To be fair, Pinephone is the entry level, whereas Librem 5 has always been presented as a âhigh-endâ GNU/Linux phone.
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Not trying to ding Purism here as Iâve been holding onto my current phone for 5 years due to delays, but given there hasnât been a blog post about pulling in a month, at least yet, which you think theyâd want to do⊠I suspect itâs more like theyâre printing the shipping labels and customs manifests late Sept and doing the actual assembly and distribution center dropoff in early October.
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Yes.
I hope that some of that price increase is temporary on account of the global chip shortage. Otherwise $1300 (never mind about after I convert into Banana Republic dollars) is just too expensive. I can accept that the original (crowdfunder) price was too low but there is a very large gap between that and the now proposed price.
Some people would be reluctant to generate that much electronics waste however.
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Maybe for some. But itâs not unusual for people to buy a new phone every three years.
The Ubuntu BQ E4.5 phone (which is my daily driver) is from 2015, and I cross fingers that it will survive until my L5 is coming to my hands.
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Right, asking 900$ for a prototype linux phone is already pushing it but 1300 !? Iâm sorry but thatâs insane. This is flagship Iphone territory. I understand that they are investing the money into the software development but in order to keep the momentum going you need people to be able buy this thing. 1300$ is a gaming laptop price.
I bought the phone back in 2017 for 600$ because I thought it was worth it. Maybe I would be willing to pay even 700 but if they priced it at 1200 or 1300 I would never fund the crowdsourcing campaign. I imagine many others wouldnât too.
Look at the Steamdeck. It uses bespoke SoC that is far more powerful than L5 and yet they are selling the top model for only 650$. I strongly advise against raising the price any further. It will kill the product.
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Go find a time machine for us will you.
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Dude I would like to know your experience with that phone. I once bought the BQ Aquarius tablet with Ubuntu. It was the worst Linux experience I had in my life.
Iâm starting to feel like they donât want to sell the phones. Maybe they have been pressured by big tech or govâts to not make this? Maybe iâm just being paranoid because I ordered in 2018 and I havenât received a phone yet. Does the cell service work in the USA yet? They were having FCC issues with the modem or something?
FCC certification has now been obtained. Yes, it was quite late in the process. Probably just a question of priorities (and the need to get the camera somewhat working first, before certification).
This. I think.
If you had a time machine then there wouldnât be a problem. Your stock buy and sell trades would be immaculately successful. You would be rich beyond your wildest dreams. $1300 would be lunch money. Now, unfortunately, back to the real world ⊠
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Interesting experience. In the 2016 I was part of a group of betatesters of the BQ M10 tablet. The group members were invited by BQ.com based on their experience with the Ubuntu phone BQ E45 and their contributions to the project. We received the M10 before the market and every now and then software updates over the air (OTA) and we had to report issues or bugs.
Could you please share your âworst Linux experienceâ of this device. Thanks in advance.
Ah, my 11-years old child is still using it. And there are still updates from https://UBports.com , a community project which took over the development when Canonical.com left it.
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I agree that raising the price may get Purism into trouble, but this comparison totally misses the point of Librem 5. It is the only phone in the world ready to be certified by the FSF, the only phone with usable kill switches, the only GNU/Linux phone with good enough performance and many more things. Nothing comes close.
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Currently prices going up just for supply chain troubles and high inflation. Its should go down in the future when economy will go back to normality (ie: supply chain regular, low inflation, more L5 sold).
Purism knows it: prices too high for experimental minipc means to go out of the market.
IMO
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There is the old dilemma, which only Purism governance might answer (and their opinion might also change over time): which is the market they are really proposing to (in facts, not in marketing words), and how big is it? SPC status and financing rounds aside, you can keep stuff and staff running only on pocket money, customersâ purchases or government money. Each of these with own pro/cons; customersâ purchases probably being the most long-time sustainable option 
Some millions of people around the worldâŠ
I know that. Why do you think I bought the bloody thing? But go to /r/purism on reddit and look what people think about the current price. Increasing it further is going to put off many potential customers. And purism needs as many customers as possible. Without money this project is not going anywhere.
r/purism is exceptionally hateful to Purism. I would not rely on it to reflect the public opinion. There are quite a few trolls trying to harm Purism as much as possible.
By the way, AFAIK similar thing happened to Pine64 until they created their own âofficialâ subreddit.
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Reddit is not very nice in general. I think itâs the downvote feature there that brings out the worst in people.
Forums work better like this one here, you can show you appreciate something but you cannot downvote. If you disagree with someone, write a reply and make your argument.
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When Purism now re-starts shipping, can you please post somewhere in the forum a record of
- order date
- shipping check mail from Purism
- shipping mail from Purism
- door delivery date with some details (country, carrier, ...)
to continue the table in this thread:
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