Phone for everyone?

Is this phone also for people, that have no Linux experience?

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Short answer: That is the ultimate goal, but it will probably take some time to get there.

Long Answer:
All the currently released devices have been part of an iterative batch process, with hardware refinements and upgrades applied at each step and software continually improving. So anything you currently see is not indicative of the final product.

The final, mass-produced version is currently scheduled for July, so we’ll see what state the software is in at that time. I personally do expect people with no Linux experience would be able to use the phone at that time without issues, except that most of their favorite apps won’t be there.

In many cases, there will likely be an alternative which works about as well, but certain things (Tinder, Snapchat, typically socially-oriented apps without web versions) just won’t be there, and most likely never will, because the companies behind them won’t see the merit in developing for Linux.

There is caveat to the above point, which is that there are some technologies working to allow Android apps to run on Linux (like Anbox). Anbox has already been tested on the Librem 5 with some initial success, but whether it will actual work for all things remains to be determined.

So depending on what you want to use the phone for, I would say it will either be quite usable overall, or usable as a phone/browsing/email device, but missing certain apps you want/need.

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That’s the key question.

Apart from that

Yes.

With the caveat that, as it is not a finished product, there are no final answers, and details are limited.

In an ideal world, not only do you not need Linux experience, but you don’t even need to know that the phone runs Linux. Touchscreen, things to prod at, what more do you need to know. :slight_smile: How close the ideal is approached remains to be seen.

Of course I am speaking here as if from the perspective of someone that doesn’t want “the Linux experience”. Many people will look at this phone from the perspective of escaping surveillance capitalism and improving their privacy - in which case Linux is a means to an end, rather than an end in its own right.

On the other hand, there are many people who already use Linux in other devices (laptops, desktops, servers) and see a Linux phone as a logical extension, completing the set - with the potential to run common applications across all devices etc.

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For those who want to learn Linux, it’s as easy as Windows, just significantly different. But like Windows, there is a learning curve. So if you don’t know anything about Linux and don’t want to learn it, it’ll probably be at least a few more years before this phone will be for you. If you know little to nothing about Linux or maybe even know a lot, and want to learn it or learn more about it, now is as good of a time as any. Within a few months you can know your way around comfortably in a Linux operating system and then use that knowledge in your Librem 5.

You will be able to do things on a Librem 5 that could previously be done only on a desktop computer. You will only be limited by the work done by others in this new venue, plus what you can learn to do yourself. Others are doing the heavy lifting. All you need to do is to learn the basics. If you learn your way around a command line, the fact that there are not always phone-sized user interfaces shouldn’t slow you down much. You’ll be the one-in-a-million people with a phone that does nearly anything you want it to do and will exist outside of surveillance capitalism. It’s worth the extra effort. Most of us aren’t programmers. You don’t have to be a programmer. But it helps if you are. You can learn to compile and install programs from source code without knowing how to write the code yourself. With a lot of persistence, several google searches, and some luck, I was able to install two compatability layers and get a few Windows programs running on my Android phone. It’s more about overcoming the challenges than arriving at the destination.

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Google?- try startpage.com at least :wink:

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start page was bought off by a data mining company. duckduckgo.com is the last way to search without surveillance to my knowledge.

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There’s searx :slight_smile:

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so you wanna say, that searx is more trustworthy as duckduckgo.com for the average user?

Was the part responded to.

You don’t need to be a Michelin starred chef to make Sunday roast, same you needn’t be a developer to spin up your own instance.

And there is metager.de

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i guess it’s a “good” thing that FaceBook’s WhatsApp reached 2 billion users … :money_mouth_face::grimacing::cold_sweat::face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Here we are in philosophical discussions again: Do we change things by choosing “the best possible way” or do we make change possible by iterative steps?

Or in my very personnal words: do we

  • invest time and money into “the ideal product” that will not convince the customer or
  • do we advance step by step with our product.

Google -> Startpage -> DDgo /metager -> so forth ?

Or regarding the phone: sorry, I am just modestly waiting for a liable linux phone that makes calls (agenda…) and that works during 24 hours.

But: i do not want a swiss knife to make calls and get my “eggs” boiled without undressing :wink:

My dream (?): an out of the box linux mobile phone (!), the rest is step 2.

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And Qwant

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Um, most of us here are just people who bought a phone. I’m a security guard, @lunardigs does something with health products, etc. etc. and the intent for most of us is not to make requests of purism employees (rather play around with ideas of what can be done as members of the community). Purism employees are hard at work to bring you and us that GNU/Linux phone :smiley: I just wanted to say that because I sense you may have some concerns you certainly needn’t :slight_smile: