This won't be as good an argument as Mikecomputing

I agree with many of his point and honestly think this is one of the main reasons in my opinion that linux has failed in the mobile space and in general ... the need to redo so many things from start or using the less popular software, I just do understand some times.

However my arguement is that by them choosing gtk/gnome they will make then self quickly compatible with a ton of software (see there video of desktop software that already runs on it) with very little change needed. This is something that really only maybe the n900 came a little close to (not so useable many times).

I would have love them to continue and help nemomobile move forward and kde is further along in many ways, but not sure what the down side are.

So would be interesting in hearing opinions on which would actually make better business sense?

1. go down the same road as all that have failed or not gain a decent market share. use a new UI platform requiring dev to rewrite their apps with a new UI (ubuntu touch, sailfish, blackberry, webos, tizen, firefoxOS, meego, maemo, etc) ... none of these as far as I remember would run desktop software straight in a more usable way. Perhaps ubuntu touch, maemo was easier ... I'm not sure.

or

2. Use the arguably the most popular UI project or at least the one many project have standardized on gnome/gtk. With that you get all up stream work being done by gnome, ubuntu, popOS, and other I may forget. Are dev still mainly targeting ubuntu for apps development? So if they get all the touch stuff locked down in the most important apps it will draw more people to invest in gnome mobile UI ... which my mean that in the future something like sailfish may only need to be a theme of sorts on top of gnome (this may be a flaw thought).

I believe purism has a lot of negativity towards them these days ... not saying you ... just in general. Which is probably has a lot to do with how they announce product and deliver them. I'm no fan boy. But I'm happy they are trying. Since I believe it will help the mobile linux community at large later down the line. Well I hope so

Look forward to hearing back from folks with more experience then me ;P

x

In the other hand it is probably way easier to port existing harmattan, sailfishapps to kde plasma mobile than going than making gtk UI apps workable on the mobile.


What they do no is try make gtk touch friendly and as already stated it far from ready. For example do they have all those gestures working that you expect from on a toch mobile? I mean it took years before QML had all that.


It is also very funny when I listened to the latest https://offtopical.net/ podcast about phosh/librem.

They clearly has no clue what they talk about. I hate when people it so damn fanboyish without critic. Its like when talk with radical feminists or Trump fanboys. Or GPL fanatics.

I never have heard that much fanboyish ******** as their latest offtopical.

For "People complain about librem going slow forward, it takes time to make an mobile OS" Really! They does not understand that that is exactly the point!

The critic from the community is there cause Librem did not use existing UI frameworks instead they choose to reinvent the wheel. Time they could had used for way more important stuff such as improve GFX driver improve battery life and so on.

They have wrong focus. What purism is good is media attention. Now if Jolla had open source sfos and had a decent marketing department purism would loose the fight in 5 seconds cause the OS is more stable.

Probably the same for plasma mobile if it got more attention and more maintainers.

Now I would REALLY like to hear what Purism guys would have to say for the choices they have made. I can't believe there haven't been good reasons not yet described here yet. And I like argumenting parts, not that much the mocks parts. Makes harder to hear and absorb the good stuff there definately is in your posts.

This point is really good!

The only thing I would say is that iOS and android didn't start with all the current gestures. They were around for year before they started to copy webOS and Nokia harmattan gestures.

But will be back later to continue this discussion. This is just a quick.

x

I kinf of fear the reason Purism went the way they did is because their background is in desktop, not mobile. And if a company has strong NIH culture they'll not easily fold and go the SFOS way for example; instead they will use the only hammer they know to the mobile UI which they see as another nail...

Mind you they got the low layer right; they have upstreamable kernel and drivers. I only wish they'd taken Nemo as the middleware layer

Should be possible later no Nemo and other UI on top?

x

Of course.
Since the kernel and drivers are upstreamed it is simple to port any of the open alternatives to the device. All I am lamenting is the wasted effort by the device creators here...

They do have delusions of being the FOSS Apple, but who knows maybe there's a market for a fairly derivative GNOME phone OS. If they ever get it working well enough.

I know the Postmarket OS guys are very keen to get their hands on the hardware though, and they have a bunch of different UX options for phones there already

I was thinking along the same lines. It is likely a case of experience/familiarity and inertia. Anyways, I paid for it Oct 2017. Let's see what shows up at my door step!

Anything Qt might never really have been an option?
Maybe GTK is seen as a better guarantee for 'Purism'. A - let me say – GNU/Linux sensitivity which could well be more outspoken in the US of A than in the Old World.

Talking about differing sensitivities.
Just look at what happened at Jolla('s management) during their last trek through the Valley of Death. Most (Finns) stayed on. Not being fully imbued by all aspects Finnish, Marc Dillon, Cybette, ... left.
Did they sense a Big Bear backed rescue somewhat differently?

PureOS, Librem …Claims that don’t come cheaply.
Purism is even less a (normal) company than Jolla (or Canonical). Where Jolla says (basically) no to Android, Purism says no to Qt as well. For sure, having a couple of (more than simply) successful crowdfunds helps when going their long own Librem 5 way.

Finally. What genuine out-of-the-box(!) smartphone alternatives does one really have on the Western side of the pond when not opting for Android, iOS, …?
Jolla/Sailfish is not active over there and fails HW-wise on the Eastern Atlantic.