[newnewpdro]

Thanks.

Well, I guess that's better than nothing.

I can't see myself removing the battery cover and flipping dip switches every time I want to utilize GPS and cellular networks, and again when I'm done, though.

But it does let them check the "hw kill switches" box...

[cf141q5325]

I mean i think its about what you expect of the device. Many users would likely be unhappy with having the buttons pressable on the outside due do being prone to an accidental disable-able. Its a fringe feature. Having the option to reversibly disable these components is exactly what i am looking for. So while I will be unlikely to use GPS and LTE or the simcard for that matter, I am not sure about WIFI, cam and microphone yet. Either way, It sure as hell beats soldering them off. Hopefully the cover is also as easily removable as promised. But even if not, i would still get one if all killswitches were 0 Ohm resistors.

I think just posting the link here gave the wrong impression. Its an open Linux phone with HW-Killswitches. If that sentence on its own doesnt have you grin like a kid on Christmas, its likely not yet the device for you. But as was often said when talking about the Pinephone, its a start. At this point the target demographic is still developers not people who are looking for an open source replacement of their current smartphone. Its why the batch is called "brave heart". While there are operating systems booting on it already, the expectations Pine set when the developers edition came out were rather low.

[newnewpdro]

> Many users would likely be unhappy with having the buttons pressable on the outside due do being prone to an accidental disable-able

The Purism Librem 5 addressed this while still having the kill switches easily accessible externally, with recessed switch bosses appropriate for regular external use.

On the Pinephone it looks more like an afterthought to try get some feature parity with the L5.

I'm excited to see more Linux phones on the market with non-android user space. But it's about 15 years too late for me to jump to buy anything running Linux without actually wanting to daily drive the end result, like back in the Zaurus days (I had three different models). I basically don't use a smartphone because of the current situation, not since my Nokia N9 broke, and that Linux phone was incredibly disappointing on the hackability and security/privacy fronts, though I did enjoy using it.

[cf141q5325]

The Librem 5 is another price point and I think its trying to achieve another goal. I dont think they are in any real competition. For the pinephone, if one of your main goals is the final pricepoint, how much % of your devices cost (and development time) are you going to invest into a (unfortunately) niche feature? And are you risking the robustness of your phone for it? I think the way its done is the cheapest, yet still functional way, which this phone is all about.

The Pinephone is at its core a proof of concept made cheaply available to jump start development for open source linux smartphones. Once its shown to be working we can talk about every day competitors to existing smartphones, but thats at least a generation away. Librem is trying to achieve this to begin with by marketing it to privacy and security conscious users. I am really curious if that will succeed, but i fear people will expect it to match the comfort of their current smartphones at that price, which is a really difficult thing to do. Looking at history, it took a while till Linux became a realistic option as an OS for a home computer for people who dont consider them self geeks. The pinephone isnt reaching for the moon but makes the first step.

To the other point, this will be my first smartphone as well and is intended for daily use, just not with GPS, LTE and SMS.