Comment by janvlug | Hacker News Reader

Comment by janvlug | Hacker News Reader

I have been using the Librem 5 as my daily phone since 1 May 2022 (https://janvlug.org/blog/one-week-librem-5-field-trial-day-1...). And the Librem 5 is getting better and better, and its PureOS Linux operating system is actively maintained, and patches are still upstreamed (https://puri.sm/posts/tag/pureos/).

I really enjoy having a phone that gives me full root control, and that is very similar to the Fedora (GNOME) distribution that I have on my desktop and laptop.

Buying a Linux phone from a pure Linux hardware vendor like Purism helps sustaining the mobile Linux ecosystem.

Yes, the Librem 5 is a bit older phone with some rough edges, but for me it is a really good phone. It gives freedom in the free software sense, and consistency with my Linux computers. I gladly accept some minor inconvenience to have a phone that respects my freedom and privacy.

I cannot foresee the future, but for me the experience on a Linux phone that I control is far more superior than any phone that spies on me and takes away my freedom, like Android or iOS, basically any phone from any manufacturer that disrespects me.

I don't see what I couldn't do on a pixel phone with graphene. It would just have much better performance and battery life (given equivalent hardware, let alone the actual hardware differences).

Like I have tailscale, I ssh into my devices, I can write my own apps, sideload whatever I want. It even has a full Wayland graphical environment where I can play a video inside desktop chrome if I wanted to.

I am the administrator of the system on my phone. It's the same OS as what I've been using on my PCs for decades, so it's very familiar. It's fully scriptable in whatever language I wish to use, so I can easily adjust its behavior. I can use sandboxes when I need them and ignore them when I don't. Its software components are replaceable and patchable - if something bothers me, I can write a patch, compile a patched package, install it and even send a merge request upstream right on the phone itself without using any other device - regardless of whether it's about desktop environment behavior, cellular middleware or a kernel driver. I can freely modify the system to my liking without being punished for it. I never have to wrestle with the system whenever I want to keep something running in the background.

It just feels like my little personal computer. No Android device ever felt this way to me. I don't want to feel like a guest confined to a sandbox within a computing device I'm supposed to own.

If you have selinux then you may not be "absolute God either", and arguably it's never necessary to have that much control. I would much prefer to have sane security boundaries so something blowing up won't bring everything down with it.

And there are quite a few devices with unlockable bootloaders so you can feel to hack whatever you want with AOSPs.

I had to build a patched Android image in the past, so no thanks, it's definitely not something I would want to do in my spare time just to tinker. It's a system that's designed to be user-hostile; you can fight it if you want, but why would I do that if I can just keep using GNU/Linux instead?

Is it user hostile, or more complex as in a car is also more complex than a bicycle for obvious benefits?

It is more complex, but mostly for reasons that serve someone else than me.

@seba_dos1 Whom do those reasons serve, specifically?

Google?

But then a modern fiberglass car is more complex than a 60s steel truck. The latter eats more gas, but if they two get in an accident the truck is all that's left and those practically illiterate can readily fix the components of it as needed, no dealer specific gadgets and lock-in, you can even bore out new holes mounting in different engines if they can move the steel on wheels.

The Open Source knife cuts both ways, I'm afraid. You Purism crusaders sure are selective in its application.

>something blowing up won't bring everything down with it.

If you aren't be reckless about backing things up and being safe, this makes absolutely no sense.

Anytime things "blow up" its because you did something, updated something, ran something, it doesn't just happen or have scripts that will trigger shit for no reason (microsoft updates anyone?).

As for "bring everything down with it" that is because you don't actually know how to fix it, but with enough experience, or if you torture yourself with non-FHS compliant/non-systemd/Nixos or GUIX, you figure it out eventually and figure out how not to cause problems, you know like getting over the electron apps to do functionality easier as a script or justfile command or insisting on a broken IDE that is a dumpster because its extension store has a lot of possible options that are mostly non-functional.

But you do you.

EDIT: And AOSP still depends on Google being so kind as to allow for it, there is no guarantee that continues forever. But that's my low time preference talking, don't mind me.

"Physical possession is 9/10ths of the law... except not in relations to software or real estate because they bribed us enough..." - the law

Reply on news.ycombinator.com