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Comment by 2OEH8eoCRo0 | Hacker News Reader

I've always wished that mobile app "stores" worked more like Linux package managers.

Still hopeful to get a proper Linux phone someday.

The PinePhone (Pro) and its ecosystem looks promising, no? I'd say we're closer than ever to it being a capable daily driver, certainly by the next iteration.

Or Librem 5, whose software is developed not by volunteers but by a company.

Note that the Librem 5 is practically a scam. There are still people who ordered in 2017 who have not received their phone. Requesting a refund takes hundreds of days to be issued.

It's not a scam. Did you hear about supply chain problems in CPUs? See here about delivery progress: https://forums.puri.sm/t/estimate-your-librem-5-shipping/112.... Every time Purism can get the CPUs, they deliver another bunch of the phones.

>See here about delivery progress

That thread is backing up what I said. 4 days ago someone from the original crowdfunding campaign in 2017 is being shipped his Librem 5. If someone were to order a Librem 5 today (for $1200, double what people in 2017 paid) they too may have to wait years to get it.

>Did you hear about supply chain problems in CPUs?

Purism had years to procure the CPUs they needed.

>Every time Purism can get the CPUs, they deliver another bunch of the phones.

Sure, but the amount they are able to make is not enough. Purism's timeline constantly slips. Your money is stuck in an interest free loan to Purism that they won't let you get out of. It is not hard to find people complaining about not getting refunds or refunds taking hundreds of days to go through. It seems like they want to get as much money as possible while delivering as few phones as possible. This may not be their intention, but this is what it feels like to a lot of people.

> Purism had years to procure the CPUs they needed.

Yes, Purism had their own delays. In my opinion, they had good reasons for those [0]. But today delays are due to the supply chain, not Purism.

[0] https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...

>[0]

They say the delays stem from their choice of SoC. They decided to use i.MX 8M in 2018. They had time to order the CPUs.

>there were only two SoC's that Purism could use (i.MX 6 or i.MX 8M) that could run on 100% free software and fit within the power limitations of a phone

This isn't true as it requires proprietary software for things such as doing memory training on boot.

>But today delays are due to the supply chain, not Purism.

Despite the uncertainty in the supply chain Purism continues to take orders even if it may not be possible to fulfill these orders.

> This isn't true as it requires proprietary software for things such as doing memory training on boot.

https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-solving-the-first-fsf-ryf-hurd...

In the article they describe how they are running the proprietary memory training software on the M4 core in the i.MX 8 chip.

Running proprietary code on the i.MX 8 chip means that it is not 100% running on free software.

I'm no expert but probably yes. More details: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...

It's however the most free phone as far as I know.

> Despite the uncertainty in the supply chain Purism continues to take orders even if it may not be possible to fulfill these orders.

not taking new orders (and money) would be a very bad sign for investors, no?

The large backlog of orders is a big red flag for the product to investors. I don't think continuing to take money is as big of a signal. Having a big backlog means that competitors who can actually deliver a product are going to be making more sales. It's a giant competitive advantage to be able to buy a phone and receive it in a couple days compared to buying a phone and receiving it in a couple years. For the fast moving technology space of phones with every year phones get delayed the product's hardware will become more and more outdated making the competitors look better.

To me keeping the orders, doubling the price, and trying not to give out refunds makes me think Purism has serious money issues.

I mean regardless of what the reason is, a 5 year delay is a 5 year delay, and if the refund process isn't near-perfect, I would call that scummy at the very least.

F-Droid is about user freedom, so there are clients that are more like Linux package managers, for example https://github.com/mvdan/fdroidcl

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