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Manjaro ARM Alpha1 for PinePhone

forum.manjaro.org

21 pointsreddotX7 comments

A phone where phone calls don't work...

Yes, I do like all efforts to get some alternative for the 2 commercial phone operating/eco systems. Unfortunately chances that it will work reasonably well are extremely small. I hope the optimists can prove me wrong.

Disclaimer: Typed on SailfishOS.

Well, maybe I am overrating phone calls. One could get a feature phone and use the PinePhone like a Nokia Internet tablet in 2008.

You're absolutely overrating phone calls. The one call I have a week (max) goes over IP.

The point is not that I make a lot of calls. But I need to be reachable for my parents and some other elderly relatives. And sometimes (although rarely) I need to spontaneously call some local shop or office to get a quick information. I have looked for VoIP providers many years ago and there was nothing reasonable. And my unscientific feeling is that the situation has rather become worse than better. Nobody is using them here.

I think the one thing that is great about the Pinephone is how cheap it is. It's not Luke the raspberry Pi cheap, but it significantly lowers the barrier for entry for folks to work on it.

I do also think that the last post on the Pine blog showed that the pinephone can make phone calls (Ubuntu Touch?). I'm hoping that the Pinephone and Librem5 will be able to cross pollinate on things like calling, texting, etc.

Edit: I also wish that the Pine foundation could allow you to make a donation when you buy it, and that could fund development to make it more mature.

cheap is certainly an argument for hacking on it. But not a good argument if you want to carry it along as your one and only phone (at least I strongly prefer to carry only a single one, after having carried 2 for 8 years or so). Just this weak I had the case that I wanted to take some important photos in challenging lightening conditions. But my Sony/SailfishOS managed to capture only quite weak photos. If I understand it correctly, there are closed source image enhancement algorithms, which I don't have after flashing an alternative (mostly) open source operating system. With even cheaper HW things won't get any better, I don't believe in miracles.

just impulsively bought one of these as soon as I read it - been on my radar for a while (probably should have done some more research though). big manjaro fan.

anyone else on HN in on this? recommendations?

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