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Comment by jmclnx | Hacker News Reader

The ability to install what I want is one of the reasons I went with Android, I guess I will have to look elsewhere when I next need a phone. I am hoping the new GNU Phone or Linux Phone get to be "thing".

edit: fixed spelling

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It could be, if all FOSS developers slapped a new license on their projects saying "not for Android/iOS".

This would make it no longer free software as per the FSF's definition. We could turn many more things into GPLv3, which would prevent this, however. Then, Android and iOS can use them if and only if they go under GPLv3 too, which includes provisions against bootloader locking.

GPLv2 requires allowing reinstallation of modified versions too:

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/mar/25/install-gplv2/ https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/jul/23/tivoization-and-t... https://events19.linuxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017...

Actually, how does that work? In my non-lawyer understanding, GPLv3 already says the end user must be allowed to actually run the code, to the point where the iOS app store can't have GPLv3 apps in it. So... does this change mean that GPLv3 apps can't legally be shipped for Android?

You can sideload apps onto your Android device using a developer setup, which is the setup that anyone building free software would use.

I think we need something in between. Permissive for individuals and small companies, but restrictive for mega corporations who impose their will on the populace.

The closest that I know of to this is GPLv3 with sold proprietary licenses. Then, when selling proprietary licenses, you can adjust the price to what you think that the customer can afford. There's debate on how ethical such adjustment is, and many companies (recently Slack and often Cloudflare) are criticized for it.

You can certainly say it is ethical depending on your political views. Large companies have many things working in their favor, and they even use that power to the disadvantage of less fortunate groups of people (or people who made different life choices).

Anyway, "it is my FOSS project so I can charge people whatever I want." sounds reasonable.

sounds like corporations would no longer have a need to open source anything

It can go two ways. Either corporations work with their users, or they work against them.

The bigger factor is whether or not Linux phones that are reasonably nice to use (everything works, isn’t flaky, battery life is decent-ish) come to market or not. Developers aren’t going to be interested in a platform that for practical purposes is at best a curiosity or something to tinker with, no matter how many idealist checkboxes they tick.

Good North America market availability sure would help too. There’s been stuff like Sailfish that seemed interesting in the past but didn’t have easily purchasable devices available in the US, completely precluding development for the platform for a significant number of devs.

Usage restrictions are not allowed to be considered an OSI-approved Open-Source license. Plenty of people think that the OSI "Open Source Definition" is the only valid definition of "open source", and will thus reject calling such licenses "open source".

I've been happily using "GNU/Linux phones" since 2008, with only 2-3 years around 2017 of using an Android device as a backup, so there's no need to "hope"; you can just act.

I would be interested in hearing more details. What devices? N900? Pinephone? And what particular distro(s) / software stack(s)?

From 2008 to about 2011: Neo Freerunner, first on Om2007.2, then on SHR.

Then Nokia N900 with Maemo 5, in 2017-2019 augmented by Samsung Galaxy S3 with LineageOS as a secondary device since N900 was getting unusable for the Web by then.

And finally since 2020 up to now, Librem 5 with PureOS, which removed the need to carry an Android device again.

How's the battery life?

Does the phone last an entire day on a single charge?

I am trying out a Oneplus 6 on Mobian, and I got 29 hours of battery life on idle, and it is looking to be around 15 hours with light usage.

With a Librem 5, its 12ish hours on idle, 20 hours on suspend, and 4-5 hours light usage.

do they make phone calls? can they tether 5G?

If so, I might be able invert my plan: use the Linux phone with phone/5G/useful software most of the time, and a cheap android phone in my bag that only comes out for things that need the monopoly apps and tethers to the useful one occasionally when necessary.

Both of those phones support LTE only. Both make/receive phone calls, but the Librem 5 is more stable on that front.

The Fairphone 4/5 supports 5G, but I don't know how stable they are on pmOS/Mobian

any suggestions on how you would call somebody on an iPhone over 5G or WiFi instead of a proper phone call on these? currently use WhatsApp.

https://jmp.chat/

Depends on your definition of "lasting an entire day", but for me it lasts just long enough to usually not bother carrying a power bank with me. Usage patterns vary though.

it lasts 46 minutes

I'll probably have an android phone in my bag for emergencies and use some kind of offline Linux phone for my mobile computing needs. or even give up on the mobile form factor for general use.

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