The project, developed in partnership with veteran free software developer Rob Savoye, aims to create a fully free and open mobile platform, from the firmware to the operating system.
Damn. Software has existed 40 years now?
Not only that: it was big enough to get mad at 40 years ago already.
40 years ago was 1985.
The first version of Microsoft Windows was released at that time, as an GUI overlay of MS-DOS.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_WindowsMS-DOS was released in 1981 as a corporate locked down OS, that he was aggressively pushing to lock down the PC market.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOSAt the same time HP, IBM, and other early computing megacorps were pushing their own locked down OS’s that were partially built off the free software work of the universities.
One example is HP-UX, which was released in 1984 and was a proprietary implementation of Unix System V, which itself was a commercial product from AT&T. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V
Things were extremely expensive and locked down back then, and we were just getting to the point where computers were becoming common in people’s homes. Most decently funded schools had dedicated computer labs at this point.
I guess I’ll see phones with this in my local stores at… 10 years? Too generous, maybe 15.
Oooh, I wonder if they’re going to pursue a free phone based on Risc-V. It’s a longshot but if they pull that off, it’d be like feeding two birds with one scone.
My hopes and my expectations could not be more at odds with each other, and the only thing I know for sure is that one of them will be smashed.
As they would say: keep your hopes up and your expectation low to the ground
My fear with a Linux phone is debugging and troubleshooting. Reading logs and editing text files with a phone keyboard does NOT seem fun.
Hmmm. How about an app for editing configs specifically?
Like, an entire protocol/standard thing for specifying the exact values accepted, too.
No more text-only configs, right?! And apps made specifically to give you a GUI to configure a specific service can still exist on top of this!
That would be a good idea to start this off… right?
Make the settings app extremely modular? Have it be able to parse most config file standards and even provide guidelines for common system config files?
That’d be a modular app. I was thinking of a protocol for settings apps, actually…
RTFM!!!
Do you have any idea how much of a barrier running something like “man nmcli” in terminal on a phone screen would be?
Should have something like ADB to connect it to PC and debug from there.
If I am not home that seems like a major barrier because I would need a laptop with ADB and a place to work. Having a USB C keyboard would help some.
True, though I don’t expect for many people to do complicated debugs on the go.
FSF audience is special, though :D
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
But also, just because some activities are annoying on the phone does not mean you should be locked out from them.
Why would anyone think that FSF is capable of releasing a unique and good device? It’s gonna be a bog-standard Android device with some software modified/removed.
Might be ok for some people still though. Also I’ll be happy to be wrong about my cynicism.
It’s gonna be a bog-standard Android device with some software modified/removed.
Really? That would be heavily antithetical to everything they do. I expect it would be a Linux distro (like PostmarketOS) with some blobs removed etc.
Because as much as they’re ridiculed today by libcucks of OSS, FSF was a formidable force of software once. At some point in history literally the only way to avoid paying absolutely insane manufacturer license fees for things like compilers was using GNU tools.
If they put their ass into it, they can pull it off tbh
What a nice thing to do
I hope they can pull this off because we really need this.
Heard of Hurd, I don’t think they can.
Maybe Hurd never went anywhere but they are responsible for as much of what constitutes “Linux” as the Linux kernel is. Linux never would have amounted to much without GCC, the GNU tools, and the GPL.
This is absolutely hilarious, a fully libre phone? What processor are they going to use thats 100% libre? Then what OS will it use? Android-libre? What a joke
I’d personally start by actually reading the announcement before complaining about it’s content but you do you I guess
from the firmware to the operating system
Tell me more about the phone! This has taken so long and I am ready to migrate to an open phone even if it’s only for texting at this point.
Screw this OS monopoly by Apple and Alphabet.
Open to simple solutions here. I have a Pixel 4a 5g and iPhone 12 atm.
Well it might not even be a phone, maybe it’s only a software project that needs to partner with manufacturers that would include it in their phones. The article doesn’t really mention much.
Either way, I’m starting to get excited.
I’d love to try it, but I imagine it will take 20 years for something like this to come even close to usable as a daily driver.
your pixel probably runs graphene, degoogle it.
you could probably run linux on it today too.
GrapheneOS for Pixel 4a 5G is deprecated.
What’s keeping me from doing this is that i won’t be able to run my banking apps anymore then. And I can’t be arsed to carry two phones
Install waydroid or something or use the browser. The more you put off switching the worse it’s going to get for everyone. You can also just keep another phone in your car on airplane mode and connect it to your hotspot when you need to check your account. There are ways I guess.
linux phones will never run banking apps either.
Perhaps there’s this magic app called a “web-browser” I could introduce you to…
banking doesn’t work on just web browsers anymore on most of the world’s banks. i WISH.
Damn, that actually sucks.
Especially when virtualization options are expensive/unavailable on mobile CPUs.
.
Huh, they still work for all my banks here in the US. Not sure how you’re supposed to access your bank account on your PC otherwise. Some banks you’ll have to use the “use Desktop version of the site” option in a mobile browser to get it to work, but it will still work.
access your bank account on your PC otherwise
we’re not. not without a phone.
Graphene is actually better than most custom ROMs in that it can contain Play Services and a few other apps, effectively acting as 2 phones in one. Where I’m from, banking apps don’t need strong Play Integrity, just Play Services.
This is the original article
https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-turns-forty-with-a-new-president-and-a-new-campaign
I salute the early adopters who will suffer all the inconveniences of startups so the wider public can enjoy a non-corporate phone in the future. o7
I’m looking forward to get one of these just to play around with it, and maybe making some custom stuff for it.
I’m looking forward to actually seeing how my fucking works and what it’s doing.
how my fucking works and what it’s doing.
I think only you can answer that one, friend
As soon as my current phone is paid off I am going to get this. No more fucking Spyware up the ass.
The project just launched and is a software-first project. We won’t see a Libre Phone available for a while yet.
And if Hurd is any indication I wouldn’t hold my breath.
That said, didn’t hird basically die because Linux gained critical mass faster and peeled off the core developers? It would be nice to imagine another bottom-up mobile OS emerging and stealing the thunder of this one, but it seems like the hope here is that Libre Phone will gravitate in some of the devs from the existing top-down open phone projects. Who knows if that will work.
One thing I wouldn’t count out right now though: China is very much in favor of getting software and hardware monopolies out from the control of US companies. Free/open(ish) LLMs are the big example, maybe they will jump on this to try and break Google’s stranglehold on the mobile market.
It isn’t encouraging that they “launched” the initiative bit have no dedicated webpage or git for it yet. Seems like going off half-cocked
Unless they can get this working with Android Auto or Carplay I don;t see it going anywhere.
Fuck cars
Nah, fuck that.
I’d rather see Linux on the head unit, too.
I’d still want an Android Auto and Apple Carplay equivalent.
I want my 2030 car to still be able to get the latest and greatest hardware and software in 2040 via me upgrading my phone.
Nah many people don’t live in their cars. I have 2 cars and never use Android Auto even when I could. I’m usually busy with driving instead of fooling with phone bullshit when I’m in the car anyway.
I’ve got a Google Pixel 3a with postmarketOS installed on it right now for testing, and it really is a two-pronged issue with both hardware and software. Because it’s an older phone the battery drains within a few hours, nowhere close to all-day use. Because most of the software is designed for the desktop certain things are just impossible to use (the big pain point for me is Anki, but on the other hand it’s impressive how many GTK apps conform very nicely to the screen). The keyboard still feels pretty rough.
Hopefully the FSF dipping their hat into the ring will help existing projects like this in a rising-tide-raises-all-ships sort of way. Would be a shame for them to put effort into a software stack that goes nowhere (GNU Hurd), and pour $$$ into a hardware project that doesn’t make it to market or doesn’t do its job better than a cracked smartphone from 5+ years ago.
I think it is possible to switch to it now and have things mostly work out for you, but it will make your life harder. I remember switching to Ubuntu around 2010 and it’s almost to that level of experience. You’ll be giving up a lot, apps you “need” won’t work, but it’s at the point where it is a complete usable experience. For those that are willing to suffer for FOSS, I mean.
Hopefully this will recruit projects that already have significant headstart, such as Pine64. Otherwise, it would merely be performative.
They in cahoots with androids killin aosp?
They in cahoots More like they’re mobilizing to counteract Android’s killing of AOSP.
This is 1000% what I was trying to imply, but the downvotes reflect many didn’t get it ig😆
It’s wise to question motives but in this case I get the feeling they’re the good guys.
I forgot the /j
