I think that develop a phone from scratch it’s so expensive, then, why not collaborate with another company like Fairphone? remember that “unity makes strength”.
They got a modular phone designed, you just need to add the free(libre) hardware you need and maybe do a few mods in the case for the triggers or whatever and they got all the “infrastructure” related to the phone development.
Some people are porting the device to many different operative systems as Ubuntu Touch(UBPorts), SailfishOS, Cyanogen…
I’m not a backer yet but I love the project and maybe I will soon.
I collaborate in UBports community and I can tell you that people there envy initiative to have more hardware which is open.
There is a discussion on UBports channels about Librem 5 phone and we are looking forward to know what hardware will the final design have.
Personally, I think there is not enough devices with open drivers in this field and if Puri.sm succeeds with their phone it will be another great win for FOSS community.
I second this suggestion. Some people already seek for developing an ethic hardware phone, with thought given on how to avoid obsolescence (modularity, durability, …). It would just make sense to see purism & fairphone going together. And it would definitely be a must buy thing for me… As today I think I prefer fairphone initiative because I do not want to choose between fair assembly and open source software, furthermore, fairphone 2 is already out and tested. So I know what I could have. Not the same thing for purism initiative.
However, if purism and fairphone could go together. Well that is another story. And I would definitely support that, no matter what!
(I just had the same idea and google brought me here )
In addition to Fairphone, I’d also recommend Nager-IT (https://www.nager-it.de/en)
Although Fairphone and Nager-IT pursue a different kind of “free”, I think there is a lot of potential how collaboration will help all three companies, and of course end-users
Some ideas:
profit from the supply-chain knowledge of nager-it and Fairphone
standardize (=share) some components (battery, display, wifi, camera?) with Fairphone. This would allow ordering bigger (combined) batches and make negotiations easier.
partner with nager-it for a conflict-free charger-cable for Librem 5 (as a start)
cross-sell nager-it mice, let them promote purism products
Just to clarify, I totally understand that it is hard enough to chase one utopia.
Therefore I’m not suggesting to make the librem 5 as conflict-free as the Fairphone.
I’d suggest to do it (or its successor) as conflict-free as possible without getting distracted from the main goal.
But even if “conflict-free” is just a nice side-effect, I think a partnership would benefit everybody involved.
After googling and reading a bit more, I found some more candidates for possible cooperation, be it reverse-engineering binary-blobs or be it using common hardware components.
There is www.shiftphones.com - unfortunately, a German-only website… They focus on similar things like Fairphone.
Then there is www.silentcircle.com, focusing on security in Enterprise environment. It looks like a walled garden, but joining efforts on some parts could still be beneficial.
I also found www.postmarketos.org, working on something similar as PureOS. Maybe they could help with freeing firmware, I dunno.
Finally Jolla/Sailfish should just give up and join Purism
Heck, guys, please join efforts! Too many projects duplicating the same work.
Shiftphones offers Win 10 devices for pre-order - so you think that could be a fitting partner ? I have some doubts.
But my negative favourite is SilentCircle !
I would not call it a walled garden, I would call this an expensive jail … and I know what I am talking about, since I am a Blackphone 1 owner and what I still have at home is just a died peace of hardware: A security device receiving no updates anymore is not a security device, it is not even a device, it is just scrap.
Not to talk about the ¨partnership¨ with Geeksphone, which was the end of Geeksphone.
And what about Blackphone 2 ? Instead of dividing Baseband- and Applicationprocessor, or implementing Hardware-switches like Purism, which would have been the right thing for security and privacy, the removable battery of Blackphone 1 was turned into a build in battery in the Blackphone 2, which is a security and privacy no-go.
You are right, bundling demands may turn a market but I think, you need the partners which fit for that. So yoosty`s comment ¨Welcome to the bazaar" of course is somehow nasty, but somehow a little bitter truth …
I think purism is not that wrong in what they are doing currently. I was astonished how fast there were popping up promising collaboration partners such as Gnome, KDE, NextCloud, Matrix (which is the only I still find a bit suspect because of their privacy terms).
Also the hardware of the Librem 5 so far looks promising, in terms of processors - more promising than anything offered before: Siletcircle failed and Ubuntu never realized their very ¨ambitious phone¨.
Looking at the Purism devices, I like the evolution of the devices - My Librem 13 was not a cheap device but so far it was definitely worth it - so if the Librem 5 gets into the same equivalent, I will be pretty satisfied.
I think Fairphone and Purism should join forces…BUT as I see it Purim is allready doing so. They showcase Freesoftware and Free hardware…
No one stops Fairphone to build the Next Fairphone 3 as modular and easy to fix and easy to maintain as Fairphone 2 and as free as Librem 5 at the sametime.
Regardless of the necrobump, we have to remember that Purism and Fairphone have two very different missions deep down.
Fairphone is trying to help change the industry by using non conflict materials. That means they don’t just go to Shenzhen, get some chips and throw a phone together. They’re going right to Congo or Uganda where a lot of the minerals are mined to make sure there is no slave or child labour involved in those mines. They then purchase materials from those companies to manufacture the components needed. But Fairphone is less concerned with using a non free SoC since they use one from Qualcomm.
As far as I know, Purism isn’t trying to change the supply chain for smartphone components but create a secure and libre smartphone. Both companies have very different visions with some overlap mind you but both have their compromises.
In my mind, the pragmatic answer would be for both phones to use the same size and connectors for camera modules, batteries, etc. So whether its made by Purism or Fairphone, you could use it in your phone. The reality though is that because of the space required for the Librem 5 CPU, Cellular Modem, etc, it would be extremely difficult to do so.
Put differently: Both companies want to make ethical devices. That already implies a non-profit-first philosophy. Just one company focuses on ethical for the end-user, and one for the producing side. Both have a passion for their focus, but would probably admit that the other is valuable.
And also, it’s already hard enough to reach that ONE goal. How much hard work Nager-IT put into the effort to create an ethical mouse. It’s just a mouse! But a start.
In theory, collaboration could work. But maybe with Nager-IT there is less conflict of interest than with FairPhone. They could bundle a fair mouse with their laptops, giving attention to that noble cause. And with the supply-chain knowledge, they could go for conflict free PCBs for the Librems. That’d be nice.
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