We’ll see on it’s release, but it’s very positive the growing appearance of modular open phones with Linux based OS. Meanwhile there is FairPhone from the Netherland as years ago released mature product, full modular, using LinageOS or e-OS
I’m a little confused, can this thing run standard linux cli packages?
Full linux distro, natively
I don’t see the point of this.
A smartphone is literally a handheld computer with more capability than this. Save for game controls, there is very little that a touchscreen doesn’t completely replace with full flexibility (besides, unless it’s the size of a Gameboy, the vertical controller layout sucks).
This isn’t a new concept either, as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen two phones and one whole laptop using this exact drop-in modularity gimmick. They all failed.
Having a dedicated handheld device with the features of a smartphone, running Linux natively (not just android), and also GPIO and LoRa are what make this especially appealing to me. Everything being open source brings this from “I’ll probably buy this” to “shut up and take my money” for me personally.
Sure, I could probably get accessories to achieve the same thing with my work phone. But if something catastrophic happens and the phone is damaged, I’m having a very bad day. Damaging a $300-400 device sucks, but I can still call my boss and ask him to order a replacement and receive calls from customers at the end of the day.
Of course these specific benefits are unique to me and my line of work. I also thankfully have a boss who trusts my judgment when purchasing new tools and tech, and a budget that can easily accommodate this kind of investment and risk.
Modular computing always seems to fall victim to Moore’s law/similar, everything core get so much better every 5 years, that by the time you want to refresh anything, it’s usually time to upgrade the whole thing.
Periferals are nice but USB is already a multivendor connector standard and if the choice is 3d printing cases or trusting a vendor to exist in 10 years I’m betting on 3d printers for now.
Hope I’m wrong but this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a project like this.
At the end of the day the n900 was the ultimate portable Linux machine, but it died because within 10 years you could do all of that on an android device AND have a decent phone too.
Good thing moore’s law is dead. Writing this from a 5yo phone. My pc got a 3700k. Something made today will have much more life in it
