PureOS – a pure Linux phone experience
puri.sm
puri.sm
My first step to switching off Apple is my laptop. I bought a System76 laptop. I also considered the Purism laptop. I'm a Linux newbie and went with System76, some explanation below. (Shipping times were also a factor in my decision)
Purism's challenge is they may be trying to solve a "2-miracles problem".
Miracle 1: open source hardware business
Miracle 2: privacy focused business
To the extent open source hw/sw SUPPORTS privacy, they're in alignment as a single miracle. But the alignment isn't perfect, it's all still so new. To put it another way, if Purism fails that doesn't affect System76 much. But if System76 fails that likely means a rough road ahead for Purism.
Those who can at all muster the courage and budget to buy Purism right now totally should. Lead the way where others cannot.
You can’t really buy a Dell or a MacBook, install Debian or some other *nix OS and make the same claim.
System76 is one of the few Linux-first hardware companies. Dell and Lenovo do this but as an aside. System76 is 100% Linux.
If there were an entire ecosystem of Linux-first open hardware developers, Purism could simply provide a few hardware and software tweaks (ie hw switches for wifi) for enhanced privacy.
The problem is Purism is forced to bear the weight of being one of the few open hw/sw vendors AND all the additional anti-surveillance pieces too.
Curious if this explanation helped you.
Linux is a side project for Dell at best.
[1] https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo... edit to add dell link
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...
My understanding is they've started selling their own desktop models after selling white-labeled machines in the past. And that with laptops they are quite involved in the design process and are inching towards selling their own custom laptops.
If Purism fails it will likely be because they did too much from scratch. Taking on hardware and software all at once is a recipe for disaster. It's super expensive.
Hell, for Purism's laptops it's not uncommon for people to shove in a different wifi card to get modern speeds - the card they use is used for being able to run with only open source drivers, which are old at this point.
The complete open hardware model seems to require DIY chip fabrication at some level as a backstop. Will look for more opportunities to encourage this.
I wonder if System76 has considered Raptor processors for their desktops. What is their roadmap towards more open hardware? Here goes my first recommendation to their customer support. I would consider a mini-desktop with Talos by System76 even though I'm primarily a laptop user.
I'm well into worried this is another eve laptop / failed to deliver a real product situation.
So even if they are not sold out, Purism is not getting any money from me until I hear of delivered products to people I know.
...though I guess I am not someone you know.
But it's also not usable enough to be his daily driver either AIUI.
That said, I'm using (and have been using) my Community Edition Pinephone as a daily driver for a couple weeks now. It's not impossible, it just varies based on what ones individual needs actually are :)
Do you have a community/destination to go for help if/when you need it? I would imagine you shouldn't need much unless you like to leave the beaten path, but it's always good to have some idea.
Make yourself a few virtual machines for that, initially...
Then try loading systems on the laptop from a USB Mass Storage Device (meaning, the non destructive way, without writing to the disk).
Isn't as easy to use as your Mac for some things, sure, but to start out thinking it isn't as good means you'll look for the things that are flawed instead of noticing the things that are amazing.
I've used Linux as a daily driver since 2016, yes there are things that would be easier if I just owned a Mac - somewhat ironically that includes Microsoft Office - but there are many things that are just amazing on Linux.
The ability to pipe audio from one program into another, or quickly create a virtual audio device that combines two get a lot of use from me on the unending stream of video calls.
The fact my home directory contains all my configs in plain test making it easy for me to have the same custom setup across 3 different computers (and all nicely versioned in git).
How about the fact that while I love a keyboard centric tiling window manager (i3wm) when my wife or son log in they get a KDE or Gnome desktop that is as familiar to them as their existing Window's computers.
edit: just realized I can play Steam games natively! And also have a built in SD card slot.
It's probably moreso the hardware that will bug you, not the software - Linux on System76 machines is probably the closest to "it actually just works" that I've seen and it's super cool, but at the end of the day it's still rebranded Clevo shells.
I like their desktop towers and I remain hopeful they can do their own laptop one day.
1/ my machine is way faster and lasts way longer; 2/ I have had really great support from System76 (esp. compared to Apple -- they helped me debug a hardware problem and then I just ordered a new card and popped it in myself); 3/ I actually don't mind the quality degradation compared to the massive improvement in my day-to-day experience.
I'm an Arch user (/fanatic -- aren't we all?), YMMV.
I think the reason system76 has less issues is that it isn’t custom silicon. I’m not sure about Pine but perhaps it’s the same case?
The Librem 15 is a decent laptop and is very serviceable / easy to repair but for the price it’s definitely not as good as the build quality of a Dell XPS for example.
I really like the idea of a quality open source phone (hardware and software) that isn’t sold by surveillance capitalists, which is why I support them but I still don’t know if I’ll use it as a daily driver.
[0] https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-adds-pureos-to-list-of-endorsed...
- Phosh, their phone shell, it being worked into upstream GNOME, and libhandy, which they started, is in upstream gtk4. GNOME Calls used to be a Purism app, now it is a GNOME app being maintained primarily by Purism.
- Several of their full time staff are Debian Maintainers and Debian Developers. One of the full time staff is a Mobian Developer and is very active in maintaining/developing Mobian.
- Purism has made a lot of effort to ensure that their applications and framework is available to the Pinephone, and to the greater community. Purism's work has helped advanced the Pinephone many times over.
- Several Purism employees are active in the Pinephone community, and help out not only the devs, but users who need help!
- For those that know my work (I have been working on MMS and VVM for the Pinephone/Librem 5), the Purism developers took a lot of time to help and mentor me so that I could get these features out there. They simply did not have to do that, but they did. I simply do not think those features would be available at all if it weren't for their help. (To those devs, I won't name you as I don't know if you want to be named, but you know who you are, You have my sincere gratitude.)
- Their Coreboot efforts has enabled others to port coreboot to other laptops. Here is one example: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/50924.html?thread=1900524
These are just examples I am exposed to and can readily give off the top of my head.
To me, a company that does that sort of work, I do think they are sincere in the fact that they have supply chain troubles, which is why the Librem 5 has taken so long to get into users hands.
Also, I see that $799 price tag as not only buying the phone, but also paying the developers who do all of the wonderful things that I outlined above. As much as I like the Pinephone, the $150 you pay is for just that, the phone. Most of the software ecosystem you see from the Pinephone comes from unpaid volunteers (such as myself). I'm not saying that is a bad thing, I actually think having such a cheap phone is great! But I don't think a lot of folks have these things in mind when they see the difference in price.
And before it's asked, yes, my Librem 5 has shipped, I should get the package early next week.
> Linux-mobile equivalent
Librem 5 runs desktop GNU/Linux, so you don't need any equivalents really.
- The Librem 5 specs out in the ballpark of the 2016 iPhone 7 Plus.
- My goodness it's expensive. Similarly-specced iPhones still on the market are in the $300 range.
Obviously kill switches etc. are worth some money, but it's still surprising to see the magnitude of the value differential.
I'm always going to root for more competition in the market, so I hope this does well. But I am baffled at who the target market is. "Is okay with outdated phone but willing to pay 3x for it" would seem to be a very small market.
It's much more than just kill switches:
https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...
But the product page on the website (not the community wiki, which is not linked from the product page) leads with the low specs and the next feature is kill switches. I didn't make the choice of how to position the product.
https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-conve...
And, it exists today and runs an Arch Linux derivative like the SteamDeck.
As they say in the old country, a device in the hand is worth two in the bush.
If you're looking to dabble and write apps to contribute to the ecosystem, the PinePhone is arguably a steal. I grabbed one over the Librem 5 mostly due to price and availability.
Could someone give me a quick overview or link to different Linux based OS for smartphones?
How is this one different from Sailfish?
Happy to hear from you! :-)
Sailfish is proprietary, not FLOSS.
Anyway, a great project.
Yes, they call it "convergence": https://puri.sm/posts/mobile-desktop-convergence/.
> Will people buy the “all USA parts” version, given that it is more than twice as expensive?
Some people reported receiving their Librem 5 USA, so probably yes. See also: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque....
There is another great alternative for the longer term future: compute would be everywhere as well as public I/O devices for user interaction. Wherever you are, you could be recognized and your personal environment would be right there.
Pardon me for going far-afield here, but I am a fan of Gibson's cyberpunk sci-fi future, and I enjoy imagining what the combination of tech/society/governance/etc. will be.
Well, according to many articles [0] and videos, this is practically a reality already. Also confirmed by people not affiliated with Purism [1].
[0] https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-week-of-librem-5-convergence/
> It is the only smartphone on the market today to ship with a fully-free and auditable operating system, from the ground up, that is created in your best interest instead of corporations’ bottom lines. It is the only project with a bona fide community instead of a “Big Corp” governance model.
Was this written before the PinePhone or does the PinePhone not count somehow?
One binary blob for the WiFi/Bluetooth. The other binary blob is for the modem, for which an alternative OSS firmware has been in development for some time. There's also a third blob for the camera autofocus firmware.
>[...] in Linux kernel, [...]
All three blobs are firmware, not drivers. There are no blobs in the kernel. It's identical to the Librem 5 in this regard; the Librem 5 also has firmware blobs for WiFi/Bluetooth, modem, and some others, but no blob drivers.
>[...] and cannot run FSF-endorsed distros without adding those blobs.
You can disable the WiFi/Bluetooth, modem, and camera with hardware switches. Given that, and that the RYF criteria allows firmware blobs for auxiliary chips, I'm not sure why it would apply differently to the Librem 5 vs the PinePhone.
Blobs means proprietary pieces of software. Firmware is software, too, it just runs not on the main CPU. If it resides in the OS, then the OS has "binary blobs", according to the definition by FSF. Librem 5 also has blobs, but they are not in the OS. They reside in the WiFi card and in the modem, both of which are replaceable pieces of hardware, not really parts of the the phone itself.
Even on Android, WiFi Calling is done via a proprietary library, AOSP doesn't support it. As of now, no one has attempted to RE the protocol, so no open source solution exists.
For other Android phones there's Droidian which is downstream of Mobian; I've not used it myself though so can't speak to its current state: https://droidian.org/
My laptop is fine to tinker with, but I don't want some issue coming up making me unable to use my phone in a situation where I'd need it.
If you want a mini-laptop OS because you always run it docked or something, you're of course free to use a desktop-first shell that provides that. Though the phone-first shells also support that already ("convergence").
I would stay clear of this company. They might have good intentions but clearly they suck at supply chain.
[0] https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/04/28/apple-warns-of-ip...
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58266794
By the way, many customers reported that they received their laptops on forums.
It's not their fault, it's like that pretty much everywhere. Just try to buy a graphics card at 2019 prices; no way.
Even with the best intentions and planning, lead times have been expanding faster than orders come in. Orders are being pushed back and cancelled by vendors, and parts are disappearing from distributors very quickly.
Even the huge players shipping millions of units (Apple [0], Toyota [1], Sony [2], Samsung [3]), who are usually able to order the manufacturers around (in what's really a "bank owns you" vs "you own the bank" situation), are having trouble building products. Why would you expect a low-volume manufacturer to be in any way capable of doing better?
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/27/apples-iphone-hot-streak-wil...
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58266794
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-15/sony-is-s...
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-17/samsung-w...
They brushed me off with unpleasant tone + fake promises.
That said, the problem of components shortage is real, which is why the PP's Beta Edition ships with identical hardware to the previous Community Edition but for needing to use a different, worse, magnetometer. ("Worse" because it has no driver in the mainline kernel yet so it can't be used.)