The FSF celebrates four decades of software freedom with a new president and the LibrePhone initiative for privacy-focused mobile computing.

The project, developed in partnership with veteran free software developer Rob Savoye, aims to create a fully free and open mobile platform, from the firmware to the operating system.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.mlM
    51·
    19 hours ago

    Linux mobile phones are the fusion power of the FOSS world, always “right around the corner.”

    All the pieces are there, but none of them work together smoothly enough to be functional for anybody except the most hardcore FOSS enthusiasts.

    When Proton started, it was kind of a joke, killed the Steam Machine idea in large part because the game compatibility was so limited. A decade later, we have a multi billion dollar handheld PC market lead by the Steam Deck, a Linux handheld that can play tens of thousands of Windows games without issue, in some cases with better performance than their native platform.

    So it’s certainly possible for things to completely change, but we need a big player or consortium of players to unite with a shared goal of getting a Linux Phone to the state where it’s genuinely able to replace a traditional Android or Apple phone.

    I’m very cautiously optimistic, I think it would come together much faster than Proton did for Linux gaming, but again, there needs to be a really heavy push into a singular device to start off. Like how the Steam Deck was, it allowed devs to have a singular platform to target for compatibility. Then, as the platform matures, competitors & innovators can enter the market and expand options, like how now there are multiple distros with builds for handhelds, like Bazzite, Nobara, and CachyOS.

    • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org
      1·
      14 hours ago

      When Proton started, it was kind of a joke, killed the Steam Machine idea in large part because the game compatibility was so limited. A decade later, we have a multi billion dollar handheld PC market lead by the Steam Deck, a Linux handheld that can play tens of thousands of Windows games without issue, in some cases with better performance than their native platform.

      Proton’s existence did not overlap the existence of the Steam Machine program, like at all. Proton’s initial release was on the 21st of August 2018. Steam Machines were first released in 2015 and had been delisted from Steam entirely by April 2018.

      Wine existed back then, sure, but Steam Machines didn’t benefit from DXVK, VKD3D, or any of the myriad per-game and gaming-oriented tweaks that Valve and Codeweavers have made to Wine in the version bundled with Proton. For most people, the prospect of using Wine on a Steam Machine was a huge pain at best. Valve’s official position at the time was that they were helping pay for Linux ports of games.

    • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
      11·
      2 days ago

      At this point I would not be surprised if steam built on top of the deck idea and the support it already provides for fairly responsive and configurable inputs, touch screen included, to launch a steam phone or something.

      I mean deck isn’t all that far from having such a device. For the actual phone network stack they would likely just partner up with someone already in the space.

      They’ve already had to tackle powering a lightweight portable device with a touch screen and adapting the UX for a small screen and non-kbd input. They’ve already established they can source parts and mass produce a competively priced device.

      But realistically I can’t see it being that much better than the recent Linux phone offerings.

        • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 day ago

          Yeah well, this is of course just a singular anecdote, but my experience with any touch-based de on Linux hasn’t been great.

          No Linux phone I have ever seen has had a particularly competitive pricing. Or specs.

          But perhaps there has been some major advancements I’m not aware of in the past week.

          In any case, your latter point is true.