An informative and thoughtful deep dive, June 11, 2021 (with mentions of the various Linux operating systems, Purism/Librem 5, and Rob Braxman’s de-Googled phones):
5 Likes
A pretty good article and the author actually took the time to try out the different OSes, which is far better than most of the asinine unboxing videos and first impression articles so far. I was glad to see that the author tried to step back and understand why the PinePhone is important. Most reviewers seem to be incapable of thinking about what Linux phones represent and how they may challenge the current phone industry.
My one nitpick is his assessment of the different Linux interfaces/distros. He doesn’t bother to ask which of them are sustainable in the long term. Yes, Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS are the most developed of the available interfaces, but UT has gotten very little dev work since it was abandoned by Canonical (Lomiri only had 88 commits in the last year) and the community won’t ever fully embrace Sailfish OS due to its proprietary Silica interface and its proprietary elements. If the author had dug deeper, he would have discovered that only Plasma Mobile and Phosh have a long-term future. Still, I appreciated his impressions of the different interfaces and his comments about what types of people will appreciate the PinePhone.
10 Likes
What an excellent summary. Thank you.
2 Likes