This is a bold claim and feels like a shallow attack toward the contributors of this thread, particularly of which, I feel, are making an honest effort to be helpful.
It is my understanding that:
“A reason is based on logic, evidence, or objective facts, while an excuse is often based on subjective beliefs, emotions, or personal biases.” [Source]
In addition to that, you could also use Valent (alpha status atm but it works flawless for me). A nice alternative if you use GNOME on the desktop and would install the GSConnect Shell extension over there; it integrates the Librem 5 quite well into your desktop so you can see the battery percentage, send files, use copy-paste, …
I don’t have others write my material, but thanks for offering.
~f
Other points seem to have been commented except
Simplest for that (for most random file transfer needs) I’ve used is Warp. Warpinator is ok but needs a tad more to set up.
So, using the command line is a 1990’s practise, but storing your contacts on a SIM isn’t?!
Using the command line line is very much part and parcel of working on linux. But there are lots of gui solutions for most tasks.
That explains a lot.
You can’t go buy a nerdy, experimental machine like the L5, and then go complain about how nerdy and experimental it is.
Maybe it would be best if you go and buy a consumer phone.
Syncthing (apt install syncthing-gtk). There are “official” builds for “every” arch, and being a golang app, you don’t have to worry about runtime dependencies. I have syncthing installed on all my servers, desktops, laptops, android phones/tables and ebooks (three from different “generations”). I choose what one device shares with other devices.
On L5, you’ll have to use the docked mode or the menu key from the terminal keyboard to change/edit folders. But, once configured, I just start syncthing-gtk when I want to sync, and “stop the daemon” & quit when I’m done. I could copy that .desktop file to autostart/ , but I want to save the battery. The android version GUI has an option to start the daemon on different conditions (charging, wi-fi, etc…). Unfortunately , I didn’t find these controls in syncthing-gtk .
I though that the telco provider has access to anything on the SIM card.
Try Convergence. You might love it. A simple USB-C hub with HDMI and USB ports for keyboard and mouse (+ PowerDelivery) is enough to get a taste of it.
Can we please stop with this victim blaming? The Librem 5 was never marketed as an experimental machine for nerds. Purism explicitly marketed it as a device for everyone. They even said it’s the perfect device for kids and parents as a normal smartphone which protects your data.
So you should instead blame Purism for their misleading marketing.
They most certainly did not!
Here’s the product info page.
They never said it was going to be easy.
Here’s the product page from Nov 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20191111205618/https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
I quote:
This device is for anybody and everybody interested in protecting his/her data, communicating privately to your loved ones, or supporting a future of protecting your digital rights.
Parents: You will love the Librem 5 because it will allow you to communicate with your child, while having peace of mind that they are not being compromised or tracked without your permission.
Enterprises, Businesses and organizations of all sizes: You will love the Librem 5 because it will allow you to have a security focused phone that is immune to common threats and protects your intellectual property and sensitive data by default.
Upon initial shipment of the Librem 5 in 2019, it will offer the essentials: phone functionality, email, messaging, voice, camera, browsing.
So please quote the sections where Purism said (and warned), that this is an experimental device for nerds and likely not suited as a normal device for kids or to be used in productive enterprise environments etc. You know like the Pine Phone developers actually did.
Thanks for mentioning this. I did not know of the existence of Valent until I read this. Very nice!
Ceterum censeo, purism needs a different management!
Just a side note: before delving into some of the questions, please look at some of the old threads that have been written (and at time re-written) about the more flammable stuff already. Come up with some original material or this ends up going to “Round Table” category (or gets closed) at some point, once again. Search is your friend. As a guidance, the thread topic looks to the future, not the past…
If you watch your link you will also find a list where “what phone has xyz” with “Purism yes” and “Android/iOS no” all the table. Isn’t it wired that there is no single downside listed where Purism is “no” and the other devices “yes”? It’s 100% clear that they wrote only positive things to get as many customers as possible. On the other hand they also never spoke about that it can replace a typical smartphone for every use case. They said “This device is for anybody and everybody interested in protecting his/her data, communicating privately to your loved ones, or supporting a future of protecting your digital rights”, but not that it also works as an Android etc.
I don’t say that such marketing is something good, but how do you survive in a capitalism world where every company lies on you, if you trust every marketing speech on the main page? If you dig little bit further you could find further information (even 2019 you could find everything you needed to know). That’s a basic skill all people should have nowadays, at least to protect yourself.
At the end there is also a difference between Purism and Pine64: Pine64 didn’t want to improve software, Purism tries to make it usable for everyone. So Pine64 would even make a real lie if they would say “it’s for everyone” since they never could achieve this … not even in 20 years without community that will improve software on all its ends. Maybe even Purism thought 2019 it’s easier than it is actually.
It’s not that black and white as you try to say.
Doesn’t say it would be simple.
You was not grown up in a time with Microsoft Windows Computers do you? That time the future was on the Kids like Linux Programming his own Kernel and shared it online. And so we are Today, if you like to have smart Kids with the full control over some Software you should give them a Computer like Linux or the Librem5. I do not see any alternative. Apple and Google will throw them into a cage and deliver every Data and Step to the parents.
Here is email, messaging, voice Calls and Voice-Data, Camera, Video and Browsing already working. Without trackers. I do not get your Point.
Check the ads for the L5. No where does it say one has to become a Linux nerd, or L5 nerd, or learn command prompts or it’s a work in progress or any of the other missing information of what’s to come if we buy a L5. A good carpenter doesn’t blame his tools.
Maybe, you need to cut us newbies some slack and answer the question without shaming us.
You were just like us once, and asked a lot of questions. How did it feel to be told to get something else?
I too would like to do what OP explained. I feel as they do. When you chewed him out, you chewed all newbies out.
Such attitudes erode the image others who are trying to help by using helpful suggestions, examples, links, and leave the topic as is.
But, think you’re right. I wish hard that I had bought a stalker phone instead. I don’t know what’s worse. Spending more money for a fully working digital phone, or the lengthy learning curve of command line usage, good for 2048, and not much else at this stage.
Had I known, I wouldn’t be here. But luck shines on you, here I am 
~s
It’s completely irrelevant how I grew up and what my technical background is. I mean not entirely irrelevant, because my technical background allowed me to spot many red flags early on, which fortunately prevented me from becoming a Purism customer.
I mean even now, 4 years after the Librem 5 was released, it’s still in a worse state than my Jolla Phone, N9 or N900 on day one.
Linux isn’t a “Computer”. If you’re trying to educate supposed newbs or excite kids for technology, get your terminology right.
If you think the Librem 5 is the only way to avoid Google or Apple or get kids excited for free software, you’re having a really narrow view.
And also Purism didn’t market this as an education device, they marketed it as a smartphone for everyone, including those who have absolutely no interest in debugging, troubleshooting, having to learn or understand the inner workings of their smartphone, … They bought a tool and they have every right to complain if the tool doesn’t work as well as advertised.
Here is a phone I wouldn’t give to any of my kids, because 4 years after the initial release I can’t rely on it to work in case of an emergency due to the ridiculous battery life, bad service, tendency to drop calls, shutdown, … It is a phone for enthusiasts and that’s fine. The only thing which isn’t fine about this product is the misleading marketing and company behind it which gives a crap about consumer rights (see the whole refund shitshow).
Well, for a start, many of my contacts have multiple phone numbers.
Yeah, OK, I could put them in the SIM multiple times, one for each phone number (with artificially altered names to make them distinct).
Some of my contacts are business contacts and it is important to know what company they are with. Yeah, OK, I could work around that too.
Some of my contacts are f2f contacts and it really is necessary to know their street address.
Of course I have email addresses recorded against many of my contacts, and some of them will have multiple email addresses.
I have even been known to add textual notes and birth dates to my contacts but, yeah, I admit that that is “nice to have”.
In summary, my expectations are for a full function “address book” - and that is well beyond what a SIM can provide.
I mention again … when you migrate from one phone to another, “contacts” is just one small part of it. So even if a SIM could provide a full function “address book” there is still a lot missing. So it is more functional to deal with the whole migration on a phone-to-phone basis rather than via the SIM card. There is also the small problem that if everything is on the SIM, once you move the SIM out of the old phone, you just lost access to all that information on the old phone.
Also, if a customer is more concerned about information security than the average person then there is also the problem that the more you entrust to the SIM, the more you are entrusting to a blackbox computer. So putting everything on the SIM doesn’t sit well with the general thrust of where Purism is going.
However at the end of the day, if the SIM does everything that you want then as it stands today you will need to do a bit of work to read the contacts from the SIM and then do something useful with that information.
It isn’t out-of-the-box today but it can be tomorrow, which is a reason to think that the future is bright. Yes, there are a lot of functional gaps but with time and effort those gaps can be addressed.
When I receive emails from purism i wonder if now is the time to open my phone and potentially lose some of its value, then I read threads like this and I think dont be stupid, keep it in its box; for the resale value.
How many devs does purism have?
When Google released AOSP it was in a way way better state than PureOS is 4 years later. AOSP is Linux so there cant be many excuses after 4 years. Id say the plandemic should have helped Purism get the software in better shape than without the Plandemic.
I believe purism are doing as little as possible in developing their OS. Just enough to keep profits high.
Im gutted I wasted my money on it.
My phone has been on sale since I bought it and nobody is interested.
