Librem 5 phone by Purism

[ThinkPad]

https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/


They just started their own croud funding campain.

Looks good on the specs and features.

Finaly a phone that respect your privacy,
And do not have an ancient hardware (neo900 - overpriced and forever unreleased)

 

[OppositeDay]

I'm hoping that the Pyra will have a faster CPU-board upgrade available by 2019 (Librem 5's expected release date).

 

[AnimatedFreak]

The goal they have is pretty heavy, but maybe that is normal now? I do have faith in Purism will deliver but not that they will get that much in crowd funding.

 

[OppositeDay]

Another really good thing about this is that we'll be able to use code from the Librem communication stack as well.

 

[rygD]

GNOME, huh?

 

[jeeks]

sounds really good i'm not a fan of that hardware design though (the phone is a little too wide imo)

 

[ible]

i'd potentially buy it, if the pyra can't fulfill most of the smartphone needs (besides camera...). but i'd have to save up for it...

 

[tigerroast]

Don't care much for the "fully-open" aspect, but a Linux phone I can fuck with is an insta-buy...if the Pyra doesn't pan out.

 

[erico]

I doubt they will make it.
I also think that, while people are feed up with security and what not on phones, that alone is not enough a seller for something to be developed.
Good to see efforts coming up though.

 

[SneHebNor]

IMHO, it would be very, very good, if their crowdfunding succeeds. For me, the the Librem 5 is not the ideal phone, I prefer the Pyra myself (if it only had a camera!), but for many people it is the other way around: They prefer a more "typical" style phone without keyboard. Therefore, I not only pre-paid the Pyra, but gave a little bit of money to Librem 5 crowdfunding, too. Everybody who cares about free software on phones (and has some dollars/Euros left) should support them!

(Note: You pay with your credit card, but the money is only taken, if they reach their goal of 1.5 million USD. Practically no risk for you!)

 

[klapse]

Don't care much for the "fully-open" aspect, but a Linux phone I can fuck with is an insta-buy...if the Pyra doesn't pan out.

SailfishOS runs on a bunch of phones, including the Droid xt894.

 

[Caine]

These kind of projects have a very poor track record for being successful, though the same could have been said for the Pandora and it exists.
If I am not mistaken they did a laptop before, right? That at least shows they have some experience in the intricacies involved.

 

[scops]

i backed on this project.
It's like a OpenMoko successor. this project should really succeed. some news about the project: KDE have joined; they will provide Plasma Mobile as alternative UI

 

[comradekingu]

Exactly how I would want it to be done. Between me and someone wishing for it to be so, we are all in the same boat.
As such, there should be more detail on how this would get produced.

The potential damage to these types of crowdfunders might rival the potential gains.

 

[hns]

What about a Pyra-Phone?

We could just remove keyboard and nubs and use a smaller battery to fit everything else (modem, cpu-board (replaceable!), display, WiFi, usb/sata sockets, sensors, speakers) in a smartphone form factor.

Would be 100% software compatible to the Pyra. Including the Letux-Kernel, Pyra-OS and Letux-OS.
Well, there is one binary blob for the WiFi we can't get rid of with this design. And a second one for using the GPU. So it is only 98% privacy respecting and open on hardware level. On Software side, you can use everything to protect your privacy by installing which software you prefer. Including Pure OS and other systems like Replicant or QtMoko.

The good thing is that almost everything is already here and has removed egg-shells (inside the Pyra). So the risks of getting it finished in reasonable time are quite low.

If there is enough interest, I could set up a crowd-funding campaign to get the plastics and electronics designed.

 

[comradekingu]

I know a lot of initiatives that would buy a phone like that. Seems like a worthy additional market for not a whole lot of risk and effort. Same people that don't want, or mod the cameras out of their current phones.
Doing something else for Wi-Fi would probably bring in enough to make it worthwile, provided a solution could be found, but it probably means having to change SoC. (?)

---

NXP iMX8 is the seller for me. Not that it is actually _for sale_ but you know. A dream is only as good as the pipe you can fit it through.

 

[hns]

Doing something else for Wi-Fi would probably bring in enough to make it worthwile, provided a solution could be found, but it probably means having to change SoC. (?)

Well, WiFi is a separate chip on the mainboard. But we don't know any modern enough chip that is open and can easily be interfaced.

NXP iMX8 is the seller for me. Not that it is actually _for sale_ but you know. A dream is only as good as the pipe you can fit it through.

Well, I have seen an i.MX8 prototype last years at Electronica fair. Quite impressive - for automotive use. Even if it were on sale today, the question remains when the i.MX8 is well enough supported by mainline Linux to be useable.
Dreaming of the future is nice, but you usually have to digest what is available today

BTW: the Pyra-Phone would have the same replaceable CPU board as the Pyra. Maybe someone wants to design an i.MX board for both? So an i.MX can also be part of the Pyra-Phone dream

 

[CommanderB]

I think that a Pyra phone would be a great idea! It would profit from the work done for pyra's software ecosystem and increase the potential number of pyra users. Also it would be a more "feasible" and less risky project than the librem or the Neo900 since a big part of the electronics is already engineered and tested. I would definitely buy it. But what about the camera and the case design? These sounds like major challenges to me.

Gesendet von meinem SM-N9005 mit Tapatalk

 

[Eight Bit]

Though I really like the idea of a pyra phone and probably would get one if the price isn't insanely high, I would really appreciate it if all effort would be put in to finishing the Pyra before any other projects are started.

Having said that, for me the pyra phone doesn't have to be super thin but it does have to be super sturdy. And it would need one or two camera's to be a good phone replacement too. Also I think a capacitive touch screen would be the better choice.
and...
and..
and...


okay, I'll stop it here.

Pyra first

 

[hns]

if the price isn't insanely high

Price should not be higher than a Pyra. Maybe even cheaper, because some components are left out (e.g. hinge, nubs, keymat).
Hm. One more idea: it could even be possible to sell it without CPU board so that if you upgrade your Pyra to something else, you can make use of the existing Pyra CPU board.

finishing the Pyra before any other projects are started.
Pyra first

Sure. A Pyra-Phone without finished Pyra doesn't make sense... We are working on it.

And it would need one or two camera's to be a good phone replacement too.

That might become a little tricky to interface to the OMAP5 (the camera interface is shared with other functions). But we even have experience here with the GTA04 camera.