Librem 5 Phone Funded

Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by jimmies on Monday October 09, 2017 @09:50PM (#15438734)

When I looked back when Linux was something only enthusiasts used back 15 years ago, it does seem like so too. We never thought one day Linux would be dominant and people would go through great lengths to deal with GNU software, Firefox or OpenOffice. We counted Firefox market share when it was 1%, then 5% then 10%. Time changes and if a project actually is good, I believe the general attitude will change.

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Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by pjmlp on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @01:39AM (#15439629)

It is anything but dominant on the desktop space, that ship has long gone.

And on Android and ChromeOS, it isn't exposed to user space, so kind of irrelevant and can be changed at any moment, e.g. Fuchsia.

The only place where Linux really made it, was replacing expensive proprietary UNIX servers with free (gratis) clone.

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Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by phaemon on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @05:17AM (#15440455)

The desktop ship certainly has sailed - it's lost the home market as people use phones and tablets now.

> And on Android and ChromeOS, it isn't exposed to user space, so kind of irrelevant

Sure, and I can run Windows applications on Wine, so Windows is kind of irrelevant. Don't be silly.

> The only place where Linux really made it, was replacing expensive proprietary UNIX servers with free (gratis) clone.

Except you're forgetting that these expensive UNIX servers were supposed to be replaced by Windows NT (later Windows Server) machines. So you'd have Windows at every level and could hire a point-and-grunt "sysadmin" to run it all at a much lower TCO. That's the grand vision that we've been spared.

And you forgot about the embedded market. Hell, my TV runs Linux and I didn't even know (my wife chose it) until I was poking about in the menus and found a copy of the GPL. And you also omitted Cloud Servers, where Linux is hugely dominant. Oh, and Supercomputing where 499 of the Top500 Supercomputer run Linux.

But yeah, apart from embedded, phones, tablets, laptops, servers, cloud servers and supercomputers...what has Linux ever done for us?

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Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by pjmlp on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @06:53AM (#15440785)

Linux was only adopted by being a gratis UNIX clone, with licenses that forced people to contribute back.

Talk to me in a couple of years, now that everyone is migrating to BSD style licenses, while trying to replace the whole stack (clang, Fuchsia, ...).

Had the *BSDs won against GNU/Linux, and I bet all proprietary UNIXes would still be around.

A TV running Linux is worthless if there isn't a way to update the firmware, how do update yours?

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Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by phaemon on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @09:38AM (#15441634)

I've no idea where you're going with the TV thing; it's a TV. It was just an example of how Linux is everywhere. It has as much worth as any other TV. The firmware updates are via Internet or OTA, like, you know, a TV.

>Talk to me in a couple of years, now that everyone is migrating to BSD style licenses

Nonsense, Linux is more popular and more widely used than ever. You were saying the same things two years ago, right? I suppose you'll still be saying the same two years from now.

> Had the BSDs won against GNU/Linux*

The BSDs aren't against Linux (except in the minds of some overly zealous BSD fanboys). The popularity of Linux has increased the popularity of the BSDs. They've helped each other.

EDIT: Oh yes, Containers! How could I forget containers! Just add it to the list...

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Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by pjmlp on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @12:05PM (#15442909)

> I've no idea where you're going with the TV thing; it's a TV. It was just an example of how Linux is everywhere. It has as much worth as any other TV. The firmware updates are via Internet or OTA, like, you know, a TV.

Ah the Pyrrhic victory, it is there but out of reach!

> Nonsense, Linux is more popular and more widely used than ever. You were saying the same things two years ago, right? I suppose you'll still be saying the same two years from now.

Yep, and if Google does release Fuchsia, lets see who is right.

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Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by jimmies on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @01:51AM (#15439679)

Yep, but it doesn't matter what it technically is, the underlying principle is the same. We'd have a more secure, more understandable, more open system that replaces the proprietary ones. I have my Chromebook which runs Linux and GNU software. I have my cell phone which runs Linux and I can rebuild whatever part I desire. I have my server which runs Linux.

A man can dream one day we'll have a phone with a baseband chip we can control, a RISC-V core we can program, no?

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Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded by pjmlp on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @02:36AM (#15439831)

Surely, but as history proves since OpenMoko, that dream requires the buy-in of an OEM willing to keep the ship going, even when there is no wind to push the sails.

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