Purism Librem Phone - Page 16 - maemo.org

gerbick | # 151 | 2017-10-11, 00:32 | Report

When the comments like "low end" get tossed around; how low end are we talking? I'm pretty much unaware of the i.MX series of chips. Any personal experience?

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pichlo | # 152 | 2017-10-11, 06:55 | Report

Originally Posted by mikecomputing View Post

AFAIK PureOS itself is GTK :/ So I guess n900/neo fans would like it.

But personally think they should use Qt/QML instead of GTK.

Why? It simple:

Porting SFOS apps would be easier if they used Qt/QML.

While all of that - and the rest of your post that I did not quote for brevity - is 100% true, I will play a devil's advocate and point out that there are a million more legacy Linux applications than the handful of those specifically for SFOS. The beauty of N900 was that I could take just about any old source and build it and it would run out of the box. Not so on SFOS, it needs to be ported first to the brave new world of QML.

So I see their point. It makes a lot of sense if a company calling itself "Purism" focuses on a system that is as "pure" as possible.

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olf | # 153 | 2017-10-11, 07:37 | Report

Originally Posted by gerbick View Post

When the comments like "low end" get tossed around; how low end are we talking? I'm pretty much unaware of the i.MX series of chips. Any personal experience?

Four A9@1,2GHz is a bit faster than the Jolla C (four A7@1,3GHz), i.e. a very low-end smartphone from 2015, which was sold in its target market (India, as Intex Aquafish) for ca. $100.

Mind, that the i.MX SoCs are aimed at embedded applications, like car entertainment systems etc.

Last edited by olf; 2017-10-11 at 10:40.

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MartinK | # 154 | 2017-10-11, 09:02 | Report

It's used quite heavily in e-ink ebook readers and it seem to work just fine there, including specific requirements such as fast page turn times and standby times measured in weeks/months. I think my Kobo Aura H2O likely also has one, but I'm not sure about the exact CPU version.

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Venemo | # 155 | 2017-10-11, 12:10 | Report

I don't thing the chipset matters that much in this case. Even 2013 hardware can run a smooth GUI with okay-ish performance.

The main thing here is whether or not they manage to make it happen software-wise and support it for a long enough time. I haven't own any Purism product, so not sure how good they are in this aspect. (Since I can already run Linux on better hardware cheaper, I don't really see the point of the Purism laptops.)

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ThomasAH | # 156 | 2017-10-11, 12:52 | Report

Originally Posted by Venemo View Post

Since I can already run Linux on better hardware cheaper, I don't really see the point of the Purism laptops.

Where Purism laptops differ from laptops by other manufacturers is that they have their own custom built firmware called coreboot as a replacement for proprietary BIOS/UEFIs. Through this they've implemented a workaround to neutralize Intel's ME (you know, that horrible privacy breaching security hole in your Intel laptop).

According to their article Purism can't fully disable the ME (yet), but I personally still think it is a considerable plus against any other laptop (manufacturer) that they see it as their mission to fully disable the ME.

Last edited by ThomasAH; 2017-10-11 at 12:58.

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sulu | # 157 | 2017-10-11, 13:22 | Report

Originally Posted by Venemo View Post

The main thing here is whether or not they manage to make it happen software-wise and support it for a long enough time.

No, that's not the main thing. The whole point of having an open platform is to not depend on the manufacturer's software.
So if Purism ships and supports their own distro: Fine! But if they don't: Who cares? Just install something else!

The main thing is for them to actually get the hardware done while making sure it's indeed an open platform.

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gerbick | # 158 | 2017-10-11, 13:56 | Report

Continuing my questions merely out of curiosity; do you think since they chose such a middle to low tier processor that they would optimize the UI and OS to be less bloated?

It would be to their advantage if that was an action item, no?

Sorry for the potentially stupid questions, but as an outsider looking in and catching up, this project has my attention but a couple of potential pitfalls (processor choice being possibly one of them) has me asking questions.

Honestly I'm totally geeked that they smashed their campaign with time left.

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r0kk3rz | # 159 | 2017-10-11, 15:35 | Report

Originally Posted by gerbick View Post

Continuing my questions merely out of curiosity; do you think since they chose such a middle to low tier processor that they would optimize the UI and OS to be less bloated?

It would be to their advantage if that was an action item, no?

Sorry for the potentially stupid questions, but as an outsider looking in and catching up, this project has my attention but a couple of potential pitfalls (processor choice being possibly one of them) has me asking questions.

Honestly I'm totally geeked that they smashed their campaign with time left.

Software doesn't really seem to be their thing, and indeed by the looks of it they aren't trying to go for an integrated product type of smartphone at all.

Realistically this is probably ok, if mainline hardware support is great then I would expect to see all kinds of builds for it including Sailfish and Ubuntu Touch if that is the kind of experience you want.

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maegon9y00 | # 160 | 2017-10-11, 15:49 | Report

On the site it says:
"The specifications are continuing to get pinned down, and will not be finalized until after the campaign ends, so please share what you’d like to see, and we will evaluate all design feedback that aligns with our beliefs."

What about
-IR to remote control
-FM radio
-FM transmitter
-Qwerty Keyboard

N900 replace in mind.

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