Another delay in the delivery of the Librem 5

Hardware Librem 5
21

Well Purism isn’t Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi or any big names in the industry so it had to be expected that they might face difficulties but they don’t have the resources of all the people above so if time is needed I really much prefer to wait a bit and have a finished product than having something that was rushed to meet the deadline, + the end product is something that I wanted for about 10 years so waiting a few months more isn’t that much.

About javascript I don’t think it’s much of a problem if you know how to use privacy browser extensions, unless you go on shady sites if you unblock only what’s needed you’ll be fine.

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22

Well, if difficulties are expected, the plan can still be made appropriately. Especially when the difficulties were already known in November, and the plan was announced for April already after the difficulties were known, not just "“could be expected”. Now I feel like I’ve been deceived.

Speaking of javascript, I know how to eliminate its dangers, thank you. But the very fact that this dangerous technology is used by an information-safety-supportiong website is very annoying.

23

Deep breaths. Purism is stronger as a privacy firm than it is a security firm right now. This seems to be evident by the things you’ve articulated and a few others pointed out by others. It is my hope and expectation that they grow in this dimension. I tend to be of the mind that rational discourse with an unwaivering level of support for the mission is the best way to support a fledgling firm that holds much in the way of potential. Potential that must be realized by working a plan of development that unfolds in due time. Expectations firmly but fairly held feels like the best way to provide feedback and influence development. Hyperbole has a way of washing away. My two cents.

Honey. Not vinegar.

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24

Many of the forum members will remember I posted about the silence and due date of the device. I agree we all would prefer a device that works, but they also want to stay informed.

This goes back my comment in a previous posting. I find it difficult swallow that if we are told in essentially March the company did not know the delays back in January or December. Soooo…lets talk on 2 months to a shipping date of say…15 April…tax day. That would be June 15. Not the 3rd quarter.

Just so the forum knows, I am a supporter of Purism. i have my fantastic Librem 15 I am typing this message on.

This is why I was speaking about clarity and more routine communication with the forum. As I was saying in my previous posting, the job of the project manager cannot be fun. As such, their job is to have an end date and work backwards to a start date. Not that any reputable project manager wants to “bust tape”, but they must adjust the schedule as delays happen. That being said, when a task is not met, the date is pushed due to having tasks needing to be completed before you move on to the next task.

I am sure Purism will sue these 2 back to back delays and grown from them. Both delays were due to technical difficulties. They will learn you cannot do maintenance on an airplane in flight. This is why I use the 5Ps, "Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance (Piss-poor being one word). With better forecasting of components and review of said components in advance, the delays quite possibly could have been mitigated.

All that being said, I am very much excited to see what Purism delivers to me, you, and the rest of us who have purchased the Librem5.

Thanks,

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25

That approach would have yielded MX6 based phone, instead of MX8. And than we would never hear the end of “this is soo outdated chip”.

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26

Your context is not totally accurate. If the company was wanting to use the latest chip, then wait and use the chip with a better long forecasted date. I know they were working to remedy the error with the battery usage of the processor. Just goes back to more frequent communication. Even so, the company stated they found out the latest chip works. Unless they are sharing manufacture time with other products, they could put those devices together and ship at the latest 1-2 months late, not 3 months.

27

So…
If i leave screen size and fonts on default settings - I’m safe ?

28

To me it looks like things were going as planned (April delivery). This means using the i.MXM8 Mini CPU to avoid the power consumption problem with the i.MXM8 Quad CPU. Something unexpected happened: NXP found a way to solve the power consumption problem via software and Purism went back to the primary CPU option ( i.MXM8 Quad) because it is a better choice now. Therefore they need to go back and test the new software from NXP with the i.MXM8 Quad CPU and make sure it really works as desired. That’s how we’ve got to this new delivery quarter as I understand it. I might be wrong.

I expect them to put a date on that Q3 thing as we get closer to it.

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29

It’s understandable from your point of view. On the other hand, nobody ever would want to update their planned release date on a weekly basis.

Of course, in hindsight, they probably wish to have said Q1 2019 from the beginning, instead of January. That might have given them the chance to adapt the date only once. They made the mistake a second time to say April instead of Q2. I always thought it could hardly be before May.

The original plan was that the dev boards are shipped 7 months before the phone. Now, we’re back at that timeline, which makes sense.

It didn’t really sound right to be able to learn some lessons from the dev-board, adapt the final design accordingly, get a sample, test it, get a golden master, test it some more, order the final batch, wait for it, QA it again, ship it… all within about 4 months.

And I agree that the communication was not best. You don’t make it sound better by calling the progress “major” and the delay “minor”. There is progress, and there is a delay. Period. Actually, I expected both :wink:

I can understand that, but I’m certain that was not on purpose. I think they tried hard and somehow thought it could be done. You would feel more deceived if you would receive a barely usable phone in April.

I was very worried that the April-or-May phone would receive bad reviews because it would not be ready for day-to-day use. Now, I’m rather confident we get something that already works quite well.

I’m afraid, no :wink: There are not many devices with this exact resolution. Now, assume that in the first months there will be about 6000 devices with a few different browsers maybe. That’s not the best prerequisite if your goal is to be one among millions… But it will get better over time. :wink:

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30

hi there! :slight_smile:

so how do u surf the web basically? :smiley:
browsers can be considered as the most advanced sandboxes, even if there are vulners all around the “digi-verse”… i think this engine is actually very neat, and its open source and widely used. security is a thing for the devs, just as well as for the users (both hosts and end users).
see:

for sure, they could make in theory a js free pure html forum engine, but i, as a m.facebook.com user on my notebook, can clearly confirm u, that its not such a pleasure to use it! :smiley:

btw, are u a developer? java applets and flash stuffs are closed source and have different toolset behind them with different abilities, i dunno about java security risks, but flash was fundamentally a security hole and when this was discovered, the world moved accordingly. the world relies upon js actually, js is everywhere, even in ur phone and desktop apps, like its part of the gnome display engine. :smiley:

otoh here u go for any better ideas: https://source.puri.sm/ - ur free to do it better, but actually if they would work on a neat forum engine in the name of the “dont trust nobody” slogan, they would reach no much, while u can see how much busy hands and interests met at the git of the current engine.

and i really hope that u didnt get me wrong, cuz it was no offense, but they provided a forum for us, and working hard on a world wide unique leet mobile platform instead of reinventin the wheel, they are carrying actually a really huge responsibility for a better world.

btw i guess u could be a power user while not a developer, and hype/creep driven media planted some inaccurate beliefs inside u, if this is the case, then please dont creep the ppl around. there is a chance that there is a vulnerability in the engine, probably with less comfort there could be less space for such vulnerabilities, so somewhere ur clearly right, but the best measurement for the security is the most audit a thing just got, even if a strong competitor is the minimalism. otoh, i believe that we can be sure that its not a privacy nightmare, cut such antifeatures are not welcome in general and if anyone can see such issue then will rise their voice against it, and in the world of open source ppl have power to take away control if the actual control misbehaves.

all the bests for u, i really hope i wasnt impolite with anything! :slight_smile:

31

@guru, @wctaylor, jup, that was here: 3500 phones ordered
When the numbers were public, about 130 devices were ordered every month. Could be more with recent success / dev boards etc. Monthly monetary inflow ~$100,000.
I’d say now there are 4600…5000 devices preordered, at least. Until shipment, should be 5000…6000.

The most challenging decision, where you don’t want to be in Todd’s shoes, is probably how many devices to produce in the first run.
Make it 10,000 and put 4000 on stock? Or 15,000? Even 20,000?
Depends a lot on how well the final product will be received by the world.
You don’t want to have too many, but you also don’t want to have too few :upside_down_face:

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32

I doubled our order as soon as I read this:

We have chosen the i.MX 8M Quad CPU because the power consumption issues can be dealt with in software… and ultimately that means we don’t have to change the hardware to solve this issue.

Walk the walk, or don’t.

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33

Not worried about the delay at all. So far - following the communication - all purism’s tried to do their best to get the best thing done. If that means a bit more time, just take it. That attitude is much better than what the known market usually delivers. Somebody still using a decade old well working Samsung S5230

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34

Frankly, I’m even MORE excited now. That is a significantly better processor than what I was thinking they’d ship- I can wait a few more months for that.

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35

Threads like this make me glad I’m not in customer service. Glad to see this seems like a very minor gripe for the majority of people. I see it as completely expected and normal. (that is the delay)

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36

There is no one else making anything like this for any price that is expected to be available at any time in the foreseeable future, so yeah I’m happy with the whole situation. Our reward will be a usable phone that focuses more on privacy and openness than any other, as well as Purism’s continued innovation in those fields if recent trends are any indication.

To keep things in perspective, we’re talking about a device that has expected sales somewhere on the order of 10,000 compared to mass market models that have to sell more like 1,000,000 minimum to be considered worth the time to design and build for a major manufacturer. All indications I’ve seen make it look like they are working hard to get this done right in a reasonable amount of time, just to cater to our very specific and relatively unpopular desires. It’s actually astounding to me that this is possible and happening at all to begin with given how tiny the market is for this device, so I’m not going to complain about a moderate delay.

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37

Exactly! :+1:

It is impressive indeed that such a phone is even possible.

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38

Oh honey, sweetie sweetie, here’s an opportunity to learn a life lesson in general:

Good, done right, is always better than fast and never rush it when you know it’s going to be good.

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39

I am happy about the delay, because probaly KDE Mobile will be more usable a the time of delivery. I will only use a Gnome based Desktop when I am forced to use it. For ME a desktop, which robs ME of my freedom is not acceptable. I accept, that others are happy with Gnome. I amnot.

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40

Awesome we had a update in February, I wasn’t expecting one until March. Also excited about the choice of CPU and the new time frame feels achievable. Extra time for more software development - happy about that too! Another vote for KDE Mobile. All good news to me :slight_smile:

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