Strong interest in Librem 5

What Purism is doing with the phones and laptops is absolutely outstanding, and very much needed. A couple of the must have apps I would need available on the phone are Zello and What’s App. Is it possible to run these apps on the Librem 5 at this time?

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Maybe, who knows.
There is an unofficial Whatsapp client for Linux:

But generally don’t expect too much closed source apps and messengers on it.

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The project has been dropped by the developer due to copyright issues (see further down at the page you send). My WhatsApp account has been blocked permanently because of using a xmpp bridge connector ( I don’t care much). It seems like wa don’t want anyone to use a client that wasn’t built by wa.

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That is actually the case for many proprietary services. It’s also one of many reasons to try to rely less on them :wink:

Btw, there are lots of existing threads on android apps on the L5 and all the various chat messengers and their pro’s n cons, in case you didn’t search for them yet.

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They are closed for a reason. “Free” services are not free to run. You pay for the product or you are the product. Cheers!

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Typical proprietary lock-in techniques. They want to keep us dependent on them so that they can more easily control us. They fight against our freedom. I do not want to use a service that is being used as a weapon against my freedom. I got WhatsApp on my Android since Android is a lost cause anyway but I probably won’t try to get it on my Librem 5 so once I get my Librem 5 I will not be able to be contacted through a non-libre IM.

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Third alternative: you use products that are decentralized, federated, distributed, etc, where the cost for each individual/organization is much smaller, and that can communicate together…

e.g. I run my own XMPP server, minimal costs for myself and can communicate with anyone else who has a federated XMPP server. Nobody is being exploited, people are free to pay or not for the service, etc, all depending on where they sign up/what they want to run/who they trust.

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