Great post. The only thing that I would add is that phones often have a locked bootloader that can’t be unlocked by the user, so it is impossible to install another operating system on the phone. Huawei and Apple, which are the second and third largest phone makers in the world, lock the bootloaders on all their phones. For other phone makers, it depends on the particular model and the policies of the cellular provider whether the user is allowed to unlock the bootloader. For most phones, the user has to ask the phone maker for a special code to unlock the bootloader so they can revoke the right to unlock the bootloader (as Huawei did in 2018). Most phone makers have a policy saying that unlocking the bootloader may void the phone’s warranty. What this means is that many phones prevent their users from replacing the pre-installed software of the phone maker.
It’s a good point. That could have been an additional section in my article, because that’s also a unique rule for phones that is starting to trickle over into laptops and desktops. Imagine if Microsoft in the `90s actively prohibited you from installing Linux on a computer? I was a bit reluctant to get into the weeds of unlocking and rooting, although I guess on the other hand, the fact that “rooting” is even a thing, points again to the different rules if a computer is in a phone form-factor versus a laptop or desktop. It almost makes me want to post an addendum to the article…
I have read a ton of articles talking about the wonders of ARM-based laptops in the future, but I haven’t seen a single article warning about how ARM-based laptops in the future are likely to prevent the user from rooting/jailbreaking the device and how the user probably won’t be able to unlock the bootloader. Nobody seems to be talking about the downsides of these evil practices for PCs. It would be great if Purism posted something on this.
Here is my cautionary tale about what happened to me trying to unlock the bootloader on my phone:
it means that if you mark it as ‘disabled’ the snoople-os marks you as an ‘outlier’ … this issue is basically treated as a ‘burn-the-books’ type of thing … as if faceborg had anything to do with books …
Today, a majority of people hardly ever use their smartphone as a phone and instead use it to chat, browse the web, and run applications–the same things they do on their desktop or laptop computers. Your smartphone is a pocket-sized general-purpose computer that’s more powerful than desktop computers from not that long ago, yet smartphones are prevented from realizing their full potential, are still marketed as special-purpose computers, and most people think of them that way. Why?
good question. any black-box modem present in any ‘phone’ without a way of isolation is basically a non-stop IOT device. if we can’t prove that it is NOT let’s just convene that it IS and formulate our strategy from this idea.
if it wasn’t a black-box you still would have to trust but verify so i would think that the situation for the majority of users is to treat it with caution, otherwise …
Seems to be available already (L5 as touchpad). Video: Librem 5 media (photos and videos)
However, if you look at something like the Nexdock, or the external monitor that I have, then the external display itself has touch functionality. Hopefully that works (too) - as I think that may be more intuitive.
And you know what? Since we can’t verify the source code, you may well be right!
Well our in house magicians also thought about that:
They would have if not for the antitrust case, but they still effectively managed to keep PCs preloaded with Linux (or any other alternative OSes) out of stores. (Pre-internet shopping days.) Apple and Google could follow their lead to keep Linux phones out of major cell service carrier choices.
We are looking into nextdock
Where else are you looking…? 
Is the term now portable, pocket or purism general purpose computer (PGPC)?
In this case:
- the Holy Grail of true convergence across devices as a general principle
In general:
- software freedom
- user respecting software (and by that include privacy respecting)
- Ethical services and service providers that use only Free Software and open standards that can federate
I think you chose the right cup
(looking at the skeletons around you… 
)
Is that a Indiana Jones movie reference
If you go monthy python you have a fan here 
Ok, how’s this one: Black Knight as an analogy for closed systems and surveilling devices - you can’t do half measures, if you want to get past them!
wait a sec. As you’ve indicated, there are so many models that allow unlocking that LineageOS, AOSP (the apparently fully open source version of Android), Copperhead OS, and a whole category of “Android custom ROMs” can exist. Parts of Android are covered by some FOSS licenses and that’s fundamentally different situation than Windows and x86. And while losing a phone warranty is not fun, in this case, there’s an argument to be made that the warranty is a privilege at best, not a “right”. The buyer is usually free to shop for phones and cellular services that respect their desire to change. I would not go out of my way to look at Purism products, if I did not have this freedom!
Other considerations on te history of “PCs” include: IBM lost to Compaq, IBM did not succeed with MCA, and had to accept ISA and EISA; there were many points of failure in their attempts to keep control. I remember reading a proposal (from the 70s?) about the potential for IBM to sell APL terminals and sell computer processing time as a utility.
So, the smart phone manufacturers and cell services got closer to that ideal, I’m not denying it’s an issue. With PCs and the WWW, which eventually dominated as the interface to the internet, we have a good model for resistance. We made FOSS a model, not just for software or hardware, but for many disciplines. We have reasons to be optimistic and remain positive. Let’s stay determined to make Librem “phones” an exception, rather than get disheartened about their model “coming to laptops and desktops”. I don’t see that really happening, I even see “smartphones as phones” as a way that keeps them less expensive for the consumer, who knows what premiums might be charged for them to be expressly convergence platforms. And if ARM desk- and laptops did get worryingly more restrictive, there’s both RISC-V and over 40 years of x86 tech that can be re-purposed. I’m even a little giddy about 8-bit computers being re-implemented in FPGA. I didn’t see that coming! The great weakness of the IBMs, Intels and even Micro$oft, is that technology moves forward with or without them, and they have to innovate and fight each other, on their way to keep the public onboard.
And the optimistic view, carrying on a great legacy, that is what’s going to attract people: optimism of new opportunities. Perhaps in this little forum, it’s okay to focus on, and even mourn, what we’ve lost, but please, we are David vs Goliath and we’re going to load our sling, not darkly question how we got on this battlefield with such odds, not with the armies watching on.