100 days of postmarketOS
postmarketos.org
postmarketos.org
I can't remember the last time I've contributed so intensely to a single FLOSS project and I attribute that to the community being built around developing postmarketOS and the first and foremost goal of having fun while developing, all the while keeping in mind that are much larger long-term goals we would want to get to some day that I very much support.
Props to ollieparanoid and all the other developers working on pmOS, I really enjoy their positive attitude towards technical and community development alike.
For example on location history in Google Maps.
Suggest reading Aral Balkan on this topic [1]
[1] - https://ar.al/notes/apple-vs-google-on-privacy-a-tale-of-abs...
That said, Apple isn't the only one you can turn to for more privacy concious devices. And even on Android devices you can do a whole lot to stay fairly private, but you'll need to avoid Google services as much as possible. Unfortunately protecting your privacy requires much more (active) effort on Android.
One of the reasons I'm actually looking forward to postmarketOS is the ability to use a lot of my older devices in a much nicer, privacy sensitive way. If this takes off postmarketOS has what it takes to make privacy a lot cheaper. Unfortunately nothing stops you to then go around and continue using tools that have an interest in eroding your privacy, but Apple won't stop you from that either.
However it now looks like a much broader project, with some big GUI and driver goals. It'd be pretty amazing if we end up with a Linux distribution you can just install on most old devices and continue using them as little usable Plasma devices.
Could you add a way to subscribe, or should I just watch the GitHub repo instead?
(Thanks to new contributor marten-de-vries for implementing it so fast \o/ <https://github.com/postmarketOS/postmarketos.org/issues/29>)
They are made for desktop, they have tiny text and buttons and I doubt anyone has finger small enough to click them. The commenters below have written that Android apps might be supported too which is nice. But I still don't like the idea of having a desktop launcher or console on a mobile phone.
As a general overview here's the documentation on how to go about porting a new device: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Porting_to_a_new_device
For anything else, come over to Matrix/IRC and you'll receive all the help you need :)
it's probably the least of their concerns, but i think a name / branding would be helpful.
any HN brand experts? maybe you could make a contribution (in the form of expertise/suggestions)
i think it could be better because
1. it's kind of long
2. it's sterile, devoid of emotion, and hard to link emotion to via marketing or branding
3. it's too technical - the common phone OS consumer doesn't know what postmarket means, and don't know what an OS is
4. it works against itself if it becomes wildly successful, and OEMs want to put it on the phone at the time of sale... at that point it's just "MarketOS"?
None of these are a huge deal, or detract from the overall value of the project (it's awesome!); but I can't see an argument for keeping it. what makes it perfect, in your eyes?
And i'm not a brand expert; i would love to see points by someone who knows a lot more about marketing and branding.
I agree that it's not that well-suited for outside of the geek community, but I doubt we're anywhere close to that. If it gets picked up by a manufacturer, they'll just as well market it to geeks. You're not getting around that, unless Android and iOS disappear from the face of the planet.
1. There's a shorthand "pmOS". "postmarketOS" is at least easy to Google (PMOS has too many meanings).
2. It's descriptive and tells me more about what it is than most names do. Maybe they could rebrand for wider appeal later.
3. The common phone consumer wouldn't pay more attention if it had a flashier name, either. They'll buy a phone based on rumor and what their friends have, and they certainly aren't going to look at replacing the OS with something new.
4. I imagine that the company might fork the repo and rename it whatever they want, in that case. "Mobilios\", then a tiny text at the bottom "powered by postmarketOS".
I'm not a branding expert either, but I know that it pisses me off when there are 3 layers of branding and marketing before I can get to what the product actually is*.
As someone who ran Maemo (and its successors in past) I am happy to see my old N900 would gain new life. However, running Linux terminal apps on a phone isn't very useful. They need to be ported to get gesture support etc as normal applications are made for hardware keyboard and hardware mouse as HIDs. Phones lack these (tho N900 does have a hardware keyboard, the other input device is resistive screen + stylus or finger).
Sure, if you want to annoy potential female contributors for no good reason.
Names should be descriptive.
Haskell is named after the mathematician Haskell Curry. The concept of "currying" functions is essential to the language, and is named for the same person.
The current logo certainly seems inspired by common recycling icons.
At the same time your first point seems to me to apply to the current name.