Hey community, I’ve got a friend about to graduate high school. He has had a bit of an uneven path in life, and I would like to help inspire him to focus on something in tech/programming/etc....
That’s great! It’s still a bit disappointing that so many people decided to stay on Reddit, though. They made a big protest just for everything to go back to normal.
I want to switch from android phone to linux and i want to know which phone is closest to daily driver. I only need call sms and bluetooth to work and battery should last 1 day. also working map camera and web browser app would be great. for os i have thinked to use ubuntu touch or postmarket os. Phones what i have most...
PinePhone (at least v1) is no longer maintained in Mobian due to changes in tech.
The original PinePhone is still maintained. I don’t know for how long, though.
The device is a SBC Single Board Computer meaning the modem is soldered on the same silicon as the CPU, RAM, Storage, etc…
I’m not sure what you mean, since PinePhone’s and Librem 5’s modem is not integrated into the SoC. It’s a separate chip connected through USB.
Librem 5 is better in some areas worse in others. The modem is a m.2. This allows the Mainboard to cut power to the modem as desired. The modem can’t be entirely turned off in other phones and as they are on the same SBC
PinePhone also has a killswitch to power off the modem. I think the only difference between them is that Librem 5’s modem is removable and PinePhone’s modem is soldered onto the board.
there is speculation secret commands could be used for data extraction or to activate spyware in cellphones as was recently discovered with Android and iOS. Separating the m.2 isolates the abilities of the modem module as a “firewall” being the closest comparison.
Android phones have some modem isolation too, but I don’t know much about it.
PPP is supposedly more battery intensive but manufactured in Hong Kong, which has been absorbed into China. For this reason the tech world is not as fond of their PPP as their initial PP before China absorbed them. Considering the last 4 years people are no longer “fond”.
I haven’t heard of that, but I’m pretty sure Librem 5 is manufactured in China too, just like most phones.
Something newer than PP or L5 is needed. Something that can do basic tasks without binary blobs wrecking The FOSS Dream.
Binary blobs are fine as long as they are not present in the operating system or executed by the main CPU. At least that’s the Free Software Foundation’s opinion until we can do something about it. This is where Librem 5 does better than PinePhone.
Framework is a little big but if you see what modders have done it is a good candidate.
It has a x86 CPU, so it probably requires proprietary BIOS. I assume you will also need to install proprietary firmware in your OS to get working WiFi. So I don’t know if it’s an improvement over GNU/Linux phones. It’s probably not very energy efficient either.
Having the ability to add mics with physical kill switches and cameras with kill switches or being omitted entirely in my opinion would be optimal.
PinePhone and Librem 5 have killswitches for the cameras and the microphone.
Moving out of the Cellular space away from Phone numbers and to Element, or SIP or VOIP just makes sense for communications. It “cuts the cord” of the ATT / Bell monopoly that has plagued humans for decades.
Phone calls are not end-to-end encrypted, so they suck. But to use Matrix you will need to use the internet. So you still need a modem probably. If not, you can just disable it with a killswitch.
Eventually we will see “phones” move away from cellular to satellite. This may be the jump we need to break free of all this blob nonsense cock blocking Linux.
I think the main problem is lack of SoCs that have good mainline Linux kernel support. Removing the modem won’t solve it and you will still need proprietary firmware for WiFi and Bluetooth, which sucks.
There isn’t a optimal answer just yet, like do I build a phone out of a RPI5? when RPI5 and ARMs in general have blobs.
Yeah, it has the same problem.
A winner hasn’t really been declared, hell a Steam Deck could even be modded (x86 too) to run off the shelf Linux tech and the OS could be on MicroSD and the modem could theoretically be in the m.2 slot. Purism does sell the modems for $50 on their store.
Oh, that’s interesting. It probably still has blobs, though. And if you want to use WiFi, it probably requires proprietary firmware installed in your OS.
Librem 5 is probably the best in terms of software freedom. I think it doesn’t require any proprietary firmware in the operating system, because it was moved to separate chips. But I think binary blobs are still executed during boot, which is why they didn’t manage to get the RYF certificate from the FSF.
I forgot about the toggles under the PP cover, I didn’t know they acted as hardware kill switches like L5? Interesting for sure
Yeah, they have the same purpose. They are just a little less convenient to use.
x86 is a power suck but I still think it’s a interesting use case as it delivers on webpage rendering and demanding tasks. Ideally I would imagine RISCV would be the golden standard.
I think the power efficiency of x86 is getting better lately, but still not good enough.
I guess if I wanted to be puritan maybe starting with a Librem Mini with Secure boot might make a good frankenstein phone.
It would probably be pretty big and power hungry. It seems that it uses Coreboot, which contains proprietary blobs. Most x86 devices need those.
I won’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good until we are in a position to be choosers, until then its pretty much a community effort to get the whole thing off the ground.
I hope some next phone will get a RYF certificate from the Free Software Foundation. That’s already a pretty high standard.
BeepBerry was a really interesting concept but lacked the sophistication needed to take off.
Impressive! I’m looking at postmarketOS wiki and it’s amazing how many phones are supported now. But it seems they are not working as well as PinePhone or Librem 5 yet.
forgot to turn it off at around 80 % and a few days later it was at 58 %
Damn, I wish my PinePhone was this energy efficient!
How to inspire someone
Hey community, I’ve got a friend about to graduate high school. He has had a bit of an uneven path in life, and I would like to help inspire him to focus on something in tech/programming/etc....
I’m happy to see this community is bigger than the Reddit equivalent
No billionaire shenanigans to get in the way of having a truly open-sourced phone.
What linux phone is closest to ready for daily use
I want to switch from android phone to linux and i want to know which phone is closest to daily driver. I only need call sms and bluetooth to work and battery should last 1 day. also working map camera and web browser app would be great. for os i have thinked to use ubuntu touch or postmarket os. Phones what i have most...
Got Mobian (almost) ported to Pixel 3a / 3a XL (lemmy.sdf.org)
Most parts work, still not sure why Bluetooth gives me errors in dmesg, audio out works, microphone input not yet… I’m getting there....