The first time I heard about Librem 5 I was buying a second hand Note 4, my second one, which was considered an old phone already. I got all pumped up and checked out the Purism project. It’s been years, I’ve been checking on it every so often. I’ve seen how little information was going out. I didn’t stop being all excited about it anyways.
This time it was a few months I didn’t check it out. Today… my excitement was crushed and turned into disbelief and dejection… I know this has been an ongoing project and all, but boy have I been surprised today. As if someone pulled the carpet I was standing on…
$1,999?? This feels like a very cruel prank I’ve been played on. It went from being not that much more expensive than a Pinephone to being the most expensive phone I’ve seen. There’s no way I’m going to spend 2 grand on a phone. That’s just beyond me. I could buy a quite decent computer AND a degoogled phone with that. In fact, that’s what I’ll do.
I don’t think I’ve posted anything since I signed up here. I never imagined I’d sign in for something this sad to me. One thing I have to thank the project though. It developed and nourished a very useful feeling. The willpower to restrain the urges to buy the du jour phone youtube reviewers make you want. Thank you.
It’s time for me to find a new horizon. Getting into degoogling phones is something I’ve been getting interested in recently. That is a good start. Probably, nobody will read this, I’m just trying to get it off my chest. I had to say it. Thank you very much, good luck to you all.
If you bought 2 years ago it would have been $599( I think). It is now $749, and $1999(for the Made In USA version). I do understand the frustration, I think most of us do. It has been long awaited, but things are starting to come together.
You’re not the only complaining about this buddy. I doubt if they will ever release the phones.
I ended up doing charge back with my credit card company, because they would not uphold their refund policy.
$1999 is for the Manufactured in the USA version, not a For use in the USA version. I would imagine that only corporate and government buyers would be willing to pay 2 grand for a phone, with the exception of the occasional flush individual.
Granted that this is confusing.
You could have gotten the phone a lot cheaper than $749 if you had been prepared to back the phone in its original crowdfunded period, as I did - with the attendant development risk, a risk that is still not zero.
The wait has been hard for all of us. Here is more info about the current state of the Librem 5 phone:
You might want to consider the PinePhone, since you can buy it today, but it has some issues as well, so don’t expect it to work perfectly.
If you need a reliable phone today, you should consider installing LineageOS on our phone. If you don’t want to spend much money, you can buy a Redmi Note or a used OnePlus and install LineageOS. If you live in Europe, you might want to consider buying a Fairphone 3 with /e/ preinstalled.
Another option is to root your existing Android phone and uninstall all of the software that you can. Then install the F-Droid repo and only install new software from there. Use Osmand~ instead of Google Maps. Then, subscribe to the Librem One services.
That seems like something incredibly arrogant to say. People can’t contribute to something such as a RYF phone if they don’t have the time or necessary skills for contributing to OS development or hardware changes for the next version. How ridiculous. He ordered a product; not an activity. He can contribute but if he is not able to or want to, you cannot blame him for anything.
Yes, not everybody can contribute, but what’s the point of complaining about waiting???
If he had lost money because of bad investment or development time in a abandoned project, I would understand.
But “waiting”?
Perhaps it is time to learn how to deal with frustration. Santa Claus may not bring everything he asked for this year…
I myself wouldn’t have needed to purchase such a device to be waiting. I am waiting for an awesome slab mobile phone to revloutionise mobile tech a little more and give my a smile for if it gets on RYF list. It isn’t so much the product I am excited for but the concept it brings to a landscape where all devices need garbage to run on to work.
The term for that we use for that in my factory is called ITAR compliance. No component no matter how stupid, needs to be made in the U.S. It is what easily creates the $600 toilet seat or the $200 wrench.
But hey, if you are a U.S. gov’t purchasing agent, they aren’t your personal funds, $2K is chump change for a phone, another $2K probably just goes into the overhead of writing a purchase order, so get a thousand for at a cost of 2 million. You’ll get a good performance evaluation because your overhead was only point five percent of the purchase.
@ OP. i agree that 2k USD for a PHONE is outrageous for anybody’s personal wallet but this isn’t JUST meant as a phone (well it might be in the beginning but as time goes on if we’re lucky the situation is likely to change …).
the real value is in the CONVERGENCE + LINUX + MOBILE + TOKEN capabilities (even though the modem is still a black-box there are 3 hw-kill-switches for that + the fact that it’s isolated from main memory). for 800 USD at the time of launch you CAN STILL have all of that and NOT pay 2000 USD if it’s acceptable for you to risk getting mallware implants from China. otherwise you might get them from the US but some would argue that is still BETTER if you don’t want to be forced into chosing sides then you can become a hermit (that’s the best option if you want to protect the environment )
I’d rather have commies get me. I can get extradited to the US unlike China + the US government is stupid, their intelligence agencies are deluded and their companies are all powerful. Purism made in Norway would be much better (with their factories they own).
i’d argue that free-software and software in general is BEST developed and maintained LOCALLY in an organic and free-market (aka where competition and free-speech are not hindered in any way) and PEOPLE choose what their particular interest is and what compromise if ANY they are willing to make under FULL awareness of what the consequences might be.
the current situation is NOT ideal at all even if Purism is doing their best to maintain transparency and PUBLIC code contributions to the kernel and phosh and all the other areas that they are contributing on behalf of the almighty dollar.
ideally each town or settlement would have such free-thinkers and software experts that are willing to work with their customer base in order to have human rights respecting software and hardware …
Reminds me of the old story about a fresh prisoner in a basement KGB interrogation cell in with a barred window at the top that looks out on Lubyanka square.
“Why am I here Commissar? Am I under suspicion?”
“No comrade, see those people walking about on the square? THEY are under suspicion.”
oops your algorithm posted something you posted some moons ago … can’t remember exactly when and can’t be bothered to check but definitely the same thing … almost word for word
but some would argue that is still BETTER 
if you don’t want to be forced into chosing sides then you can become a hermit (that’s the best option if you want to protect the environment 
)