I don't think they will be around for long. Their products went from being the highly anticipated to most trashed for being totally non functional and hostile behaviour towards customers.
Librem 5 is the most suitable/polished/stable daily driver for Linux Mobile at the moment.
Purism are funding a lot of the development (Phosh, in particular) that other phones benefit from.
Purism's other products don't seem to have as strong an advantage over their competitors though.
That's not saying much.
Linux mobile (non android) does not has the best reputation, which is what this comment is hinting at.
Working the best can mean 80%, when users expect 100% of basic functionality, with no regular restart and short battery life. So .. do you know details of the current state?
Apart from that, GNU/Linux provides many features that you can't get elsewhere: true convergence, desktop apps (including Firefox with all plugins), full terminal and so on. And no tracking unlike the duopoly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26639261. Also, hardware kill switches and a smartcard are really useful.
Being the best in an extremely niche market with little competition doesn't really mean very much. Purism is currently appealing to the overlap of people who specifically want a GNU/Linux (not Android) device and those for whom poor performance (compared to other flagship devices) is not a deal-breaker. Each of those segments of the market is already very small, and the overlap between them is minuscule.
The only way that a Linux phone could be economically viable is if it's rock solid and performs well, and based on the first-hand accounts that I've heard/read, Purism hasn't cracked that yet, which makes me pessimistic about them ever getting there.
This is where we disagree. Generally, this is not true, as proven by Pine64 business model. Of course the Librem 5's price is much higher, but it offers more features that could be useful to many: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque...
Pine64 hasn't proven anything. I bought a PinePhone in excitement when it first came out, and after the first two weeks, it's been on my shelf collecting dust. I imagine that most buyers are in the same boat. Yes, they built up some hype and got some sales early on, but I think it's unlikely that this will continue into the future.
To be clear, "useful" and "economically viable" are not the same thing. It's great that these options exist, and as long as they're around, they will continue to be useful to some subset of people, but I think there is little chance of any of these Linux phones replacing my Android phone for daily use over the next 5 years—and I say that as someone who's pretty tolerant when it comes to bugs, poor performance, and lack of features.
> Linux Mobile
Choose 1
I'm curious if some Linux phone can consistently make and receive calls, its battery lasts three days and I can buy it for less than 200€.
I only use calls, the camera, whatsapp (I could try a replacement), the alarm clock (a lot), sometimes vlc and sound recorder. Firefox, maps, etc. are nice to have, but not needed.
I wonder if I'm one of a kind user. But the three requirements doesn't seem much and support my current usage.
Calls work, but I'm not using them much.
For that I do need some reassurance :) I'll take a look to their forums to see how progress goes.
[1] https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/SHIFT_SHIFT6mq_(shift-axo...
Not a competitor without a dedicated software developers team: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37914312.
All others don't offer GNU/Linux phones.
Having an actual Linux phone with the same userspace as a Linux Desktop is cool, but it's even more niche.
Not everyone uses or wants Phosh/GNOME.
I'be been reading such statements on the Internet since their first Librem 5 announcement in 2017, or even earlier.