Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2

Re:Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 by danShumway on Friday July 12, 2019 @12:14AM (#20418088)

I use LineageOS right now. It's great, and I'm glad it exists, but it still requires me to write the majority of my apps in Java and to test them in an emulator, and it still requires me to use the Android OS for everything.

I know I can theoretically compile my own ROM or something to customize the desktop environment, but... bleh. It's time-consuming for me to build things on Linux, but it is more time consuming for me to build things on Android. Android development is just a pain all around.

This on the other hand, isn't just a >$600 phone. It's a >$600 grimoire[0]. Expensive, and cumbersome, but nearly all magic is. There's an almost subconscious brand (for lack of a better word) that devices of this nature fit into. They're trading user-experience for dev-experience, which is not something LineageOS or Android is optimized for.

As to the rest of your criticism, all of your other points seem completely fair. I'm not sure what I would put the odds at of the device succeeding (note, succeeding means finding a stable niche, not beating any other device). And while I can forgive a lot of flaws in software, for the price they're asking the hardware/drivers need to work well.

I'm very much in the "wait and see" camp. But I do see a lot of potential.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19253038

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Re:Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 by EvangelicalPig on Friday July 12, 2019 @12:45AM (#20418242)

There is Anbox[0] for running Android applications under Linux, and I've heard some people claim it's "less clunky" then an AVD. I haven't yet tried it myself but will soon.

I don't disagree that there are some suboptimal things about Android but to bootstrap a new mobile OS platform from almost nothing, and being on-par not even matching Android especially with regards to security (sandboxing, a proper permission model) seems like it would require a dedicated team several years of development time, which Purism doesn't have.

[0]: https://anbox.io/

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Re:Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 by dangus on Friday July 12, 2019 @12:24AM (#20418139)

I do agree and fully realize that being successful means finding a stable niche. I don’t expect something like this to take down Apple or anything crazy like that.

I just don’t see that happening because I think the demos sort of show this for themselves. It may be fun to develop for but it doesn’t look enjoyable or practical to use. Wait and see we shall!

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Re:Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 by RandomBacon on Friday July 12, 2019 @12:28AM (#20418168)

> I think the demos sort of show this for themselves.

I agree; I think it will be successful.

> it doesn’t look enjoyable or practical to use

You can say that about any phone (an iPhone, flagship Samsung, etc) that is not in a case. I bet it will be enjoyable and practical once they put it in a case.

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Re:Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 by dangus on Friday July 12, 2019 @12:55AM (#20418290)

Huh?

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Re:Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 by RandomBacon on Friday July 12, 2019 @08:32AM (#20420187)

You think the video shows it will fail. I think the video shows it will succeed.

You say it doesn't look enjoyable or practical to use, I'm saying 'Duh, it's a prototype not in a case, sitting flat on a table.'

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Re:Runs on the Librem 5 Smartphone – Week 2 by meruru on Friday July 12, 2019 @01:56PM (#20422811)

He's talking about the software so your comments about cases and tables feel unrelated. If you just mean to say it's still a prototype, it could've been phrased better.

When you said "I agree" then followed up with a statement opposite to what he said, that also felt like a non-sequitur.

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