[mlok]

The difference could be : a phone that you're not supposed to throw away after two years. Something that would be maintained over the long run. Lots of people would buy a phone that can last 5-7 years. I am one of them. My mother is one of them. My father too. Not everybody is fond enough of phones or tech to want to change often. If it runs apps and has a good camera, it's fine. A phone that lasts 5-7 years would also be good for the planet, and that's a bigger market share than FLOSS enthusiasts.

[simias]

I agree with you on all counts but in order for the phone to be supported for a long time (both by Purism and by third parties) it needs to be reasonably successful. Otherwise nobody is going to even remember it existed two years from now, much less port and maintain apps for it.

That's my main problem really, I have Spotify, WhatsApp and a couple other closed-source applications on my smartphone that I need in order for said phone to be useful. If there are no ports or alternatives maintained on the Librem I'd just be buying a very expensive paperweight. And I don't think I'm a heavy app user compared to most of my friends who often have a couple social network apps, games etc...

Sibling comments mention that MS could probably make a profitable phone but they don't have the same objectives and I say that it's irrelevant. The problem is third parties and app supports. I need my phone to do more than calling and texting these days, I need decent driving directions, a multimedia player (ideally something that interfaces with Spotify, but I know that's asking for a lot), a chat application that can connect to WhatsApp (I won't convince all of my contacts to switch to Signal, Jabber or IRC) etc...

I need that stuff to be maintained and updated for at least a few years. And ideally after that I'd like to know that I can count on a Librem n+1 being available so that I won't have to change ecosystem once again.

I've bought a few open source/homebrew systems over the years, mainly handheld consoles to run emulators. It works but the software is often rather lackluster and very amateur looking. It's also generally maintained for a little while then the contributors move on to something else. It's fine for a toy emulator console, not so much for a smartphone.

The hardware is not the issue, the ecosystem is.

[jammygit]

The ubports team developed something called halium to address this: its more or less an android emulator that has apparently been working for a couple of years now in testing at least. Its in the purism future goals to add this iirc.

[skykooler]

That's sort of the issue the OpenMoko faced. It was designed to be a device with long-lasting support - but support died quickly because so few people had one.

[seba_dos1]

TBH community distros were pretty long lived (and let's be honest, those were the only ones that mattered). At least SHR was actively maintained to around 2012, with last generated image being from April 2013, and I seem to remember QtMoko being maintained even tad longer. IMO that wasn't bad for a device released in 2008, especially for today's standards.

[dcbadacd]

Until they can say "Mainline Linux kernel can run on the device without modifications", I don't believe them about the "don't throw away after a few years"-aspect.

[bpye]

Isn't that the intent?

[pjmlp]

Everyone that I know has phones that can last 5-7 years, basically they only get replaced when they die or get stolen.

Most non-technical users don't care about updates, their care about their low prices for pre-paid phones and the respective monthly expenses.

[kelvin0]

Maybe being a little bit too cynic, but markets need consumers to 'renew' their products. Otherwise, how can you have never ending growth and capitalist wealth. It's all tied together, pre-planned obsolescence comes with our current economic system. I would gladly discuss this opinion with any sensible arguments and nuances.