
Librem 5 Docs - petethomas
https://developer.puri.sm/
======
cmsimike
I've always had an iPhone (since 3g) and recently picked up an Android phone
for testing, and played with that. While I can't really complain about either
phone, all I've really wanted is Linux on my phone.

This is the phone I want. The appeal of Linux on the phone is too much for me.
As long as it can make and receive calls and somehow deal with SMS, I can take
care of the rest.

I've entertained the idea of building a PiPhone [0] and trying it out for a
few days.

[0] [http://www.davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspberry-pi-based-
smartph...](http://www.davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspberry-pi-based-smartphone/)

~~~
MrMember
Linux on a phone (true Linux) is like my holy grail device. If it's able to
seamlessly transition between a "desktop" mode when docked and a "phone" mode
when not, even better. I have a Gemini PDA on order (dual boots Android and
Linux) which is close but not quite there. Maybe 2019 will be the year of the
Linux phone.

~~~
teekert
Yeah I sometimes really wonder where Ubuntu would have gotten if they'd held
on for another year. And If they would have produced a simple but nice dock...
But I guess you and me are part of a very small group. I feel I have that more
often, I also loved my Pebble Time Steel and I'm still waiting for a good
quality ARM notebook (with Dell XPS build quality but much cheaper) which
could run Linux.

~~~
swiley
The problem with the ubuntu phone is that they built a special phone UI. None
of the GUI desktop software ran and neither did software from any other OS. On
top of that the battery life was awful.

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craftyguy
Here's their blog post that provides some context around these documents:
[https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-
report-10/](https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-10/)

~~~
benchaney
I like that they have a head of documentation. Good documentation is so
important for open source projects, but most projects don’t have it.

~~~
mulmen
Postgres has never failed to amaze me in the documentation department. It is a
refreshing exception to the rule.

~~~
nathell
And SQLite. And, on the more hip side, re-frame – Mike Thompson's writing has
a personal, witty style.

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rtpg
I've been following the Librem. Interesting stuff.

I am a bit worried about this thing being very overpowered and just big. Like
a huge screen and the works. But this is basically the same as every top-end
Android + Apple phone?

I would love to see a real competitor to the iPhone SE. Not top of the line
but very performant at its tasks. And 4 inches. Not sure if this can be
achieved if everything is being designed for almost-phablets.

~~~
solarkraft
I own an Xperia X compact. They basically just killed what the line stands for
with the newest models, but this phone is still pretty neat. Got mine for just
about 250 Euros.

I think that's good competition to the SE.

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moosingin3space
While I'm very enthusiastic about the Librem 5, I think it would be better if
they recommended a non-C language for app development. Gnome Builder, the IDE
they recommend, has support for Vala, Rust, and Python, all of which should
provide a much better developer experience, not to mention should enable more
reliable apps.

~~~
striking
Less people know Vala than C, the Qt crate for Rust is some autogenerated
thing that doesn't look very well-supported (not sure about GTK), and Python
might not be the right choice for an embedded platform.

I'm fine with letting the platform mature a little before the scope of the
project is broadened.

~~~
steveklabnik
GTK is re-writing bits in Rust, so it’s a pretty robust option overall. Lots
of work left to do!

~~~
pjmlp
I only dabbled with Gtk-rs for a bit, and Rust does not really fit my UI/UX
workflows, but I would still suggest as major improvement a better way to
being able to reference struct fields from callbacks without the current
Option<Rc<>> workarounds.

~~~
steveklabnik
There are already some projects that let you do that, consider Relm for
example:
[https://github.com/antoyo/relm/blob/master/examples/http/src...](https://github.com/antoyo/relm/blob/master/examples/http/src/main.rs#L102-L180)

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proaralyst
I'd really like one of these but I don't foresee it being able to run
Whatsapp, which all my friends and family use.

~~~
sametmax
Can't all your friends and family also send and receive text message ? Apart
from huge media file, there is not much difference.

~~~
algo_cheese
There is an another big difference: groups

~~~
primitur
Isn't the point that we wouldn't need app vendors to present these things, if
the OS were a little more intelligently exposed to the user, who is expected
to own it and not just use it?

I think there is something about a "Linux phone" which makes apps like
WhatsApp, and so on .. quite obsolete. These apps fix holes in iOS/Android -
they extend the features of what should be, operating system functions.

I find it repugnant that I have, for example, ~15 apps that basically do the
same thing, organized in a folder, and which I maintain as a common suite of
messaging inboxes.

This, to me, indicates that the OS is not doing something it should be doing,
intrinsically. Yes, it means eventually deleting all those competing protocols
- and independently weak sources of dataleak - and putting it all back under
the users control.

With a Linux-based phone/communications device, isn't it going to be the case
that the open nature of Linux ecosystems is going to have that sort of effect?
i.e. - the user really is in control of their machine, and thus their own
personal data.

I predict that there will be an IPFS'ish revolution on Libre, when it gets out
there, which will mean that the one place vendors should set up shop, is the
ol' SMS gateway.

'ipfs pubsub sub fridaynightcrew && ipfs pubsub pub fridaynightcrew "wheres
the party?"' is but a gateway from being accessible by existing users, of the
aforementioned ~15 messaging apps ..

------
shmerl
How is OpenGL support with Etnaviv progressing? For KWin to work, it will need
some usable form. I wonder if anyone is planning to work on Vulkan support for
it too.

~~~
robert_foss
OpenGL support is good now, and still seeing very active development.

