FSF Announces The LibrePhone Project

Comments

• ExtremeDullard@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  That’s nice but…

  Here’s my experience with my Linux phone (Ubuntu Touch on Fairphone 5): it’s fully functional and mostly usable as a full Android replacement. But the keyword here is “mostly": The Openstore has native Linux replacement for half of the stuff I need (calls, SMS, emails, browser…) and for the rest, Waydroid picks up the slack (my Android-only banking app, Yubikey app…).

  And then there’s stuff that’s neither available (or rather, working) in native Linux nor in Waydroid. And the killer app I desperately need, Signal, is in that group.

  And that turns my promising Ubuntu Touch phone into a very fancy paperweight I mostly leave at home.

  Here’s my prediction: the LibrePhone will be another paperweight for the same reason. And the sad thing is, it’s not for lack of trying on the parts of the alternative OS and app makers, or lack of good will: they really do try their best. But it’s a chicken-and-egg problem: people don’t want to code for niche mobile OSes and stick to Android, and the niche mobile OSes remain niche as a result.

  Unless the LibrePhone comes onto the market with a certain number of key apps that a vast majority of people will need, it’s doomed.

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