On one hand, Purism is doing great and amazing things. I bought a Librem 5 phone a little over a week ago, and think it likely that I will be happy with my purchase in the end, even if the product is less than perfect.
Releasing a new product to production can be less than a smooth process. I’ve done it myself. I think that we all understand that the process can be daunting. So it’s reasonable to give Purism some leeway with respect to this process. It is possible that there are things that should be communicated at optimal times (a slippery slope to traverse).
If more than another few weeks go by without some explanation from Purism about what is going on, and still no reports of anyone receiving their product, I will see more than just a new product release challenge at that point.
As customers, we have a right to assess our level of risk, which we all probably see as being higher here than it would be than if we were making a purchase from Google or from Apple. But while giving risk it’s due respect, there is more than just risk as an issue here too.
Regardless of which business arena we operate in, the need for clear communications is critical to the survival of any business. In some cases, ‘reputation’ can be an asset that can show up on a list of company assets as intellectual property. Like privacy, ‘clear communications’ is a social purpose that needs to be respected. Otherwise we lose our ability to assess our own risk because someone else has potentially used our information against us. Granted, the information belongs to Purism for now. We have entrusted them with it out of necessity. But the risk is still ours and we have no way to assess that risk because information is being withheld from us. Does Google have a fiduciary relationship with respect to our information? Yes, it’s all in the twenty-page agreement that we agreed to before we could get our phones to work properly. That doesn’t keep people from hating what Google does with their information. I expect more from Purism. At some point, forgiveness for poor communications wanes and that asset called ‘reputation’ starts to lose value. As a believer in Purism’s stated values, I don’t want to see that happen to Purism. Purism’s biggest assets right now are these vulnerable intangibles, not the ability to deliver a perfect phone. Campaigns are fueled by belief and trust, not by collateral. All may (appear to) be forgiven after we get our phones. In the long run, I am more concerned with who I am doing business with, far more than I am worried about my seven-hundred dollars. If Purism does not share information appropriately with us very soon, the shortcoming will be counter-productive toward their stated mission. I can handle some human shortcomings, technical setbacks, and the fact that un-foreseen things happen. I typically avoid doing business with those who misuse my information to my disadvantage, regardless of what I could potentially gain from that business relationship. Right now Purism, the information is in your hands. Please choose wisely. Your future may depend on it. We’re on your team. We all want to see you succeed. We really hope you’re not just like another version of Google or Apple. Don’t let us down. Second to that, we all want our phones… sooner or later.
I guess this is enough, Purism, most of your customers are technically capable people. We know how developing stuff works. And since you already have a working phone. Please, tell us what’s going on. We can understand and can wait or assist.
My biggest concern is that perhaps, the phone may not be working yet. If that’s all it is, they should just let us know. If they tell us that well, it is what it is. We can either get over it or not. If they say nothing, the message is “…it is bad enough that we can’t trust that you won’t do something that we don’t want you to do, if you knew. So secracy plays to our benefit. But thanks all the same for trusting us. We’ll get back to you when we have information that is what we think you can handle without our interests being jeopardized”.
How many topics and posts are there already about exactly the same thing? Is it so hard to just wait a few days/weeks? You are not going to get your phone any time earlier by getting these questions answered - in fact, that can only delay everything. Patience is a virtue.
I think the problem is not the phone not working, (We already have a working Librem 5 on a video) but some pretty big usability bugs. Just look at the issue tracker: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/linux-next/issues Seems a lot of stuff is not stable on the real phone. And most of them are trivial to fix. Seems Purism is trying to avoid the internet trolls and holding until they can have most of them fixed (before Birch ships, I hope)
The problem is that Purism promised a shipment and they didn’t seems to do so. That’s a lie and is not acceptable. They could have said “sorry but some stuff doesn’t work according to plan and we didn’t leave enough time to test and fix them, so please wait another month” and be perfectly acceptable.
Purism promised a shipping window. A few people, even if they are affiliated with Purism, have received a fully assembled phone, which means Purism’s statement of shipping fully assembled phones at the start of that window was correct, and not a lie, even if it doesn’t have the meaning a lot of people thought.
There are still ~3 weeks left in the Aspen window. Purism did not promise uniform delivery across that shipping window. If they want to load the shipments towards the end so that people have the most refined experience possible with the Aspen batch, that’s fine with me.
I’m not entirely sure I understand what you mean.
All the software development is tracked and publicly accessible.
The hardware development is not, as taken from the FAQ page:
Will this be an “open hardware” design?
Our intention is to have everything freed down to the schematic level, but have not cleared all design, patents, legal, and contractual details. We will continue to advance toward this goal as it aligns with our long-term beliefs.
I know this isn’t quite the same thing as publishing batch info, but I’m just saying they never said everyone can follow the hardware progress in real time.
Purism is miss-manipulating language to redefine the generally accepted concept of ‘shipping’ to provide more time. No one really cares how long it reasonable takes but undermining the ‘openness’ of the project is directly contradictory.
i dont think it’s fair to assume that nobody has a phone simply because we haven’t seen it yet in the forum. Besides, there are pictures in the mastodon page of the phone being used.
I agree with your general seniment.
Would you agree that, removing our giddiness from the equation, it would make a lot of sense to do a batch report after each batch, maybe with a forecast on improvements for the next batch?
A post to confirm they do what they said they would do seems a bit weird.
I’d hope for a proper shipping update around Oct 22.
So far, there was no September (software) update, and certainly not because of a lack of things to report. It’ll be big. Hope they’ll soon find time for it.
