long term plan for pine phone?

[dln949]

I am very  new to this.  

I understand that something called "community editions" have been made available.  My understanding is that a community edition means the phone is still not stable or fully developed, it is intended for technically-interested users.  

Does Pine64 intend to produce a stable pine phone intended for the ordinary public?  And, do they plan to do that long term?  

I can't take the time to play with something like a community edition, so I would like to wait for the stable or final version.  But, I don't want to get that if it isn't going to be a long term project by Pine64 (or someone) who will be around to provide support, maintenance, and development.

[hiimtye]

Pine64 hasn't produced their own operating system (beyond a rudimentary one for testing the early edition phones), and as far as I can tell they have no intention on creating one. the community edition phones are an homage to the communities who have been actively developing the broad-based existing operating systems specifically for the Pinephone.

as far as a "stable version" there are builds that are very close to being considered a daily driver, and their progress is available on the software page: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePh...re_Release

[Peter Gamma]

Is there any information available whether the next version of the Pinephone ships again with Ubuntu touch, or will it stay with Postmarket OS?

[bcnaz]

In the past they said they are going to select from available Distro's    so quite likely it will be different Distro, 

        but I suppose they "could"  go back to a previous Distro .

  On the "Community Edition" Pine phones,   Pine64 donates $10. USD from the sale of each phone to that Distro's organization.


  Wonder if someday it could be possible to "pick"  a Distro for your phone when you order it ?

[Peter Gamma]

Too many cooks spoil the meal. Is it not better to develop one special distro for the Pinephone?

[daniel]

I am very  new to this.  

I understand that something called "community editions" have been made available.  My understanding is that a community edition means the phone is still not stable or fully developed, it is intended for technically-interested users.  

Does Pine64 intend to produce a stable pine phone intended for the ordinary public?  And, do they plan to do that long term?  

I can't take the time to play with something like a community edition, so I would like to wait for the stable or final version.  But, I don't want to get that if it isn't going to be a long term project by Pine64 (or someone) who will be around to provide support, maintenance, and development.

This is a great project, and I wish the best, so one day this will be for daily use.

However, I would say we are still far from that day. I am not a pro on this, but I have been following the project for a while. So much progress has been done. however, I haven't seen enough to think that this will be ready anytime soon.

Maybe someone with more experience in this kind of projects can shed some light on how they see this in a realistic way

[Peter Gamma]

For Android devices, there are so many custom ROMs available. I miss such a "custom ROM distro" for the Pinephone. So many little conributions make these ROMs very helpful. Is there a reason not to have such a special distro for the Pinephone, preferentially only a singe distro to start with?

[wibble]

Too many cooks spoil the meal. Is it not better to develop one special distro for the Pinephone?

If it was a company developing the distro that would probably be the correct choice, even though that special distro wouldn't please everyone. It isn't a company doing development though - it's volunteers working towards the sort of distro they want to use, sometimes with very different ideas about what it should do.

[Cree]

Too many cooks spoil the meal. Is it not better to develop one special distro for the Pinephone?

This would take away from the free and private objectives of Pine64. This would make pine64 another apple, Huawei, or Samsung. Having options that are community developed it what safeguards our community. Even if there were one OS maintained by pine64 that remained independent and uncompromised in the long term, having a single OS would make hacking far easier for malign entities. Multiple OSes creates a decentralized moving target, even if one OS gets compromised, there are others. For many malign entities it would not even be worth their time when coupled with our hardware kill switches. Purism's Librem5 might be more what you're looking for and for now it seems good albeit pricey, but like politicians all may be well to start, but what happens when the power structure changes or a new leader takes charge? Im going to consider a librem 5 too, but for now im happy with my pinephone and the many options it will provide me. Options = Power over your own destiny. Once you chose convenience you surrender your freedoms.
Eventually most Pinephone OSes will be stable and give you everything you need from your phone, but it is a work in progress that requires support.

[Peter Gamma]

O.k. different opionions. But it s good to have a discussion. Maybe no intervention is necessary. I guess sooner or later there will be such custom distros available from community members as a result of as a natural process.