Re:How We Designed the Librem 5 Dev Kit with Free Software
by hawski on Thursday January 10, 2019 @03:28PM
(#18877754)
Am I the only one more excited about Librem 5 than about previous efforts at the time? When Openmoko shipped, I haven't even yet considered buying any smartphone. Then when Ubuntu Edge was a subject I had a phone, but thought about the project as a me-too kind. At the time there was a plethora of alternative platforms. Now I feel that things settled with mobile OSes, so it seems that there is a place for moderate hype. I had higher hopes for FirefoxOS, but devices were weak and nothing better came up. FirefoxOS set too high expectations.
With Librem I feel it's a bit more straightforward. There will maybe be also Necuno Mobile with similar software stack, but cheaper hardware. So it's just maybe more realistic this time?
Re:How We Designed the Librem 5 Dev Kit with Free Software
by bryanlarsen on Thursday January 10, 2019 @02:08PM
(#18876925)
The biggest difference is expectations. Ubuntu edge had a $32m target, and failed with $6m in commitments. Prism has stated they'd be happy with $1.5m in sales.
Re:How We Designed the Librem 5 Dev Kit with Free Software
by louib on Thursday January 10, 2019 @05:38PM
(#18879069)
I received mine 2 weeks ago but still didn't test it. From the dev channels, I think they're still having some software issues with the screen on the dev kit.
It's already possible to port software to the smaller screen using a QEMU image they provide https://developer.puri.sm/Librem5/Development_Environment/Bo... That's part of the reason why I still didn't test the dev board.
It's a great and noble idea, but really hard to pull off.
Also, there's no final specs for the Librem 5 yet they have a 4/2019 ship date. Sure... Hats off to them if that actually happens.
Does anyone have a Librem dev kit? Thoughts?
I like the Linux distro + e2e encryption support and would consider this in the future when they ship.