Because it is nice, but in my opinion in the light of the goals of Purism not ready.
1 Like
A “ready” app has not its place in this program as I understand it.
2 Likes
My proposal: let’s get the phones delivered, see what works on it. Then see the apps delivered with it. Anything crucial missing? Let convergence play. Then there are all these linux programers out there. And at the end: third party developpers should be allowed to close the gaps and sell their solutions in the purism app store.
And Purism should rather work on their hardware than launch such kind of fund raising campaigns. I am confused.
Is it a mistake that WhatsApp has a blue point (native) instead a red point (external) ?
Does it really mean we have the source of an WhatsApp client ?
Or does it mean the protocol between WhatsApp Client and Server is documented somewhere ?
6 Likes
Quiet true…
I’m a bit torn. I like the idea that I could direct support to a good cause but at the same time it’s not done in a very clear way. Some of my questions were made by others already.
- What would we get if we didn’t support some app right away?
- What would we get with X or Y amount? What is a goal and how do we know it has been achieved?
- How about a limit/minimum amount that guarantees something?
- Can we option for limited versions (not all features needed) or only for a version where all or certain features work?
- How are these prioritized - by amount, popularity, hours of work (quick fixes or big projects), ease of work…?
- How long is this campaign to last - is this a permanent thing?
- Why not code bounty or similar existing site where others might also contribute? (I’m ok with Purism answering this that some of these are what they want to do and like are only ones that can do)
- If taken a very dim view, someone cound say this campaign is a very bad example of Purism trying to blackmail more money from people who have already ordered their phones: “give us more or your apps may not work and we may not develop them”. How is this not?
And how do I get a new feature on the list (not quite app)? I want to pay for “Malform” advanced login options and could also give money for location obfuscations layer (user defined “noise” on how accurate the location info is). These are more like phone features (also add a new category specific for security enhancements - it kinda used to be a priority to Purism)?
Also, I can apparently only get a suggestion done after I pay (?) which makes it a bit hard to campaign for it or prioritize.
More suggestions: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.faircode.xlua/ and MAT https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/doc/mat/ (with GUI/CLI of course). Camera app in general but with some pro features?
5 Likes
I like this (don’t get me wrong on account of my previous message) but should these be separate pages? In that, I’d like to vote separately on the priority and such and place money separately. There may be some apps I don’t want to support and see as wasteful or may want to prioritize by category or app type (like, there are several apps that do similar things and advancing any of them is good).
1 Like
Well, that’s exactly why I want to support it! Most of the items in the list are not ready, that’s why you are supposed to donate money to them!
Also, that wiki page is outdated and links to metaolm as the matrix backend for Fractal. A few months ago they decided to drop that project and instead replace the matrix backend with the common matrix-sdk.
1 Like
And the MR to integrate matrix-rust-sdk is under review: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/fractal/-/merge_requests/626
This will facilitate the support of encryption.
I don’t understand why there should be a fund to improve the battery life of the phone, or to support hardware acceleration. This should be out of the box, this is what I have paid for a few years ago, and if I knew it would not be the case, I would think before funding the Librem 5.
I do understand the proposal to make funds to integrate apps by the Purism team, but for the integrity of the phone, it escapes me completely.
6 Likes
that is only in the L5 GNOME Web browser currently.
no other browser on the L5 supports GPU acceleration (yet) as far as i understand it.
Why is it that I can’t send suggestion to apps before I have to vote - I’d rather not add bogus votes. Seems it’s not even possible to not vote - selection is mandatory.
After how it’s been talked recently, it’s odd that Thunderbird is missing from message apps (I’d vote it).
3 Likes
Totally agree! I am disillusioned by this Purism way of funding base component we (or most of us) have already paid for.
You think it is cool to pay extra money to vote for a calendar? A CALENDAR???
I paid for this almost 2 years ago!
What’s next?
And why do I have to pay extra and do not get a ‘voucher’ for voting, since I already bought the device? Are they running short on money?
2 Likes
as always empowering people to vote with their dollar will ensure that the most well funded apps get a premium treatment (or at least that’s what they say).
because throwing more cash at a ‘problem’ is guaranteed to make more ‘problems’ pop up this is an imperfect way to reach a goal …
i would rather Purism differentiate between what was already promised to work out of the box WELL and the other ‘fund-your-apps’ … this is to say “we still want you to keep your word Purism” even though we now have an easier way to crowd-fund ‘apps’ …
another point though ! any buck you want to invest in this is only possible through credit-card (treated as a subscription - that’s why i don’t like it !)
I would like a short description of each app (or a popup box with a description) and a link where I can find out more info. I don’t know what 30% of the apps in the list do. For example, I know that I need good email, but if I didn’t know what was Geary, I wouldn’t know to vote for it.
Hardware acceleration is not as easy as you think. Purism got it to work for Epiphany and it already works for Chromium. If we don’t want to wait for GTK 4 to be released, then it probably will take quite a bit of work to get it to work, because GTK 3 doesn’t include it.
5 Likes
Its ironic to me that so many people in a freedom-minded forum are asking for guidance in them voting for apps/features they want to be worked on first.
Like something? Drop $20 on it. Can’t afford $20? Drop $10. Don’t know what something is? Search for it on DDG. Don’t want to spend any money voting? Then don’t.
Its just a monetized poll. If money is so tight that this is giving you pause, perhaps you shouldn’t “gamble” it here in the first place.
7 Likes
Purism just posted a developer position. https://puri.sm/job/pureos-gtk-application-development/
Edit - changed guess to quote from Todd off matrix
Funds are donated, the list is prioritized based on votes (not dollars), the list gets worked on in the order of priority until fully satisfied. So it is only a question of when the application will get released not if it will. Purism continues to fund app development as part of its business model and will continue to do so even if one app got $5 in donation and one vote. Additionally community development will also be funded or assisted in funding by Purism, since the more applications the run on the Librem 5 the better for all.<
Also they got a lot of people involved. https://social.librem.one/@purism/105006040487958418
We’ll need to divide that by the number of votes each ballot can cast.
4 Likes
Thank you, I understand you point of view, but to me, it should be in the form of a donation. What I see in those funds is like an auction.
Even if the priority is based on the number of votes as @dean said before, you have to pay to vote (so there is not exactly but “kind of discrimination”) : someone in 2020 doesn’t have enough money anymore because something difficult happens to him (lose job or twin babies, or something else), but has already paid for the Librem 5 in the past, unfortunately it is impossible to vote for him.
Just for clarification, I remind that what bothers me is to integrate phone functionalities into these funds. Regarding the apps, I am less concerned by Purism’s proposal because I understand this is difficult to develop and maintain Android/iOS apps for Linux OS.
1 Like
“Reddit” is listed but no third-party apps are. I, personally, strongly prefer RedReader to the official app. Actually, I prefer pretty much any alternative Reddit client to the official app. From what I’ve seen from others, the Reddit app is absolutely horrible. The mobile website is also pretty bad.
I’m also much more interested in Waterfox or Palemoon than Firefox. Firefox started going downhill years ago.
One app I’d love to see is something like Hacker’s Keyboard, or at least its 5-row layout on the current keyboard. The current keyboard looks pretty badly limited, but the full 5-row layout of Hacker’s Keyboard is amazing. It makes using the terminal not unpleasant on mobile (enough that I use it quite often) and makes writing easy. I have written incredibly long comments with this keyboard and even taken notes when I didn’t have time to plug in my larger keyboard. I have also written this comment with Hacker’s Keyboard too, again in the full 5-row layout on portrait.
Silence/SMSSecure was also ignored, but to be fair it seems fairly obscure based on what I’ve seen on these forums.
2 Likes
There an issue about that in the Chats git:
1 Like