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Comment by 1023bytes | Hacker News Reader

Q3 2019 still seems way too optimistic to me.

Even if they really know what they are doing, that sounds like a great way to create a lot of painful technical debt that will affect both end-UX and app devs. One one hand, maybe this is also a great way to get something in the hands of users, learn, and get it right in the next generation. But it's hard to go back on API design.

The software will (I believe) be a rolling release, so they only really have to get the hardware right before shipping.

What API design is there, beyond "Linux apps, probably GNOME with libhandy"?

> The software will (I believe) be a rolling release, so they only really have to get the hardware right before shipping.

PureOS is based on Debian testing so it is a RR. Aside of hardware there is a problem with baseband firmware because there is no way to change it after phones are built without attaching to the chip itself.

> What API design is there, beyond "Linux apps, probably GNOME with libhandy"?

None. Every internal part is supported in mainline kernel, the only thing not there is the library for calls, UI has 3 options as of yet.

The baseband they're using is PLS8, which offers firmware updates via its USB interface.

"Library for calls" is there - three options actually. ModemManager, oFono and freesmartphone.org. I've personally contributed PHS8 support to the latter a few years ago when preparing for a different PLS8-based project ;)

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