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Comment by djsumdog | Hacker News Reader

My current phone has been falling apart for a while and I've already replaced the back 3 times and the camera. With the battery going out and the back starting to crack again under the case, I decided I'm getting sick of Android.

My next device needs to be something I can easily run Plasma on. Maybe I'll pre-order a Purism phone. I want a real open source phone, similar to running a Linux distro on my PC in the late 90s.

I'm willing to write applications to fill in the gaps for my needs to get away from the toxic Google ecosystem. I want a phone with real open source software, not some crippled Android minus the Play store.

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>I decided I'm getting sick of Android.

How does Android and cracked hardware fit together? No such thing as android hardware. Just buy a better one next time.

>I want a real open source phone

Purism isn't "real open source". Lots of locked down proprietary binary blobs in it and no way to no use them (modem for one). If you want it because of FOSS installing Ubuntu or LineageOS on any other phone would be just as good and no need to pay someone to do it.

> Purism isn't "real open source". Lots of locked down proprietary binary blobs in it

Could you cite this, please?

With regard to the modem, its inner workings may be opaque, but it is isolated from the system and communicates over a bus (whereas ordinarily the modem on a mobile phone uses shared memory), which is what security-conscious open phone enthusiasts have been waiting years for. What other phone will give that to you?

> What other phone will give that to you?

Samsung Exynos variants - starlte, herolte, etc.

Sadly I think the Purism phone just was pushed back wasn't it?

The release was pushed from Summer 2019 to Fall 2019.

I was in the same boat as the grandparent. I ended up getting a cheap phone that I could put lineageOS on, I installed F-Droid, and I didn't install any of Googles Apps. Its working out very well actually.

If you need another cheap phone I can heartily recommend the Nokia 6.1 at 199.99 it was an absolute bargain.

I know HMD isn't the original Nokia (though it has a lot of the management) but it's an excellent phone and with AndroidOne you get security updates immediately which was a big thing I wanted after Moto-G's

Nice! I got a Sony xperia XA2, I found it open box for $150

It will start to ship in Q3 this year.

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