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by eitland 1734 days ago
And neither of them are feature complete with Pine phone either which is the reason for this thread :-)

Actually owning your own phone to the point of deciding yourself what runs on it and what does not and being able to repair it easily are two huge features when you start to think about it.
1 comments
shadowgovt 1734 days ago
Unfortunately, if you ask the average user whether they want detailed control of what runs on their phone or a Facebook app, they're going to go for the Facebook app.

Most users don't have any utility in detailed control. They don't even know what to do with it.

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skinkestek 1733 days ago
> Most users don't have any utility in detailed control. They don't even know what to do with it.

Can I chime in and say that:

- Surprisingly many are getting uncomfortable with the current situation.

- If this had been our collective conclusion 20 years ago we wouldn't be sitting here working on blazingly fast Linux dev machines running dirt cheap servers in vast clouds, we would have been stuck with Windows (and probably an inferior version to Windows 10, since without competition there's less pressure to perform)

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shadowgovt 1733 days ago
Most developers aren't most users. A little over 50% of developers use some variant of desktop Linux; total desktop Linux userbase is about 2% worldwide. The closest most users get to "using the Cloud" is checking their Gmail accounts or updating some shared company Google Docs.

Here in the rarefied air of HN, things look different than they do on the ground. Granted, developers have an outsized impact on what users will end up getting... But not by pretending PinePhone is anywhere near "ready for prime-time." I have one sitting on my desk right now; it's not. Rather, we should recognize the vast gap of work that needs to be done to get there and put the time in to get it there if we believe it's the right direction (and also recognize that if it's going to succeed in the marketplace, a lot of users are going to want something in PinePhone that's as easy to use for discovery and app maintenance as an app store; app stores introduced to users the concept "There is one simple and effective way to put apps on your phone," and they don't want to go back to the DIY days of yore. On the plus side, nothing about PinePhone requires only one app store).

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