Worth mentioning again: Librem 5 Capabilities That No Other Phone Has
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That sounds like a red rag to a bull 
, as @amosbatto is the (primary) maintainer of the Librem 5 FAQ. If there is any specific question that you think has an answer that is out of date then you should mention the details here.
Only if it has developed a fault.
The idea that old hardware always has to be discarded (replaced) is something that phone manufacturers push, ably supported by software manufacturers who drop support for older models.
Linux tends to be a little less troublesome in that regard, since there aren’t the commercial incentives to drop support.
However as Amos alludes to in his previous post, external factors (in that case VoLTE) can drive obsolescence even where the hardware is otherwise usable. (VoLTE isn’t necessarily a problem but there may be a fair bit of fighting MNOs/MVNOs before VoLTE works everywhere in the world.)
Along similar lines, for power users, external factors relating to peripherals could be a factor e.g. computer (phone or not) may only support USB 3.0 and then USB 4.0 becomes ubiquitous.
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Yes, there has been a big increase in the time that Android/AOSP phones can be supported since Qualcomm and Google made this announcement in Dec. 2020:
Google and Qualcomm are teaming up to enable a longer support window for flagship Android smartphones. Qualcomm, with Google’s help, will now support its chipsets for three years of major OS updates and four years of security updates, enabling a better-than-Pixel level for all future Android phones, provided your OEM is willing to cooperate. This policy is starting with the flagship Snapdragon 888, but even lower-end chips will be supported.
However, what is not being promised is any upgrades of the kernel for Qualcomm processors, so that puts a hard limit on how long Android/AOSP phones can be supported. Samsung made a similar announcement in Aug. 2020 that its flagship models (S/Note/Z) starting with the Note 20 and Z Fold 2 would get 3 years of Android upgrades.
You may get lucky with a phone like the LG G2 because the LineageOS maintainers figured out how to keep upgrading AOSP, but that generally doesn’t happen with most phone models. (I don’t know if they figured out how to upgrade the kernel on the G2 or just run new AOSP versions on a really old kernel in the G2.)
Google provides security updates for two years for each version of Android, so if the phone OEM (or the carrier) decides to not offer Android upgrades, the phone is effectively limited to a 2 year lifespan, and many phones, especially mid-range and lower-end models aren’t getting Android upgrades.
However, even if you have a good phone manufacture or you have a model where you can install AOSP on your own, the lifespan of the phone will still be limited because the major mobile SoC manufacturers (Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, UNISOC, Huawei/HiSilicon and Google) generally don’t support new Linux kernel versions for their processors, so you are stuck with the same kernel for the life of the phone.
Each version of Android/AOSP only supports 3 LTS kernels. For example Android 12 supports Linux 4.19, 5.4 and 5.10. If you buy a phone like the Google Pixel 6, you will get Android 13 and 14 upgrades in the future, but you will still be using the Linux 5.10 kernel, and Linux 5.10 won’t be supported in Android/AOSP 15, so no further upgrading is possible.
Fairphone 4 (FP4) is doing something special because Fairphone is promising that it be supported by postmarketOS and Fairphone is saying that the phone will be supported by mainline Linux, so it won’t be limited to just Android 11->12->13 like a normal phone. Maybe Fairphone secured a promise from Qualcomm that it will offer kernel upgrades for the Snapdragon 750G or maybe Fairphone plans to compile its own kernel so it is possible to upgrade to Android 14 in the FP4. Given the problems with the FP2 and its support ending after 4 years, I await to see how Fairphone supports the FP4 till 2027, but I give Fairphone a lot of credit for collaborating with /e/ and postmarketOS, so there are AOSP and Linux options for the FF4.
Modularity in a phone only makes sense if modularizing components which are liable to break or can be upgraded–otherwise modularity only adds extra to the environmental and economic cost of the phone. With the Fairphone 2/3, there was a module to upgrade the camera, and the USB port and 3.5mm audio jack were modularized, which is important because they are liable to break, but I don’t see much utility in the other modules in the Fairphone. The FP4 gets rid of the 3.5mm audio jack (which makes most people’s headphones obsolete), and I doubt that Fairphone will offer a camera upgrade module for the FP4, since there isn’t much point to having over 48MP of camera resolution, even if the Snapdragon 750G can support up to 192MP.
The L5 has modularity in the battery, USB-C port (on a separate PCB), WiFi/BT, cellular modem. Being able to change the cellular modem allows you move to new regions of the world and support new LTE bands, which is not possible with the FP4 which is limited to just European bands and has the modem incorporated into the SoC, so it can’t be changed.
If you live in Europe, I think that the FP4 is the best Android phone that you can buy, because it will be supported by mainline Linux and postmarketOS to escape planned obsolescence, and it has good enough hardware to be a useful device for a long time. However, buying the FP4 won’t help pay for dev work on mobile Linux like buying the L5. If the goal is long-term change of the mobile industry and trying to tackle the problems of planned obsolescence and Surveillance Capitalism, there are good reasons to support the development of Linux, whereas AOSP isn’t a good vehicle for promoting change in my opinion.
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I was in no way trying to seem like a jerk and shine light on anything. The FAQ is highly detailed and there is a lot of information there and some of it very, very detailed.
Where is the info about the FP4 and linux support? Are there any details about what kind of linux OS, etc?
If I am being honest, I am much more willing to support the project in almost any other means than by purchasing something I won’t use. Surveillance Capitalism is something I am against for sure. I was just curious what major plans the Librem 5 had in store.
Aside from donating, buying the phone (I’ve got a librem 14), and being a dev, what other ways are there to support the progress of this?
Spread the word?
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Try Signal Desktop from here. It has at least one annoying bug, but it is usable. I think that you have to set your display scaling to 100% to do the initial setup.
For more details see also: Building and running Signal Desktop on the Librem 5
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A good question to add to the FAQ actually.
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Basically you can follow what Luca Weiss submits to the Linux kernel mailing list, as he works for Fairphone on mainline Linux.
You can also follow postmarketOS, e.g. on the device page, or look through merge request on postmarketOS’s gitlab.
Also Mobian has announced they are going to support the FP4 eventually. I am pretty sure it will show up on this wiki page once Mobian will support it.
Assuming I won’t stop doing what I’ve been doing since mid 2020, you might also find out about Fairphone 4 Linux progress in my weekly updates.
BTW: I wrote this on a Librem 5 docked to an HP Elite X3 Lap Dock - while it’s still a bit lackluster here and there (manual camera only, battery life), it’s definitely quite nice in convergence mode.
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Porting the FP4 to postmarketOS Linux has barely started, and the FP4 will use a Linux kernel (as opposed to an Android kernel with libhybris inside. /e/ Solutions sells FP4 with /e/ (an AOSP derivative) preinstalled.
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_4_(fairphone-fp4)
For the next Librem 5, see: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Frequently-Asked-Questions#71-what-will-be-the-changes-in-the-fir-batch-and-should-i-wait-for-it
@nicole.faerber also said that it is planning on releasing a tablet which will probably be based on the i.MX 8M Quad (like the Librem 5).
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Choose a desktop Linux application and work on making its interface adaptive so it works on mobile devices. It it uses Qt, add Kirigami classes. If it uses GTK, work on adding libhandy and/or libadwaita classes.
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Get involved in one of mobile projects, such as Phosh, KDE Plasma Mobile, UBports, Mobian, postmarketOS, etc. There a whole bunch of mobile applications that need work.
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Buy the PinePhone, which is currently shipping and only costs $150/$200, so that you can help test/debug/develop mobile Linux.
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I doubt the general user cares or knows much about security patches or OS version and would throw away the phone because of that.
Given a choice between a partially functioning OS and one that functions fine without updates…guess which one most are likely to choose. I am fine waiting with an outdated OS until linux is working well enough to use it. It is the modularity and repairability that I am after. When the time comes, the switch shouldn’t be that big of a deal, especially since data can be easily exported/important with a removable card.
… until the phone gets pwned.
I think the way it will work is that the majority of people who are running vulnerable phones will get away with it and a small minority will end up paying far more than the cost of junking the phone. So people are prepared to take the risk of being in the latter category.
A business may not be prepared to take that risk because there can be consequences for such negligence or even recklessness that go well beyond one phone.
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Thanks, that worked! I can even make calls and receive video. The camera of the L5 is not recognized by signal, but thats not important in my case.
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Current state of Librem 5 usability?
I would say it is getting better all the time. But there are many things which have to get better. 4G, screen-off-time, camera, gps, only to name a few.
But I do not regret buying the Librem5.
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I like this small update to phosh:
Sometimes it’s the little things. Nice work, team!
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There’s been a few threads that got close (I really appreciate this thread as being the closest I’ve found so far) but I’d be interested in a “daily use” review that wasnt based around leaving the device on a charger.
Example of what I’d like to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__F1jAcCLFo (just picked one, but it’s from TheUnlockr and shows a day of using devices around town).
This would be really valuable IMO, most “reviews” are based from usage at home, near a charger and talk more about the Linux side of things rather than the “phone” capabilities - I don’t have a Librem5 but as a long-term potential buyer this content would help inform my decision (besides considering stock viabilty).
This probably wont happen due to the limited number of devices out in the wild (as well as taking into account the user base) but one can dream!
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@irvinewade Fascinating … (intoned in a Star Trek/ Mr. Spock-like sort of way with 1 eyebrow raised) Can you elaborate or point me in a direction where I can find out more on this approach?
Sadly, not at the moment because, and someone correct me if I am wrong, the mail client on the Librem 5 does not (yet?) support LDAP.
But the above is the approach that I have tested with Thunderbird (working LDAP client support) and an iPhone (adequately working LDAP client support). So, longer term, it is what I would like to use with the Librem 5.
If your question is more general than the Librem 5 then slapd is the server package that you will need to install. (Package sponsored by Will Smith? 
) NB: There is the assumption that you have a suitable server to install this on.
I’ve imported all contacts into the LDAP server from .ldif format and you may need some data preparation and cleansing before that will work (I definitely did, but it’s probably a good thing to do anyway, right?).
And just to round this one out … due to the absence of LDAP client support in the Librem 5, I texthacked the .ldif file into a .vcf file and loaded that into the Librem 5 using the supplied Goodies package. So no synch or consistency for now.
Wait, there’s no ldap client in pureos?
Maybe. Maybe not.
I meant specifically: the mail client that I am using, Geary, does not contain support for being an LDAP client. Perhaps if you use a different mail client, that problem will go away (but you then might get a different problem i.e. whole mail client not sufficiently adaptive). So Geary works very nicely on the small screen but you live with its limitations e.g. no POP and, I am claiming without checking, no LDAP.
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