12
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Has anyone here backed the Librem 5?
For those unaware the Librem 5 is an upcoming Linux smartphone developped by Purism that seems to be doing everything right. Frankly I think this might be humanity's last chance to have a Libre mobile option before the Google/Apple duopoly gets too far ahead.
I really, really want to back the thing but after going through the exchange rate, duties and customs I think it works out to nearly 900CAD which I just can't afford right now, though I might end up pulling the trigger anyway. Call it 400$ for a phone and 400$ to support a worthy cause, eh?
No, but that certainly looks interesting. I will need a new phone once my old POS iPhone4 finally dies, and while I usually go with iPhones (and just jailbreak them) because I like the software availability, I have no desire to do that again and support Apple. Android phones also aren't really all that appealing to me since they often have weird semi-proprietary, closed source drivers and their update cycles are often unpredictable since most manufacturers don't care to spend much further development time on them once the phone is released and usually just stop supporting them entirely after a short-ish while.
A linux phone would be awesome and while I have no desire to be an early adopter, this is definitely something I am rooting for and will likely be paying attention to in the future. Thanks for making me aware of it as an option! :)
According to the most recent Late Night Linux, this project is just a little bit off the rails. On that basis alone (knowing little else about it), I would advise caution.
Wait, I don't miss an episode of LNL and don't remember having an impression of it being off the rails. Closest and most recent I recall is I think Popey mentioning the timeline might be a little too ambitious considering his experience with to something like the Jelly Pro which is an arguably much easier project.
I follow the Librem 5 pretty closely as well and things seem to be going well. The dev board slipped a month or two but otherwise there's decent progress.
The episode in question was released today, so you might not have heard it yet.
Late Night Linux #42, timestamp is about 18:12.
Obligatory link for the lazy. (I haven't heard it yet)
Edit: I wouldn't read too much into this. So the dev board has slipped, that's "fine". The only other point so far is that the QEMU image is "no where near ready" in what I assume is the context of a usable final product, but I really don't think that's to be expected at this stage in development.
I didn't back it, but I am following the development with interest. I'm really disappointed in how Android as a platform turned out with regard to being a complete catastrofuck of abandoned hardware, planned obsolescence, bootloader locking and closed standards, but at the moment there is no alternative, with FirefoxOS and Ubuntu mobile both being essentially dead projects. Considering the amount of backing those two had, I'm not very hopeful, but if the Librem 5 makes it to release, I'll probably buy one.