I guess I destroyed my phone.
02-11-2022, 05:10 AM
In many years of DIY and hardware hacking I have had so damn many heart-rending %$#&ups. It doesn't help that while I have had a wild collection of exotic equipment and experiences my personal choices and extreme life-hack jumps toward a better life have sometimes required extreme austerity to leverage it. That has often meant I simply could not replace the damaged tech which at the time severely impacted my lifestyle.
The case of the pinephone is one of compromises which to be realistic is a pretty unlikely occurrence that we even have a phone manufactured at this pricepoint with all FOSS driver supported hardware. FOSS supported hardware is unheard of in the mobile electronics industry which lives and dies by the non disclosure agreement. We have no economy of scare to discount the manufasture, and we are relying on several communities to write FOSS software to support the hardware. After living through the OpenMoko experience vs the N series Nokia linux phones I have seen what the difference a fully community built software vs a corporate giant trying to build a flagship OS is. We are farther than OpenMoko ever got at this point so it is a little shocking that a faith leap to buy this hardware is probably going to eventually pay off. The pinephone is not perfect and leaves some things to be desired including the customer service, delivery, and warranty experience, but I look at it as buying form a club which is making this impossible hardware available. Pine64 hardware is more like the old amateur radio kits or the Apple 1 garage prebuilts than a samsung or Iphone experience. Yes, you can hack a samsung or pixel with LineageOS or some flavors of linux, you might even do deep signal analysis and write FOSS drivers but thise take advantage of an economy of massive scael, they are a hack in a whole different class than a unique bespoke design for a microscopic population of only the purest and hardest core of libre/free open source software minded hackers.
I like to imagine that if the community can do a good job at providing one or more OSs complete with the needed app ecosystems we will grow the circle of interest. This will result in better economy of scale and the ability to afford better service on the part of the Pine64 organization. It will also result in more competitors in the space of fully FOSS and privacy oriented electronics, that will benefit those of us who do not have access to an army of electronics designers, a complete logistics train, the required PCB and pick and place machines to build the hardware, and the quality assurance, customer service and shipping personell.
The case of the pinephone is one of compromises which to be realistic is a pretty unlikely occurrence that we even have a phone manufactured at this pricepoint with all FOSS driver supported hardware. FOSS supported hardware is unheard of in the mobile electronics industry which lives and dies by the non disclosure agreement. We have no economy of scare to discount the manufasture, and we are relying on several communities to write FOSS software to support the hardware. After living through the OpenMoko experience vs the N series Nokia linux phones I have seen what the difference a fully community built software vs a corporate giant trying to build a flagship OS is. We are farther than OpenMoko ever got at this point so it is a little shocking that a faith leap to buy this hardware is probably going to eventually pay off. The pinephone is not perfect and leaves some things to be desired including the customer service, delivery, and warranty experience, but I look at it as buying form a club which is making this impossible hardware available. Pine64 hardware is more like the old amateur radio kits or the Apple 1 garage prebuilts than a samsung or Iphone experience. Yes, you can hack a samsung or pixel with LineageOS or some flavors of linux, you might even do deep signal analysis and write FOSS drivers but thise take advantage of an economy of massive scael, they are a hack in a whole different class than a unique bespoke design for a microscopic population of only the purest and hardest core of libre/free open source software minded hackers.
I like to imagine that if the community can do a good job at providing one or more OSs complete with the needed app ecosystems we will grow the circle of interest. This will result in better economy of scale and the ability to afford better service on the part of the Pine64 organization. It will also result in more competitors in the space of fully FOSS and privacy oriented electronics, that will benefit those of us who do not have access to an army of electronics designers, a complete logistics train, the required PCB and pick and place machines to build the hardware, and the quality assurance, customer service and shipping personell.