depend on it for privacy. With that said, Purism is planning to fight the impossible fight against Android and iOS with the "Librem 5" smartphone. This is a device that will run a privacy-focused Linux-based OS called "Pure OS," but the hardware is wide open for any OS, really. Purism is trying to raise $1.5 million through crowdfunding, and earlier today, it reached a significant milestone -- $1 million! Maybe the fight isn't impossible after all..." - via BetaNews
In the news:
https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15436716
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15090156
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/74cl80/purism_librem_5_has_surpassed_1000000_raised_in/
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/75bjmp/librem_5_funded_hooray/
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:23PM (12 children)
Looks like my next phone. Pity there's no physical keyboard. I've been hanging on to my very old Samsung Strat II with Cyanogen for that reason, and because I don't want to go deeper into the thicket with Google and Apple. I have been replacing components on the old one but the physical enclosure itself is about to disintegrate.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:28PM
Fools and their money will soon be parted... by overhyped crowdfunding campaigns.
(Score: 4, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:52PM
I'm in the same boat. After buying a Nexus 5 and the original Nexus 7 2012: paperweight edition, I'm no longer buying Google devices.
These features have me hooked:
MicroSD slot
Headphone and Microphone Jack (3.5mm)
Hardware kill switches for:{
Camera
Microphone
Baseband
WiFi/Bluetooth
}
(Score: 4, Insightful) by KiloByte on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:57PM (9 children)
So you'd want Gemini [indiegogo.com] instead. Can run a real operating system, has USB ports that take regular peripherals (a mouse? a data stick? a GPG keycard?), etc. I'd prefer a slider over clamshell, but this one can replace both N900 and a small laptop.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @03:14PM (4 children)
Excellent, thanks. After taking apart and rebuilding my phone several times I'd developed a fantasy about building my own from parts, because I've become increasingly frustrated about living in a world constrained by corporate bean counters where nothing is ever exactly what you want, and whenever you get close the corporation decides to pull the rug out from under you. But your option looks pretty good, and there are only so many hours in the day, right?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Tuesday October 10 2017, @03:34PM (3 children)
After taking apart and rebuilding my phone several times I'd developed a fantasy about building my own from parts
That just isn't feasible, unless you can somehow get a decent number of phone makers to adopt some actual standards. You can already build your own phone from parts, to a degree: pick a phone that's pretty easy to disassemble (like a Samsung S4/S5), go on Ebay, and search: you can buy casebacks, screens, cameras, SDcard PCBs, USB port PCBs, etc. But the catch is that they're all particular to that phone, or even perhaps to certain sub-models of it (for the S4, there was a mid-year revision that has some incompatible parts for instance).
To "build your own" phone from generic parts, the way you can with a desktop PC, requires standardization. It's no different than the situation with laptops: you can't interchange them, though you can buy spare parts easily. I can buy a battery for my Dell laptop, but it's only compatible with a certain range of other Dell laptops within that line. Some things are a bit more universal, like WiFi cards that are miniPCI, but even there some laptop makers intentionally screw up the signal lines so you need a card from them instead of a generic one. Motherboards are completely unique to each chassis. Optical drives are like batteries, they'll swap between a small range of models from the same maker.
So if you want phones to be like (desktop) PCs, you have to push for standardization, like the (creaky old) ATX standard that PCs have been using for 20 years now. Of course, the downside is that it's really hard to get things engineered to be extremely compact that way. Just look at how horribly wasteful of space desktop PCs (the non-SFF kind) are, and also how terribly noisy they are because they aren't engineered for proper airflow because of the mix-and-match nature of their generic parts. But if some mfgrs want to standardize on some really good detailed designs, and then maybe update them every year or two, it's certainly doable. I just don't think it's likely because competing mfgrs never want to standardize on anything these days; the only reason we got the mix-and-match PCs we used to enjoy is because 1) IBM made the PC (and XT and AT) with an open architecture, and everyone "cloned" them, and then 2) Intel pushed for standardization (ATX and later BTX) because it was good for their CPU-selling business. We just haven't seen anything like this with mobile devices, and I seriously doubt we ever will.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:17PM (1 child)
That is all true. I did say it was a fantasy.
Still I have this brain and these opposable thumbs and can also shape matter. Could I too not shape matter in the way they do? All I'd need is to be three times smarter than I am and have 36 hours a day for the 24 everyone else gets.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday October 10 2017, @10:00PM
There's a ton of work that goes into a modern cellphone, even if you're just ripping off last year's state of the art. And getting the parts fabricated would be very expensive too, not to mention doing all the exhaustive testing needed to make your PCBs work (they're a lot more complex than your garden-variety FR4 PCBs, and not that easy to design so that you get decent yield).
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pav on Wednesday October 11 2017, @06:58AM
I've seen a Raspberry Pi based phone. It looked like a brick, and had poor battery life, but it worked. All you need is a battery, touch screen, modem. There are more powerful Pis available these days with lower power requirements, and I believe there are low power 4G modems also (the one I saw a few years ago was 3G). Last time I looked there was even a primitive OS and app suite someone had done. This would be an awesome nerd project, but I never actually got around to it.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday October 10 2017, @03:40PM (2 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:49PM (1 child)
I've got that keyboard too. I retired it this year because I finally got fed up with the lack of a dedicated number row.
I replaced it with the iClever folding, backlit keyboard and a pocket size folding phone/tablet stand. The keyboard is a reasonable size for typing and the charge last a long time even when using the backlight. I have no regrets whatsoever.
folding keyboard [amazon.com]
phone/tablet stand [amazon.com]
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:35AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Tuesday October 10 2017, @03:51PM
For a clamshell phablet, an external e-ink screen would be neat.