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Posts: 176 | Thanked: 468 times | Joined on Jan 2010 @ NL
#8
Originally Posted by nonsuch View Post
Sorry but no.
What you wrote is just as vague.
Tell me:
What is "mainline Linux"? The current kernel?
When a phone is "mainline Linux compatible", what does that entail?

*lots of other questions*

Don't get me wrong, I am not against these attempts at all, and I am not against OP making a list.
I just don't like if someone uses a strictly defined term for something so vague.
You do realise that you can do this for virtually any subject, right? And to be clear, with 'this' I mean go on endlessly asking for very specific definitions instead of attempting to understand what is meant by reading the context.
Juiceme answered most questions as I would.

That is the largest problem and it rules out a lot of SoC's. Basically the way to go would be what Neo900 tried to do, having a separate chipset for handling the communications, not combined with the host CPU.
Think of it like a computer that has a 3G/4G USB stick hanging off the side. All the blobby bits are inside the dongle, and the computer may run with only open components.
Purism Librem 5 and Pine64 Pinephone both do this (see also this article), so I would say those two are good start for 'FOSS phones'. Although display and wifi/bluetooth drivers also seem to be a concern, often.

However, if you want to take it that far, there's not a single device out there that's runs on 100% open source software. Nor does there need to be in my opinion, companies have to right to execute their specific solutions (which they presumably worked hard for) in a proprietary fashion.

Hence my earlier defined understanding of what 'FOSS' phone means for me; runs 'mainline linux compatible', meaning it can run a recent version of the kernel (which is FOSS), drive the phone's hardware (which can partly FOSS), and run a GUI/DE (which can perfectly be 100% FOSS).
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Last edited by ThomasAH; 2020-02-21 at 21:51. Reason: Make reply a bit more friendly
 

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