
Purism’s Librem 5 phone starts shipping–a fully open GNU/Linux phone - anotherevan
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/09/purisms-librem-5-phone-starts-shipping-a-fully-open-gnulinux-phone/
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chmielewski
I had the original Palm Pre... after two years HP cancelled the Palm Pre 2 and
other upcoming phones after WebOS tanked (was mismanaged absorbed into
nonpublicfacing IP). I did a Debian chroot and used the phone as a Wi-Fi only
thinclient for another year then sold it (3 years of use!) for more than I had
paid for the phone. In my opinion this is the first phone to rival the Palm
Pre which ran Debian at its core. I look forward to owning the first phone
that I will truly enjoy in over 7 years. Corporatism and clueless consumerism
has not won yet. This is still truly a bastion of freedom compared to the way
COMCAST/AT&T took over mom-and-pop ISPs then deleted all copper. The fight is
not lost! Happy hacking!!

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jolmg
I wonder if you can install any linux app on it, like Wireshark, Gimp,
Inkscape, LibreOffice apps, Blender, desktop Firefox and Chromium (with Web
Inspector and extensions!), etc. At least, what I understand by a "linux
phone" is one whose window manager is specialized for phones, and that has a
few apps with their interfaces specialized for phones, but that can install
and use any linux app like on any other linux machine. If they would clarify
this, I think it would boost people's motivations in buying this.

I also wonder how one might go about changing the OS. Would it support live-
USBs via OTG? or booting from the microSD? Do they offer an ISO of PureOS to
reinstall? I wonder how difficult/easy it would be to do a normal Archlinux
ARM installation, like on any other computer.

The marketing seems to focus on privacy, and being fully open source, and
buying for the community benefit of promoting better tech in the market.
However, if it's a "linux phone" that can run any linux app and even easily
lets you run whatever distro you want, then there are practical, personal
benefits to buying this, too. It wouldn't be instantly obsolete like so many
people are saying.

And if the window manager and phone apps they made are distributed separately,
then one can install their favorite distro, and install those programs,
getting the same look and usability on their favorite distro.

I only found this secondary-source article[1] from a couple years ago that
says it would support booting most distros, but is there anything official?

[1] [https://www.cyberciti.biz/linux-news/the-librem-5-your-
ultim...](https://www.cyberciti.biz/linux-news/the-librem-5-your-ultimate-
gnulinux-floss-smartphone/)

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chmielewski
GIMP? Chromium? Even as a decade-long gimp user: I absolutely hope not. There
is a huuuge difference between GNU/Linux (of which, 32/64-bit and architecture
are of course considerations) and packages. I certainly hope they aren’t
handicapping the phone by enabling bloated cruft trying to keep up with this
crap.

...before the downvotes: I literally use each of these daily with the
exception of blender...

Edit: you want to install your own WM without messing with DE? Good luck to
you, is nothing good enough? This is the first step toward freedom since the
bad guys won!

~~~
jolmg
I don't mean for them to come preinstalled and I don't mean that I personally
would typically use all those programs specifically on a phone, but something
that sucks about phones is that they have a completely different software
ecosystem. If it's a linux phone, I think it should be possible to use the
same programs. I can run any linux program on any raspberry-pi which also runs
ARM, why not on a phone?

At least, I would like to have the option of having a web browser with a web
inspector available using only the phone and the same extensions that are
available for desktop.

> is nothing good enough?

I'm just concerned that the consensus seems to be that $700 is too much for
the personal value this gives. The marketing even needs to resort to
statements like:

> Vote with your wallet to support a future safe from digital exploitation and
> create a secure and respectful environment for you, your children and
> society as a whole.

I agree that that's nice, but for me personally, it's not reason enough to buy
it at that price. We all understand the reasons why it's $700, but I think
being able to install other distros and being able to install any linux app
like on any other computer would motivate a lot of people. It would be an
additional edge this would have over other phones.

There's at least 1 comment[1] (with upvotes) on that article that shares the
view that having few apps and an incompatible ecosystem would be a concern.

This doesn't mean that they must support those programs or other distros, just
their possible installation would be enough for anyone I think.

I'm just looking for ways to justify my buying it.

[1] [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/09/purisms-
librem-5-pho...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/09/purisms-
librem-5-phone-starts-shipping-a-fully-open-gnulinux-
phone/?comments=1&post=38024531)

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TimTheTinker
> I'm just looking for ways to justify my buying it.

How about the fact that you can connect a monitor, keyboard, and mouse — and
use it as a full desktop Linux machine running any desktop apps you like?

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usr1106
So how many non-Android smart phones have there been past Nokia N9?

\- Jolla/Sailfish is still alive, but not doing particularly well (I'm typing
on one.)

\- Firefox failed

\- Ubuntu failed (I hear a community is still continuing with the SW, but not
sure whether it runs on any phone HW)

I'm sure I missed something, but I'm sure I did not miss any real good ones.

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enjoyyourlife
There is a Tizen (Samsung) phone

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usr1106
True. I was sure I missed at least one, probably several. But even a giant
like Samsung doesn't seem to be able to make a well-known success story with
using Android.

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not_a_cop75
"In other words, nearly any phone you buy today will have a more powerful,
more power-efficient CPU than the Librem 5—even $160 Android phones are now
packing eight-core SoCs built on more power-efficient manufacturing processes.
That $700 price Purism is asking (more than a OnePlus 7 Pro!) is the price you
pay for a niche smartphone with none of the economies of scale you get with
normal smartphone parts."

It seems like the thing they always forget is that the first off the line
product of any kind generally runs more expensive. Also, by knowing that your
phone is private, it's definitely not "unknowingly" sponsored by third parties
interested in information harvesting. Not many smart phones can unqualifyingly
say that anymore.

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vackosar
boot speed seems to be much faster with Librem 5 compared to Android. I
suspect that most apps will just run faster on Librem.
[https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-vs-android-which-boots-
faster...](https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-vs-android-which-boots-faster/)

