Hey thanks for sharing that video. It seems open mobile and hardware is gaining slowly but surely. Some people think Ubuntu Touch is dead but its going strong at ubports.com

Has anyone seen the Fairphone2 yet? I don't have one but It seems cool because it is completely repairable and you can run android or Ubuntu Touch etc
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s_B-j3...ient=mv-google

These phones are likely over priced but as more manufacturers see a market... :)

fairphone2, very interesting.

ubuntu touch - not so much:
a while ago (almost 2 years) i was very close to purchasing a ubuntu touch phone, and researched the os: it shared not only the kernel, but also the damned java ui with android, and regular upgrades "apt-get ..." were - well, possible but not recommended. unpredictable outcome. OTA updates were the recommended way then.
since ubports seems to be more concerned with porting than with OS development, i doubt any of this has changed...?

As for their crowd-funding goal, it might be worth mentioning that it's officially supported by both KDE and GNOME.

https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-kde-pa...-announcement/

https://puri.sm/posts/gnome-foundati...-5-smartphone/

Edit: I'm definitely backing this.

An interesting post with some "exciting" pictures. It seems the work has already started.
https://puri.sm/posts/the-librem-5-d...-and-progress/

Of course I'm backing this too.

^ i read recently that they're at a million now; safe to assume it's beyond 1 million now.
:thumbsup:

With $1,217,271 and still 17 days to go it's looking good :)
If you're still doubting, do bare in mind that this might be your last option to get a fully free phone platform, please make it happen.

I really don't understand how this is a good thing to own.
It's an iPhone clone like all he other Android "phones" and doesn't have anything interesting at all.
My personal computers run Linux because I have choice and configuarability but my phone is something which should have been replaced a decad ago by a tiny phone and a data-linked laptop.
Call me a fanboy if you like but , to me, this Priv is the only innovation in "smart phone" I have seen. I don't care how many people get to see the CPU designs -- how about some innovative hardware not copying Apple?

Well, it looks like it's fundamentally based on Debian and GNOME3, which already is a lot more like what I'd like and also rather un-iPhone/Android like.

But I know what you mean by the basic hardware. It's fundamentally a touch display with some mostly annoying buttons around the edges. I think anything like a sliding keyboard would be backwards and would adversely impact thickness/internal volume. But it would still be possible to innovate in other ways-ways that don't have much impact on the basic design.

For example, consider a pair of cameras on the right side of the phone. Your hand rests to the right of the phone, as if resting on top of a mouse. The cameras can view your hand/fingers, so when you move your hand it acts like a precision mouse. This is a much better fit for a typical Linux Desktop Environment (such as GNOME3) than a small touch screen interface.

Or consider placing a mouse sensor on the phone, along with mouse buttons/wheels along the top edge. This lets the phone itself be used as a mouse, which is a good fit with an HDMI cable to an external display, or some sort of wireless screencasting.

In an alternative mode, the mouse sensor is used for scrolling, which lets you use the phone as a "viewport" to a larger document. As you slide the phone around a table, the document scrolls in the opposite direction. As a result, it's like you're sliding around a viewport to a larger document that is fixed on the table.

Basically, Debian has oodles of software, but hardly any of it is pleasant to use with a small touch screen interface. It would be good to innovate the interface to make it work well with desktop software.

As I mentioned, don't want to be a fanboy but the Priv has a slide-out keyboard that's pretty decent and it's a thin as most other phones out there -- certainly thin enough as it makes no odds.
they're hellish expensive and I've not seen one in the flesh but Open Pandora (or whatever the current incarnation is called) certainly looks pocketable even if it's not supermodel-thin like the latest phones.
As to running Debian -- yes, all well and good and at least I wouldn't have to use a third-party SSH app for a few quid. However, it remains to be seen how well things like train company "apps", the Steam phone "app" and the like can be used. These are things which, while I'm still very sceptical about the whole "app for everything" replacing simple things like websites (and, indeed, SSH clients and file managers...), are good to have on a mobile phone.
It just doesn't make much sense to me to spend hundreds of pounds on something with the form factor of an iPhone with none of the functionality associated with that form factor.

By the way yes I am being a bit awkward in calling everything an iPhone copy but, really, to my mind they are as I used to own Windows CE and Phone edition devices back in the day with fold-out keyboards (even copy+past ;)) and the like so these things really are a step backwards. Heck, even Nokia had a web tablet but spoiled it by insisting that it not have a mobile data chip but, instead, be connected to a phone or WiFi hotspot (back when there weren't any).

So, yes, I applaud freedom of devices anywhere but I don't see what practical, everyday, benefits there are here.

They offer a (hardware) dev-kit as well.
It's not even meant to compete with Apple/Google (IMHO one of the reasons this might actually succeed).
But no. If you don't care about the open-hardware part, this (the full/prebuilt phone) is probably not your thing.

As for the "apps", do keep in mind that both KDE and GNOME are supporting this.

PS: They're getting close to the 90% with over two weeks to go.

It's not a matter of having a cool device, we are talking about freedom. Open source is all about it.

Yes, but freedom to do what, exactly? What can one do with this, that is actually useful, that cannot be done on any other iPhone clone?
As I mentioned, freedom on the desktop means being able to configure things and install things as one wants and does things like protecting against vendor lock-in. On a phone, what freedom does one need? What difference dose it make whether your phone uses upstart or systemd? What practical difference would one desktop environment make over another on such a tiny device?
Don't get me wrong, it's an admirable thing to do but piratically I don't see the
benefit to the purchaser.

Freedom from being monitored by various agencies or other dubious organizations. Freedom to use software that does only what it should.

Seems a lot of money for just calling people and using TOR though. What's the actual use case?

Not for calling people. I'm spending money to support a great project, it's a matter of principle. But I'm not here to convince you, that's my view.