I recommend that we be patient and gracious, given the magnitude of such an ambitious project.
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I ordered back when Purism first announced the shipping of the Aspen batch. I told myself “ok, they’re shipping. I can place my order now”. I think that may be back sometime between June and September of 2019. It’s been long enough that I forgot exactly when.
My plan at the time was to cancel and get a refund through my credit card company if I didn’t have my phone within three months. But as I tracked the development process on this forum, I realized that there was notable progress as a few backers started receiving their phones, while also realizing that the Aspen batch was not anywhere close to being ready for mainstream release. So I didn’t mind the delay and extended my deadline-or-cancel date another three months. I’ve done the same every few months since then.
If not for this forum and Purism’s successful release of other products (Librem Mini and a few new laptops), I would have lost faith and wanted a refund before now. People complain about Purism’s retroactive change of refund policy. Ok. That’s not good. But I understand why they did it. People are still getting their phones.
Overall, during the entire three years or so that I have been following Purism and this forum, I have had my own complaints (mostly related to how Purism communicates or does not communicate with us) and have read many complaints from others here. But I have never seen a complaint here that claimed that someone paid for product and that Purism didn’t ship and then denied that they owed the customer anything at some point in the future (they never took the money and run).
Meanwhile, I see posts here from people who have questions about their Librem products that Purism did ship to them. One guy here did go through the courts in his country to get a refund from Purism. So I tell myself “Ok, Purism did pay up. They plan to stay in business”. So despite my initial plans, I have more confidence now than I did almost two years ago when I pre-ordered, that I will eventually receive my phone. The shipping volume seems to be increasing now. More people are getting their phones at a faster rate now. Some people here on this forum who were waiting in line just like me a few months ago, have received and are very happy with their new Librem 5 now. They just made their purchase a few years earlier than I made mine.
I anticipate getting a one-of-a-kind phone that you can’t get anywhere else, including from Pine. So as of today, it’s still worth the wait. I am starting to consider if I might want to order another Librem 5 now, before I even receive my first one. Once the product performance rivals that of a phone from Samsung or LG, everyone will want one. If Purism starts getting orders for tens of thousands of phones every month, the wait might actually get longer for those at the end of the line at that time. I wouldn’t want to wait another two years to receive my second Librem 5. I have family members that would use them too. And I don’t mind doing their tech support myself, given that they’re not all Linux literate.
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I’m not seeing that yet. Maybe it’s in Byzantium. I would suppose it will come through to mainstream (Amber) soon though. ??
I ordered Sept 2019 so they are about two years behind. Not saying it will take two years to deliver.
But today I ordered a Pinephone figuring that my L5 is still a way off. Just my need to play with a Linux phone.
In reality I don’t expect my L5 in 2021. I see nothing in the posts or the state of the world to hearten me I’m afraid.
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I am using the time as I wait to for my L5 to restructure my digital life so that the arrival of the L5 will complete the process.
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A bit off topic, but: Can you elaborate on that? What exactly do you change right now? No more Windows PC? Secure/privatcy oriented E-Mail provider? Etc.?
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Can you please start a new thread with such questions/discussion? Thanks
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For me, it was seeing the dev work on Phosh that convinced me to not cancel my order. I see Phosh as the most viable path to mobile Linux become a working alternative to Android.
My initial reaction in 2017 was “too expensive” and “I’ll never pay over $200 for a phone.” The more I studied the problem of planned obsolescence and surveillance capitalism, the more I thought “if I really care about these problems, I have to be willing to finance the change”, so I preordered in Jan 2019. I expected to get the phone by the end of 2019.
The more I studied the challenges facing mobile Linux, however, the more I realized the long-term importance of financing the dev work, and the less I worried about the final product or when I would get it. It has certainly been an evolution in my thinking. I didn’t understand how limited were the hardware options and I didn’t understand why Purism decided to create Phosh. The more I learned, the more I have realized the challenges that Purism faces. I studied why previous Linux phones failed and that gave me a much better appreciation for why Purism designed the L5 the way that it did.
My plan was to buy the Librem 5 and PineTab, but I don’t have any idea when my Librem 5 will arrive and the March update made it sound like there would be no PineTab in 2021, so I gave up waiting and ordered the PinePhone when the Beta was announced.
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I am also interested in the pinetab but its out of stock as you say. No pinetab in 2021 is disappointing. More wait.
The April Update says that PINE64 is now planning to try to do a PineTab batch:
As for the PineTab, we’ve made it no secret that we’re prioritizing PinePhone production at this time. With very few available components, including the A64 SoC itself currently in short supply, we are opting to produce the much more popular device. Furthermore, if we were to open PineTab pre-orders at this time, it would have to be at a much higher price-point, which I believe makes for a far less attractive proposition. With all that said, we will seek to seize a window for a production opportunity opening this summer, and we will attempt to produce another batch of PineTabs. At present time it is impossible to tell if we will succeed in securing all the necessary components, negotiate sensible pricing, and ultimately offer the PineTab at an attractive price-point.
Before I close this section off, I want to make it abundantly clear that while this is the outlook as of today, April 15th 2021, and it is a subject to change. While the situation may seem less than ideal, it may change any day. The situation is so dynamic that everything I wrote above may be completely invalid in a day, week, or month’s time. Stay tuned for updates.
Seeing these kinds of announcements from other companies makes me more tolerant of the delays in shipping the Librem 5.
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Meanwhile Purism continues with the lie: “Place your order now, get it in a few months!” Same shit since Nov. 2020. That’s way I try to not get a Librem 5 anymore by trying to sell my pre-order. They can’t estimate my pre-order from 2018, but it’s a “few months” if you order today. Ha!
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I agree about the communication. Its a lovely clear explanation of why they are doing what they are and an estimate of when they will start producing.
Thanks for posting that. I’ll now keep any eye out for the pinetab. I can’t wait now to get the pinephone. I should have ordered the bloody thing months ago!
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FYI, this one was ordered Sep 29, 2017; delivered in Australia Apr 21. https://social.mjd.id.au/display/55a45663-1560-7969-67ae-3d3264693895 ](https://social.mjd.id.au/display/55a45663-1560-7969-67ae-3d3264693895)
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I had a shipping estimate for April. Today I received an email explaining the component shortage. I will receive my Librem 5 after that production resumes in October. My order date is 2017-10-06.
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I‘ve got the same mail today and have had the same shipping estimate as April. My order date is 2017-10-07, in next October we have been waited 4 years and nobody knows if the production will resume in October.
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Yep. Got that email too. My order date was 2017-10-06. So close. Considering they made the failed April estimate without having the parts, their October estimate without the parts holds no weight. I will be pleasantly surprised if it turns up.
The silver lining for me is that I have held onto my dying iphone 5S for an additional 4 years. In this time it has become almost unusable due to the dying battery. I now barely use it for anything but the occasional phone call. This has inadvertently cured my phone/data addiction! I will probably retire my iphone soon and crank out my trusty old Nokia. This has an easily removable battery so will help reduce the surveillance of me in the encroaching dystopian authoritarian nonsense world, which I envisioned a Librem 5 would be useful for back in 2017.
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I thought the shipments planned until May were only for the models they were sure to have the components for.
It’s really not clear how they communicate…
At each step it seems like it’s only a matter of months and in the end it’s several years of delays!
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Did you get it yet?
That time and courtesy has passed