(09-07-2025, 01:27 PM)Gary2003 Wrote: Hello everyone,
I’d like to continue my reflections, starting from my previous message about the PinePhone and the importance of having a real Linux alternative in the mobile world.
Over the years, there have been several attempts to create smartphones outside the Android ecosystem. Projects like Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch appeared, but unfortunately didn’t last long.
As a long-time Linux user on desktop computers, there’s a strong desire to find the same freedom, transparency, and sense of community-driven development on a phone. On the desktop, there’s a wide variety of constantly evolving distributions.
On mobile, it’s a lot more complicated. Too often, promising projects disappear and users are left with very few true alternatives. That’s why I was glad, after several years of waiting, to discover the PinePhone.
As I said in my previous message, the PinePhone is essentially a prototype that mainly targets Linux enthusiasts. I am well aware that the general public isn’t necessarily drawn to this smartphone. Many people prefer a phone packed with apps and games. On top of that, almost everyone uses WhatsApp as their primary messaging app.
Regarding Signal, I just wanted to say it would have been great to have a preinstalled app, like Firefox, on the PinePhone. Still, I realize that’s not an easy task and the developers surely have other priorities. It’s nonetheless very positive that there’s already a functional desktop version.
I highlighted things like battery life and screen size, especially focusing on basic uses—calls, contacts, SMS—to lighten the developers’ workload and help them concentrate on the essentials.
The PinePhone project is currently on hold, which is really unfortunate. I understand, though, that this is a major challenge: even giants like Jeff Bezos abandoned his Firephone. Facebook, for its part, tried launching a smartphone with HTC and its “Facebook Home” overlay, but that project ended in failure. Even Microsoft tried and didn’t succeed...
I’ll finish on a note of puzzlement: how is it that manufacturers are able to produce robust, simple phones like Crosscall’s CORE-S5 (running MocorOS), but aren’t able to offer the same kind of device in an all-touch form, as a small smartphone? Such a device, both simple and easy for writing messages, seems like it would meet a real need.
Thank you all for taking the time to read.
As for the CORE-S5 and MocorOS I suppose we look at a phone like that as a tool closer to a UHF handheld radio rather than a computing device even though it might have some code running that is unfriendly to the user, but it is still mostly unchangeable hardware to the end user.
There is and will be real interest in truly free mobile devices, the Linux Sharp Zaurus had a phone CF-card module back in 2000, then openmoko, and Nokia Maemo devices. We are currently and for a long time have been caught in a bad position because the ARM ecosystem usually requires a ridiculous NDA tied bootloader to even get booting started (x86 bootloading is a bit more open but still bad).
With RISC-V and future open processors we can use a straightforward non-secret fully free, open, and libre bootup process, after that getting FOSS certified hardware on the circuit board(needs full documentation, no NDA secret crap) and all that is required is some talented engineering and design to produce a good looking(or just a brick) phone that can take some damage before breaking, can run all day on a single charge and can run the apps we need.
ARM has been the only real player in mobile and is particularly insidious as they do not even make chips they license out the design to other companies to fab and as a company are very secretive hiding too much of the tech behind non-disclosure agreements.