Correction: most Android phones aren't transparent. But you can get a Google Experience phone (HTC One or Galaxy S4) or a Nexus device (4, 7, 10) and install a 3rd party ROM free of any closed-source software. This is also often possible with other, non-GE/Nexus phones.
Hardware backdoors are a separate issue.
> [...]and install a 3rd party ROM free
> of any closed-source software.
> Hardware backdoors are a separate issue.
Using an open source operating system is a step towards a fully transparent phone, even if it doesn't solve all the problems at once. It opens a market space for a company to release a phone with open-source drivers. Consumers need to force companies step-by-step towards the solutions we want, not just expect them to be delivered in a gift-wrapped package.
Didn't know about F-Droid, that's the kind of marketplace I think that is the best of both worlds, open source but verified by community members.
I don't even think firmware is what's maintaining their "competitive advantage". That firmware needs to be matched with the hardware anyway, and it's really the hardware that offers the competitive advantage. So I think the "competitive advantage" they get from closed firmware is mostly imaginary for most companies. We should push them to "think different".
Better yet, we should demand to open source their firmware if they want our trust, after all of this.
I'd like to think that's something people could value, but I always hear there's no market?
I wonder if it exists at all now?
i think of course only by being open source, maybe its not enough.. dont know how your project is of course.. but its good to have something that distinguish from the other stuff around.. but it can attrack attention from the geek market.. thats what firefox-os are doing after getting late in this crowded party that is the smartphone industry..
But I definitely agree that early adopters will be hackers, developer and tech people.
If I were to have a mantra it would be: "Get everyone who is a Linux developer/user and their moms' to buy this laptop."
My mom is probably my first sale, she already uses Elementary OS(Ubuntu based) and she loves it, she's never going back to Windows.
If Apple open-sourced their code, how long do you think it will take before a dozen cheap chinese knock-offs appear with an almost exact replica of iOS? Thus killing off a huge market share for them. At least at the moment, the user experience of those cheap knock-offs is vastly inferior.
Although a nice sentiment, but too far fetch from reality.
Would be really awesome to see more support for OsmocomBB and similar projects though.
Here are some neat slides from a presentation on OsmocomBB from last year for anyone interested: http://elinux.org/images/9/9a/Getting_the_First_Open_Source_...