Have any decisions been made about the software platform / technology that the phone will use?
It would be amazing to see Qt and some of the Ubuntu phone SDK work get used.
This will be known later.
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I’m very interested in this also, will be fun to create small optimized apps for this one!
Will this be discussed as a community? I am really interested in getting involved in app development and it would be super if we can have open discussions about how Gnome and KDE fit together.
I have a quite a lot of experience with Qt and the Ubuntu SDK but I would really like to see Gnome and PureOS get driven forward and I’m genuinely buzzing about getting involved.
One of the big failings for Ubuntu was the developer support. The SDK docs weren’t kept up to date and examples frequently didn’t work. I would like to address this by making some quality tutorials for beginners to follow and get in to app development as the success of mobile platforms relies on having good apps and a thriving community.
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please support us App developer asap - Jolla also suffered from a weak (early) support for app development and market place for apps
I’m just going to say thanks in advance because I will definitely need those! Thank you for thinking of the non-technical users (this one who can’t code worth sh*t but can somehow manage to “make stuff go” in python)
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I"m also a developer interested in this. I’ve got experience in making Android apps and I followed the Ubuntu Touch story closely (even bought the tablet). Now I bought the Librem 5 and I look forward to seeing the technical details emerge. I won’t be devving big, but I will try to mess around with a simple app, like an alarm clock to my liking.
Would be great if apps can be made using Python and QT5. Even support for Electron apps would be awesome (if the hardware can handle it of course). The main question is how we can interact with the hardware sensors and how we can run background services. Would be awesome if Purism could set the (open) standard for hardware interaction on open mobile platforms.
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I’m just keen to know what the default platform and language will be. The obvious ones are:
Qt C++ (ubports, plasma)
QML (ubports, plasma)
GTK+ (Gnome)
GTK Python (Gnome)
It would make most sense using Unity 8 as it’s a complete working platform, designed for convergence with a decent SDK. Second choice would be KDE Plasma as it’s basically a working prototype. There is also Gnome which as far as I am aware has no phone ui or mobile platform but it would be awesome to see Gnome be developed and used on mobile devices.
I think I am secretly hoping that Gnome is used as a base. Gnome builder and GTK are good and it would be really exciting to see gnome get the extra love and attention.
GTK and python are an incredibly powerful combination and are reasonably easy to get into.
It would be nice to get some feedback from Purism.
On the latest Librem 5 update, If you follow some links about plasma mobile, (what is and roadmap, mentioning used API like Wayland, Ofono). And especially the vizzzion blog posts on KDE, it almost becomes clear that this will be the foundation for the Librem 5, although Purism will not yet make that decision official.
I’m thrilled how complete it is already (see the video from five months ago). Here it is mentioned, that even idle power consumption is in a pretty good state, as it always has been a development goal. That is music to my ears 
Also, convergence is not a new concept to plasma mobile. It is already in the works, utilizing Kirigami.
To me it seems like the APIs are mostly set, what is missing is probably some integrational APIs, so you don’t have “walled gardens” between KDE and Gnome. For example, a common interface to the address book, as @mdt has suggested in a different thread. (Actually I have been waiting for this for almost two decades now, so that Kontacts and Thunderbird could use the same backend… well, it’s about time )
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Thank you for such a comprehensive reply!!
Some fantastic links in there. I agree that using plasma mobile makes sense but I am still concerned that we could spend time working on apps and tutorials for purism to change direction.
It’s all very exciting!
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No news about this yet? I’m getting sick of developing all these webservices for bread & butter so it would be nice to get some new goals and do some real hacking that actually matters
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You can jump in early with helping GNOME mobile and Plasma Mobile efforts.
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How you can help each “desktop” environment:
EDIT : fixed links
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Both links go to kde. None to gnome
