If we allow Purism’s retroactive change of the refund policy to get a pass because maybe Purism would have otherwise gone bankrupt, we create an inexcusable moral delema.
If Todd were to have used a ski mask and a gun to rob a bank to get the money, that could have saved Purism also, especially if he never got caught. I have my own code that I apply to myself. That code says that if I were to do something bad to cause something good to happen, that I wouldn’t be worthy to take credit for my work. In the process, I might lose a good part of myself that I can’t get back. I apply that same standard to others as well. I would rather lose my pre-order money and drive Purism in to bankruptcy than to indulge that kind of behavior in someone else, to provide Purism with an unworthy win. There are other ways in life to win that don’t erode moral fabric. And schemes like that only work once or twice before people catch-on. Then you end up bankrupt both financially and morally. I think that Purism has a moral problem (maybe several of them) to resolve before they can claim an honorable win. Nobody wants to support the team that everyone knows won by cheating.
Gnu+Linux already has a moral issue where the peoples everything want free, cheaper and fast, if we want a success gnu+linux we need to truly support with money, patience, perseverance on gnu+linux companies like Purism. Purism already spend millions of dollars on Librem 5 development, i do not see that Purism is a scammer when they it doing very good work in background, of course bad logistics and other will be occur. I know that Purism already failed to ship the L5 on the date promise, but the issue is that the software where is not ready yet to ship, librem 5 yes it ready, but not the software, so people even if they receive the L5 on date they will always be dissatisfied and complaints by the software that is not adjusted yet… at the same time Purism suffering from inflation and chip shortages. Come on guys we need more friendly with Purism we need stay in good and bad situations with Purism that tries to give us and build something good.
Scammer it is if i buy a Pixel 6 Pro where is unsecurity, unethical, ungnu, cero control, worse that this device uses me as a signboard plus convencional unprivacy. Yes it is quick available the pixel 6 pro but for nothing good i.m.h.o.
Are we sure he has not tried this first before changing the refund policy?
StevenR, you are right. I totally understand you, and wish we lived in a better world, where a project like Librem 5 would get more funding than stuff like Snapchat (25 Billion IPO in 2017), TikTok (~50 Billion) ect. and we would not need to have such conversations at all.
Like the original poster, I believe that Purism is in a race with time which it seems to be losing. And, I don’t think the newer and fancier models of mobile phones are the only competitors. We are witnessing an explosion of wearables and IoT which are enmeshing us in a web of total corporate surveillance. While in recent past, mobile phone has been the main bottleneck of privacy intrusion (with its plethora of sensors and GPS), these days my TV tracks me, my health wristband track me, even idiotic things such as smart doorbells track me.
A single company may solve one of these issues, but not all of them. Market for hardcore privacy enthusiasts is small. Some of you may point out how given the choice, most people would go for
increase of privacy, but I see on day to day basis that even minimal gains in comfort for a lot of people
seem enough to forget about privacy. Also, talking to people in my surroundings about even something as established as GNU and Linux and the world of Free software is just confusing, or goes over their heads.
It has even become suspicious in modern times, with its spotlight on libertarianism, RMS-like controversies and such.
This is like the story of the last 70 years of the USA in one sentence. If we teleport us back to the 1950s things were looking that positive that one could forecast that by 2022 people in the USA would work 3 days a week. What is a 3 day work week? It is freedom. Freedom to do whatever you like with your time.
But people traded freedom for consumption of goods they don’t really need. If you have lived for 40 or 50 years without a smart doorbell than it is most likely a product that you don’t really need. And maybe the price is not that high and it is just a drop in a bucket, but drop by drop we enslave ourselves. Especially if you consider the compound effect of drops with interest over time.
You talked about privacy, I transferred it to freedom. As we sacrificed them in a similar way.
This afternoon, I plugged my new Pixil 6 Pro in to my PC via a USB cable. After unlocking the boot loader on the phone through its OS, I ran through 4 mouse clicks from a web page on the GrapheneOS website. Click 1.) Unlock bootloader on phone, Click 2.) Download operating system from website to PC, Click 3.) Upload OS from PC to Phone. Click 4.) Re-lock bootloader on phone. Then I booted the phone and re-locked the bootloader from inside of the OS. It doesn’t get any easier to replace an OS than that. I realized that unlocking and re-locking the bootloader from inside of the phone OS is an added protection mechanism. Otherwise someone could steal your phone and replace the OS via the USB cable and ADB alone to gain control of it by replacing the OS and putting their own password on to it. But as it is, no one (even Google or anyone else) can get in without the password.
I realized also that it was possible to log-in both before and after replacing the OS, without using my Google login. The phone is totally set up now using five different logins, none of which are tied to anything except to the phone itself. The logins are: 1.) Administrator, 2.) Me - High Risk, 3.) Me - Safe Login, 4.) Me at Work, and 5.) Guest - Phone Only mode. Google Services are installed in sandboxes in logins 1, 2, and 4. Google Services is completely contained and disempowered, and will be left turned off completely when not in use. Each login is completely separate from the others with no communications possible between profiles. It’s like having five totally free’d phones that can’t talk to eachother, are all untraceable, and can’t be spied on unless I choose to take specific risks in any moment. Any of the logins can be set to access either or both SIM cards.
I spent several hours afterward, setting up the profiles and installing programs in to each profile, and setting all of the settings in each profile. It’s amazing how secure everything is. Every imaginable type of access or permission in any profile can be turned on or off individually. If the operating system is what the opensource code writers claim it is, there isn’t anything more a person could ask for in a phone’s OS.
If there are invasive blobs in the firmware, they would have to do everything sinister without using the phone’s OS which is fully opensource. That type of intrusion is possible. But the phone is obviously safer and superior to any phone available from any other carrier or from Purism. And the price is about the same as any other flagship phone. And unlike the Librem 5, It showed up at my door five days after I placed my order.
Monday, my external SIM card should show up, along with the case and shatterproof screen protector. It’s going to take a week or more to finish setting up and testing everything after that. After that, I am going to ask Purism politely for my refund and they are going to issue it to me promptly per their original contract with me… or else… the whole f…ing scam’s gonna come crashing to the ground.
Agreed. What was to be said was said, and now people seem to be using this to vent their emotions. While letting emotions out is sometimes necessary, this is not a mental health forum.
